← Back to Newsroom

OPINION: The Alabama gambling debate, stuck in reruns

May 13, 2024 · 8:21pm ET | 5:21pm PT
Photo: Public domain via Good Free Photos
  • Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector

The gambling debate comes back to the Alabama Legislature every year or two, like a 40- or 50-year-old rerun of a sitcom.

The characters, all performing on a tiny, windowless set, return from the previous adventure to perform a variation on the story we’ve seen countless times before.

A plan is made. The plan goes awry. The players make some quips and perform a few pratfalls.

Toward the end of the show, there’s a beat where the hijinks halt, the piano and strings come up on the soundtrack, and the actors suddenly try to tie the narrative to a social concern, or some issue in the news.