Lottery-only bill for Alabama: Political solution or ‘pie in the sky’ dream?

Alabama is racing against five other states as the last one standing without scratch-off tickets, Powerball, or any of the convenience store games that have become a staple across the country.

But as the latest effort to push through a comprehensive gaming plan stumbled last week, a new conversation is bubbling up: Should Alabama lawmakers scrap casinos, sports betting, and their deals with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and just roll with a lottery?

Amid another defeat, some are calling for a simpler, more straightforward solution and one that includes a lottery, with no frills attached.

It’s an effort that has played out before and lawmakers argue that Alabama’s gambling politics are so messy, the idea of a “lottery-only” bill is nothing but a pipe dream. Past attempts to get such bills through the legislature have gone nowhere, and conservative organizations insist gambling and lottery can’t be separated.

“Any notion of a lottery-only bill having the votes to pass, I think it’s pie in the sky,” said Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, who argues that a broader constitutional amendment—one legalizing both gambling and a lottery—remains the only viable option.

But some proponents are getting fed up, pushing hard for lawmakers to finally bring the issue to voters before the 2026 elections. Their warning? If they don’t act soon, the incumbents who voted against the gambling and lottery package, defeated in the Senate last year by a single vote, could face serious political fallout.

“There are people who are going to get their lunch eaten on the lottery issue because they didn’t do anything about it,” said Jon Gray, a Republican political consultant.

5 states

Alabama’s Constitution prohibits lotteries and all forms of gambling, requiring legislative approval and the governor’s signature to make them legal. Since Alabama is one of 31 states that don’t allow citizen initiatives, the public has no choice but to wait on the legislature to act.

Alabama voters last had a chance to decide on a lottery in 1999, when the proposal was defeated by 54.2% of voters.

The world has changed since then, including general views about lottery and gambling. More and more states have jumped on the lottery and casino bandwagon to generate revenues or to raise money for infrastructure improvements and education without raising taxes.

Alabama, Utah, Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska are the only five states without a lottery. However, momentum exists in Nevada to have voters decide on the issue next year. A poll taken a year ago shows 75% of Nevada residents in favor of establishing a state lottery, including support from 74% of Republicans.

Legislation is often introduced in the states without a lottery for some form of legalized gaming. In Hawaii, the momentum of late has been to legalize sports betting.

Mississippi, which has had casino gambling for 35 years, is the most recent state to launch a statewide lottery in 2019. As of 2021, the lottery generated $80 million for road and bridge repairs, plus another $59 million for education, according to data reported by the Mississippi Lottery Corp.

“There’s a lot of support for a clean lottery bill,” said Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston. “But the issue always comes down to what else gets attached to it.”

Revenue boon

Several key facts loom over the issue, particularly the popularity of a lottery. A poll taken less than two years ago by former President Donald Trump campaign chair Kellyanne Conway’s firm shows that a whopping 80% of Republicans in Alabama support a lottery. The same poll shows around 60% backing casino gambling.

The revenues from a lottery are also hard to ignore. According to a 2020 report by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA), $270 million to $386 million could be generated in annual revenue from a state lottery. The Alabama Department of Revenue’s past projections pegged the revenue even higher, at around $354 million to $438 million each year.

By comparison, the 10-cent-per-gallon fuel tax increase state lawmakers adopted in 2019, generates $320 million for road and bridge improvements each year.

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University and a longtime observer of Alabama state politics, believes the lack of a lottery in Alabama has cost the state approximately $3 billion over the past 14 years.

“Failure to present a lottery-only proposition to the voters of Alabama is now a glaring prima facie case of serious financial mismanagement by the Legislature,” Brown said, advocating for a two-vote solution – one for lottery, and a separate vote for casino or quasi-casino gaming.

“Genuine conservative leadership should end this madness and act in a manner which reflects the interests of mainstream Alabama,” Brown said. “The status quo is not conservatism, just financial foolishness.”

Conservative opposition

Some leading conservative groups do not believe lottery is the way to go, and that it’s impossible to separate lottery from casino gambling.

Greg Davis, president & CEO with the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), said that lotteries are considered Class III gambling. To legalize a lottery would also require legalizing casino games, card games, slot machines, any electronic game of chance, sports betting/parimutuel wagering, and other gaming currently disallowed under Alabama’s Constitution.

He also said that legalizing lotteries would allow the Poarch Band of Creek Indians to seek federal approval for Class III gaming. Creek Enterprises owns and operates three casinos on tribal lands in Alabama in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery.

“A vote for a lottery is a vote for Class III casinos,” Davis said. “They are not separate. If we legalize a lottery, that is Class III. There is no such thing as a lottery only.”

The Alabama Policy Institute (API), earlier this year, wrote an updated report on its website illustrating that a vote in support of lottery is also one to legalize all forms of Class III gaming – casino games, card games, slot machines, any electronic game of chance, sports betting/parimutuel wagering, as well as lotteries.

“Legalizing casino-style gambling or establishing a statewide lottery is bad public policy, both fiscally and socially,” said Stephanie Smith, president & CEO with API. “Any legislator or commentator arguing for padding the largest state budgets in history with gambling revenue is making an ignorant or irresponsible judgement. The gambling industry is predatory, doesn’t produce any product, and takes money out of the economy that would have been spent on actual goods and services in the community.”

Davis said that lotteries are the “most pervasive form of gambling” and would be present in every convenience store in the state.

“It would be visible to every child and the billboards and TV advertisements,” he said.

Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, who has carried the past two comprehensive gambling and lottery bills in the Senate, said that legalizing lottery expands “gaming in every little crossroads in the state.”

“That is the worst thing we could do is (legalize) a lottery only,” Albritton said. “It doesn’t bring in enough money to do anything with … it is the one that does the most harm for so little, it’s not worth moving forward with in my mind. And we’ve tried a lottery only previously, and it didn’t get anywhere.”

Neighboring states

Indeed, former Sen. Jim McClendon has tried before to push through a lottery-only provision, only to see it stall. The most recent occurred in the Alabama State House in 2022, when Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, pitched a lottery-only bill that also went nowhere.

Rep. Parker Moore, R-Decatur, a co-sponsor on Brown’s measure, said in his district, residents can travel 40-45 minutes to Tennessee to purchase lottery tickets or 1-1/2-hour to Mississippi to the casinos. He said constituents are clamoring for an opportunity to vote on the issue.

Moore said the current issue is up to the Alabama Senate to resolve. He said the Alabama House, last year, moved a comprehensive gambling package to the Senate where it failed by a single vote.

He said if there are shortfalls in federal revenues, and a reduction in state taxes, there could be pressure on plugging budget hole for rural healthcare, where hospitals continue to struggle in Alabama.

If a comprehensive gambling package was approved in Alabama, it could bring in over $745 million annually in revenues, according to the 2020 PARCA report.

“A lot of (feedback) I get is not whether they are for it or against it, they just want an opportunity to vote on it,” Moore said.

There are also the startling images outside convenience stores and truck stops at the Alabama-Tennessee line, whenever the Powerball winnings escalate. In November, when the Powerball was up to $1.6 billion, Moore said he stopped at a border gas station in Tennessee. There, he saw 26 people standing in line for a ticket. Of them, 21 were from Alabama.

Davis with ALCAP said there is simply not enough data to determine whether Alabamians are driving to neighboring states, in droves, to buy lottery tickets. Lawmakers have long argued that Alabama residents who do so are supporting schools and roads not within the state, but in Tennessee, Georgia or Florida.

“People leave our state and spend money on a lot of things,” Davis said. “They leave to go to Atlanta, and they will go to Six Flags. Why not put our energy in getting something like that? For people who say the money can go to schools, nothing is stopping anyone from writing a check and giving it to the principal. Their school would get 100 percent of that money instead of running it through a lottery and the schools only getting a small part of it.”

He added, “To act like it’s about education, it’s not. It is about gambling. These folks saying, ‘keep your money in Alabama.’ They do not want to do that. They want to gamble.”