State Sen. Arthur Orr is speaking out on a gambling bill that is being “shopped around” the state Legislature.
“There’s one being shopped that has been assembled and put together and the senators are reading it, looking at it,” said Orr (R-Decatur). “It won’t start in the House this year. If it starts, it’s going to start in the Senate.
“And until the votes are there, they won’t be filed because we’re not going to have that distraction going down the home stretch.”
Orr, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, said there’s too many competing interests tied to gambling.
“Some people get hung up on where the money is spent,” he said. “Some people get hung up on sports betting scares them because you see a lot of gambling abuse or problems with addictions with sports betting or phone gambling or Internet gaming.
“Then you’ve got the current bingo barns all feeding into this, wanting a piece of the action or wanting their situations protected or better legalized. The debate over gambling in Alabama has been going on for decades, and there’s a reason for that,” said Orr.
“I’m going to be a little bit harsh with this, that the gaming interests are a bit greedy. They want too much. They want it now,” he said. “And they don’t want somebody else to get theirs without them getting what they want.”
Calling it the “Christmas Tree effect,” Orr said too many interests want too many things.
“Everybody wants to put many, many ornaments on the tree and the tree falls because it’s got too much stuff on it,” he said.
Orr has never voted in favor of any gaming or gambling bills in his 18 years as a state senator.
However, he said there is one he would support.
“I would certainly support a clean lottery vote. That’s what the people want for starters,” he said. “Now you got other people that want table games, et cetera.”
Orr believes the people should vote on each issue separately, after a clean lottery bill has been passed and voted on.
“We get that going and then let the citizens vote up or down independently on do we want table games and casinos? Let’s isolate those particular things,” he said. “Don’t try to lump them all in and say take, take it or leave it, but isolate them and have a debate on each one.”
Orr said voting separately on table games, Internet gaming, sports gaming and where the money goes – be it schools, retirees or general fund transportation – allows the people of Alabama to have a clear voice.
“The more you limit the number of issues in any given kind of ballot resolution or ballot constitutional amendment that would be submitted to the people, then you get a more defined sense of the direction of the people and the will of the people of Alabama,” he said.
Once legislators return to work at the State House on Tuesday, only 14 working days are left on the regular legislative session.
“We’ve got the budgets and that’s a big deal,” Orr said. “And they’re starting in the Senate this year. Along with that, the student based funding formula, which will make a real impact in high poverty schools, English language learners, special education students. So it’ll be more resources out there for our educators, particularly if they see a decline in federal dollars due to the tightening in Washington.”
Despite a gambling bill looming, Orr said there’s still “plenty of time” to get their work done.
“The general fund budget will move this coming week and the education budget will move the week after, and then we’ll be on our way getting close to the finish line or to the home stretch, I should say, after that,” he said.
Courtesy of 256 Today
