Gambling back on the table at Alabama State House

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Halfway through the 2025 Alabama legislative session, state lawmakers are bringing gambling back to the table. State Senator Greg Albritton filed legislation Tuesday that would legalize some forms of gaming.

His legislation includes a lottery, sports betting, and electronic bingo at the six existing facilities in Alabama. It would not add any new facilities. Albritton says he wants to take what’s already there, cap it and tax it.

Last year, gambling legislation passed the house, but it came up one vote short in the Senate. Albritton did not vote in favor of it.

He says this bill is better because it provides more security against illegal gambling.

“One thing that we have in this bill is an enforcement arm that’s going to be significant. We’re going to eliminate those confusing laws that we have currently, increase the penalties and put a strong enforcement there so that people that have the expertise and the resources, they can go out and shut down all the illegals. We don’t have that now, and the bill that we had on the floor last year did not have the capability of doing that. That’s why I killed it,” he said.

Albritton says he’s determined, but concerned over whether he can get gambling legislation passed this session.

“We’re trying to work on a way to get the 21 votes that we need in the Senate to pass it. We don’t want to have another difficult vote like we had last year,” says Sen. Albritton. If it passes this year, Alabamians will have to give the final approval by vote.

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