State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) thinks passing a simple lottery bill only creates more problems when it comes to gambling in the Yellowhammer State.
Albritton’s ‘no’ vote in the 2024 legislative session helped kill the passage of a comprehensive gaming bill that year. The senator’s constituents include the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
The lawmaker joined FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show” Wednesday to discuss the continuing issues when it comes to trying to pass a lottery or gambling bill.
“We have anything that you want to put in a gambling package,” Albirtton explained. “We got the language for it. It’s already on the computer. It’s a cut and paste deal. We can put it together in whatever way you want. Question is, which ones will get the votes? That’s what we need, right? We’ve passed comprehensive packages in the Senate and we’ve passed comprehensive packages in the house, but we haven’t passed a comprehensive package in both that’s the only way we’re going to get this accomplished.”
Albritton also argued against the Legislature just passing a simple lottery bill.
“[T]he biggest issue here is expansion of gambling. We’re increasing gambling. Well, there is no bigger increase or expansion than a lottery that will put gambling at every crossroads, at every place in the state, and yet that seems to be the most popular thing that people want to have,” he said. “Our problem and issue is in that the opportunity then comes, if we were to do something like that, the opportunity of class three gaming and federal law that comes into play is going to affect what we’re doing here.”
RELATED: Arthur Orr says Senators should consider ‘if the votes are there for a lottery’ during 2025 session
RELATED: Speaker Ledbetter: Passing a lottery is ‘complicated’ – but Alabama wants to vote on it
Albritton said just passing something on the lottery won’t solve the problems the state has seen with illegal gambling that occurs across the state.
“Sports gaming is the scourge that we have on us now,” he said. “The state has a moral obligation to take control of this industry and to control it. So passing a lottery is not going to help financially. It’s not going to help control it. It’s not going to help anything. It’ll simply expand it. We got to do something better.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
