In the most gambling-relevant region of the state, Robertsdale farmer and first-time political candidate Terry Waters is drawing a hard line against any talk of legal gaming expansion in the state if elected.

Alabama Senate District 22 stretches across parts of Baldwin, Mobile, Washington and Escambia counties — and its largest city, Atmore, is home to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ Wind Creek Casino, the state’s biggest gaming operation.

That geography is what makes the May 19 Republican primary contest between Waters a unique one.

Albritton has spent nearly a decade as the Alabama Senate’s lead author of comprehensive gaming legislation. Waters is running hard in the opposite direction.

“I’m going to take a firm stance on gambling,” Waters said in an interview with Yellowhammer News. “This is a hill I could live or die on.”

Waters made it clear he would not support a statewide vote of the people to decide because “Montgomery will get the gambling wrong.”

Albritton sponsored the sweeping 2024 package that would have authorized a state lottery, up to seven casinos, electronic gaming devices and a compact with the Poarch Creeks. In 2025, he drafted follow-up legislation projecting roughly $750 million in annual revenue from a lottery, Class II electronic gambling at existing racetracks, sports betting and a tribal compact.

Waters, who serves on the Alabama Farmers Federation state executive board and is endorsed by ALFA’s Baldwin, Mobile, Washington and Escambia county chapters, said he qualified for the race initially “on the fence” and open to what he called a “clean lottery bill.”

“Since that time, I’ve realized there is no such thing as a clean lottery bill,” Waters said.

“There’s three classes of gambling, and there’s no such thing as a clean lottery bill. I think Montgomery will get the gambling wrong. It grows government. I don’t think the oversight will be there to handle it, along with who it preys on.”

Albritton, who ended up voting against the final 2024 measure after the Senate stripped out sports betting and the Poarch compact, has argued that comprehensive legislation is not about endorsing gambling but regulating what already exists in Alabama — and capturing revenue the state is currently leaving on the table.

In response to Waters’ major difference of opinion on the gaming issue, Albritton says it’s ultimately about letting the people of Alabama decide.

“I will allow the people of Alabama to vote on and decide whether we have a lottery that will fund college scholarships and other needed services. My opponent Terry Waters is a hard no against letting the people vote,” Albritton said in a statement to Yellowhammer News.

“My position is simple: it should be the people of Alabama who should decide this issue not the politicians in Montgomery. Terry Waters is opposed to the people voting.”

The primary election is just less than one month away.

Beyond the gaming fight, a Robertsdale native, Army veteran and third-generation farmer, he was stationed in Fulda, Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, an experience he credits with shaping his political outlook.

“I lived three miles from that when the wall came down, and I saw firsthand what too much government can do,” Waters said. “I never had any idea that it would lead to [running for office], but looking back, it was important.”

He and his family farm about 600 acres of corn, soybeans and peanuts, and he says small row-crop operations across the district are under serious strain.

“We’re losing our farms at about 8% a year is what I’m told,” Waters said. “Farming is the only business I know that I’m aware of, that everything you buy is at retail, and everything you sell is at wholesale. If we’re not real careful, we’re going to be looking to other countries for our food and that will be extremely dangerous.”