Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon released a statement on Monday confirming that a lottery bill, which is expected to be proposed in the state legislature in 2019, will not be driven by House leadership.
News came out over the weekend of McCutcheon telling WHNT, “I can say for sure that you’ll see a lottery bill in the first session coming up.” But a press release from the speaker clarified that some outlets took his words out of context.
The headline from one outlet read, “Lottery could be on lawmaker’s agenda this year,” but McCutcheon says this is far from the truth, saying, “[A]ny effort to come forward with a lottery bill in the House would not be led by the leadership, which obviously includes me.”
“A reporter from station WHNT in Huntsville asked me last week to comment about the efforts that surrounding states are undertaking to implement lotteries, sports betting, and other forms of gambling,” McCutcheon explained in a Monday news release. “I said the Legislature will likely see a lottery bill introduced in the first session of the quadrennium, but that response was based on a general feeling and no concrete knowledge on my part.”
Again, right now, the lottery bill being discussed is strictly hypothetical.
McCutcheon continued, “As far as I am aware, no lottery bills have been drafted, pre-filed, or even discussed in any detail among members. And any effort to come forward with a lottery bill in the House would not be led by the leadership, which obviously includes me.”
The speaker also reaffirmed his belief that bringing other gambling interests into the lottery mix could very well sink the yet-to-exist bill.
“I do feel that if any lottery bill were to have a chance of success, it should be defined as a traditional paper ticket lottery rather than an electronic lottery that could open the door to slot machines and other gambling devices,” McCutcheon concluded.
Poarch Creek Indians’ Robbie McGhee: We don’t mind supporting a lottery ‘if it is something good for the state of Alabama’ #alpolitics
By @jeff_poor https://t.co/WTUIXnVK97— Yellowhammer News (@yhn) September 24, 2018
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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