MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama senators rejected one lottery bill Thursday, but supporters will roll the dice on a stripped down version backed by the governor.
Senators stopped debate on a broad lottery bill – that would have also allowed electronic gambling machines at several locations – after it became clear the bill did not have the 21 votes needed to clear the Alabama Senate. Senators on Friday will debate a second bill backed by Gov. Robert Bentley that does not include the machine component.
“We’ve been through the first version that there wasn’t an appetite for. This one is a clean slate,” Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said.
Bentley’s bill still faces long odds in an Alabama Legislature sharply divided over the issue of gambling. Some lawmakers oppose all legalized gambling. Others are either adamantly opposed to, or for, including electronic gambling or casinos in any lottery bill.
Bentley brought lawmakers into special session to consider a state lottery to fund the state Medicaid program. Bentley backed a bill that would authorize a state lottery and send the money to the state general fund. The bill before lawmakers Thursday would also allow electronic lottery terminals – which resemble slot machines or video poker games- at four state dog tracks and at locations in Lowndes and Houston counties.
Senators unsuccessfully tried to bring the lottery bill to a vote and end debate. Eleven senators wanted to bring the bill to a vote while 20, mostly Republicans, voted to keep debate going. Senators then carried the bill over, essentially dooming it for the special session.
Opposed senators said it was not a simple lottery bill and would allow casino-like establishments in the state.
Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, who voted against ending debate, said the bill was an “absolute trainwreck.”
“The headlines should not read that the Senate killed the lottery. The headlines would read that the Senate killed a bad lottery bill,” Holtzclaw, R-Madsion, said.
Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman, said a lottery terminal was essentially “a slot machine.”
Democrats criticized GOP opposition to the bill, calling it the best chance to get money to the state’s Medicaid program.
“We have children in this state that are sick, families that are suffering,” Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said. “You want to legislate morality here and tell grown folk what they can do with their money,” Singleton said.
“If we are not going to vote for this, it’s time to look at real tax reform in this state,” Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said.
Alabama is one of six states – along with Mississippi, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada – without a state lottery. Voters in 1999 rejected then-Gov. Don Siegelman’s proposed lottery that came under heavy opposition from church groups and out-of-state gambling interests.
Many lawmakers said opposition has dissipated since that 1999 defeat, but lottery proposals face a difficult calculus in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Republicans are split on the idea of legalized gambling. Many Democrats want to help the dog tracks where electronic bingo casinos and workers were put out of business by state enforcement actions.
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, predicted the second bill also would go down in flames, claiming GOP senators had no intention of approving it either.
“This is not going to pass out of here. We’re just going through a shell game,” Smitherman said.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
