Alabama state Rep. and House Budget Chairman Steve Clouse said he plans to submit a bill that would allow a paper-only lottery in the state. He added the measure, which already has more than 60 co-sponsors, would create a paper lottery with scratch-offs and PowerBall, but would not include video lottery terminals. Clouse said the lottery could generate $167 million annually.
The lottery would require a constitutional amendment and would require a three-fifths vote in both the House and Senate, or 63 votes in the House and 21 in the Senate.
However, observers said Clouse’s paper-lottery legislation would stall or end any attempt to enact a comprehensive gaming package, which could generate substantially more income for the state.
During her recent State of the State address, Governor Kay Ivey asked for “time to get the facts” on gaming, to review which proposals would benefit the state the most and how to present that to voters. On February 14, Ivey named members of a study panel tasked with determining how much revenue the state could receive from expanded gambling and a state lottery.
But, Clouse said, “Public opinion is driving this train, and that’s growing. Legislators are hearing from constituents who are asking why all of our neighboring states have lotteries and other gaming and we don’t.”
Numerous polls have indicated a majority of Alabama voters want a lottery, and a recent survey found voters favor a lottery by over 60 percent. Alabama is one of just five states without a lottery, and the only Southern state without one since Mississippi’s lottery launched earlier this year.
Last year, the Senate passed a simple paper-lottery proposal that would have directed revenue to the state’s general fund. Some House lawmakers argued gambling funds should go to education. Others objected to the lottery bill because it didn’t allow video lottery terminals at existing dog racetracks.
The Poarch Creek Band of Creek Indians, operators of two large video bingo casinos in Wetumpka and Atmore, still are promoting their proposal that would bring the state $1 billion in exchange for a gambling compact allowing them to expand their existing casinos to Class III venues, build new casinos in Birmingham and Huntsville and open sportsbooks. Dog racetrack operators in Shorter, Birmingham, and Greene County object, claiming such an arrangement would give the tribe a monopoly over gambling.
