While Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, released a variety of information this week about his hopes for filing a lottery and gambling bill during this year’s legislative session, he also was transparent about the difficulty he’s had finding enough support to actually file the legislation.
Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R–Cullman, agrees it’s not a good move to continue promoting it and clarified this afternoon (April 3) that there will be no gambling legislation debated during this year’s legislative session in Alabama.
“With 12 meeting days remaining in the session, both budgets still awaiting approval and other important bills and measures demanding focus and attention … [it] is simply too little, too late and has too few votes to pass,” Gudger said in the April 3 statement.
“I believe that passing a comprehensive [gambling] bill in the Senate will require engaging in long-term and intense negotiations among members and securing the needed votes and commitments well before a legislative session even begins.”
‘Grateful’
Greg Davis, president and CEO of Alabama Citizens Action Program, said, “We are grateful for those senators who hold strong to a position of not legalizing gambling in Alabama. We are also thankful to Senate leadership for not pressing this issue any further and hijacking the rest of the session with this distraction.
“There are so many important bills that need to be addressed and now we are free to focus on getting those across the legislative finish line,” Davis told The Alabama Baptist. “Ultimately, there were not enough votes in the Alabama Senate to even file the bill officially.
“To every Alabama Baptist who has contacted their legislator on this issue, you made a difference!”
‘Difficult to do’
Albritton told Alabama Daily News Thursday afternoon, “We just don’t have the votes. … Obviously the people I was talking to were telling me what they thought they wanted me to hear. But when they were behind closed doors, they said what they thought.
“And I think I’m done with this too,” Albritton added. “(The gambling issue) has never had the full-throated (support), like the gas tax — difficult to do, hard to get, but you had a lot of resources, folks pulling together.”
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