Two years after coming a vote short of a massive gambling expansion, an Alabama state senator wants to send the issue to the voters. Sen. Merika Coleman Friday told AL.com that she will file a constitutional amendment this week.
Coleman said her proposal will include legalizing lottery, sports betting, and casino gambling, but it’s not clear if Coleman is considering in-person gambling only or online as well. Inquiries to Coleman’s office were not immediately returned Monday.
Alabama is one of five states that does not offer a lottery. There is gambling in Alabama, as the Poarch Band of Creek Indians operate three casinos under the Wind Creek brand.
Referendum would be yes-no question
Coleman is proposing asking voters a broad question: “Is this something that you want to do — yes or no?” she told AL.com. If the answer is yes, it would force the legislature into crafting frameworks, including regulations and tax rates, around each kind of gambling. Alabama lawmakers have struggled to come to a consensus about what legal gambling should entail, and what it should look like. In 2024, a bill that would have legalized all three and also included compacting with the Poarch Creeks for online offerings got through the House, but not the Senate.
Coleman is a first-term state senator who previously served 20 years in the Alabama House. She does not appear to have a history of moving gambling legislation. Sen. Greg Albritton has traditionally carried gambling bills. Ahead of this session, he told multiple media outlets that he did not believe gambling would come up during this year’s session.
Alabama’s legislative session runs through March 27, and as of Monday, no proposal had been filed.
Washington bills in rules committees
Washington state lawmakers are getting closer to sending a pair of bills that would remove a restriction on in-state college proposition bets to a chamber floor. HB 2205 and SB 6137 late last week were moved to the rules committees in their respective chambers, often the last stop before a bill gets to a chamber floor.
The bills would also make it a felony to harass an athlete, and would create a setup that would allow smaller gaming tribes to partner with bigger ones for sportsbook products.
The state legislature, with the backing of Indian Country, is bucking a national trend — politicians in several states are looking to restrict rather than expand betting options in their states, and the NCAA is campaigning for such a ban in all legal betting states.
In Washington, only in-person sports betting at tribal casino sportsbooks is legal. When the legislature legalized sports betting in March 2020, it banned proposition bets on in-state college and athletes. The proposals would lift part of that restriction by allowing prop betting on college teams, but not college athletes.
During the legalization process, lawmakers and tribes included the restrictions because they believed they would help to protect in-state athletes. But the regulated market has long argued that any restrictions push bettors offshore — and if a bettor goes offshore for an illegal market, it’s likely (s)he will place bets on legal markets there as well, rather than splitting their bets between locations or platforms.
“We think this eliminates a lot of the illicit gaming that is going on in Washington state and redirects it on our properties and provides that opportunity,” Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Chairman W. Ron Allen testified last month.
According to the calendar on the Washington legislature’s website, neither rules committee has a meeting set for this week. The crossover deadline is Feb. 17, and the 60-day session is set to adjourn March 12.
