Alabama football fans are betting this season through an illegal bookie or an offshore website, and Joe Maloney says the only thing that puts those operators out of business is giving the state a legal market.
Maloney is president and CEO of the Sports Betting Alliance, a trade group representing FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365, Fanatics and BetMGM. He joined The Next Round last week to field listener questions about the group and its push to get sports wagering in front of Alabama voters.
“The best disinfectant to the illegal market monopoly is legalization,” Maloney said.
The hosts made it clear they see the problem in Alabama firsthand, “You could sling a dead cat and hit a bookmaker here in Birmingham,” one said.
Maloney said legal online wagering is live in 31 states and the companies he represents do not operate anywhere it is not.
“Right now in states like Alabama, Texas, Georgia, California, illegal market operators basically have a monopoly,” he said. “Whether that is a neighborhood bookie or that is an offshore website domiciled in some country like Curacao or Costa Rica, they’ve got the ability to reach customers.”
The hosts gave the neighborhood bookie a name, Tony, and Maloney ran with it.
“They’re all named Tony, aren’t they?” he said. “Tony doesn’t care if you’re chasing losses. Tony doesn’t care if you’re betting on credit. Tony might be extending you credit, and then you get into a precarious position if you can’t pay back Tony when he comes calling on it.”
Licensed sportsbooks, he said, verify every customer is 21 and no longer take credit card deposits. “Tony doesn’t care if you’re 18.”
He said the gap shows up when a bet goes bad. “If something goes wrong with Tony or some Costa Rican website, the attorney general in Alabama is going to be like, ‘I don’t know if I can really help you because I either can’t find Tony, or I can’t call the feds to help me reach somebody in Costa Rica to respond to my cease and desist.’”
In states that legalized, Maloney said, “Tony’s not booking very many bets anymore.”
Maloney said the tax money follows the bets. North Carolina sends a share of wagering taxes to NIL funds at its smaller Division I schools and to tourism marketing. New York clears more than $1 billion a year and puts it into youth sports. He lives in Maryland, where the revenue goes to public schools.
“As a parent of three kids in public schools in the state of Maryland, yes, it’s nice knowing that a percentage of my wager on Crimson Tide football goes back into the public schools,” he said.
None of that reaches Alabama without a constitutional amendment, and the legislature has to pass one before voters see a ballot. The Sports Betting Alliance says 75% of Alabamians want that vote.
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“My frustration as an American and Alabamian is, I believe in democracy, and we never get the right to vote,” a host said.
“We just have a gating issue on that matter right now with the legislature, but I think we’re making a lot of progress,” Maloney said.
He said elected officials assume “they’re inventing the activity in voting for something to move forward.”
“You’re not inventing the activity,” he said. “The activity, as we already discussed, has taken place. Whether it’s Tony down at the barber shop, or whether it’s that Costa Rican website that’s taking action.”
“Adults should have the ability to choose to bet in a legal regulated marketplace,” he said. “We win those votes overwhelmingly.”
Alabama has come close. In 2021, State Senator Del Marsh’s lottery, casino and sports betting package fell two votes shy of the 21 the Senate needed. In 2024, the House passed a broad gambling bill, the Senate stripped sports betting out of it, and the conference committee version died one vote short. State Senator Greg Albritton floated another run in 2025, and State Senator Merika Coleman has filed a new bill. Alabama voters last weighed in on gambling in 1999, when they rejected a lottery.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
