Alabama Policy Institute (API) President Stephanie Smith said that gambling will be one of the two biggest issues confronting the Alabama Legislature in 2024.
She suggested that a forthcoming gambling commission set up by the state could create issues similar to those currently plaguing the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC). As a legal framework for businesses within the industry, authorized by the Alabama Legislature, a state commission on gambling would share features inherent to a regulatory framework.
Smith made that point last week on Rightside Radio hosted by former State Senator Phil Williams. Williams asked Smith what the big issues would be in 2024.
“I think the big things are obviously going to be the gambling push, which we know is coming, and then school choice which we also know is coming to some degree,” Smith said. “Whether or not we can come to some agreement on either of those issues remains to be seen.”
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“I do think that there is going to be some addressing of this marijuana mess, whether or not that is a legislative happening or some sort of regulatory situation,” Smith said. “That situation has got to be resolved; and so to me it shows that for people that believe like you and I do that creating a new government bureaucracy that is rife and ready for corruption didn’t work, duh. It is not a big surprise.”
In 2021, the Alabama Legislature passed, and Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill to legalize medical cannabis in the state. It created the legal structure by which the state regulates the industry and the patients who benefit.
Smith said she has a lot of respect for former Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan, now executive director of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), but is surprised that things went so awry, even under his leadership.
“It is a little surprising that it has gotten away from him and gotten away from them, but it is indicative to me of the mess that is state government and when you give state government power it shouldn’t have, exactly what happens,” Smith said.
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“To me, right now, we are watching what would have happened had they had passed that gambling bill a few years ago with the limited casinos and basically the assigning of rights to be a casino magnate,” Williams said.
Smith agreed.
“Supposedly the panacea of all of this illegal gambling that is going on is to create a gambling commission to regulate it,” Smith said. “How’s that going with marijuana? Not very well.”
“Why would we want to emulate that with what is clearly a corrupt industry?” Smith said. “We have had the FBI in the state for marijuana now and previously they have been here in the state for corruption with gambling. Why this would be different this time around?”
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API released a report earlier this month critical of the push to increase gambling in the state.
Legal gambling proponents hope to pass that bill in the upcoming 2024 Alabama legislative session, which begins on February 6. Since the bill would require a constitutional amendment, any gambling expansion would still have to be ratified by voters in November.
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