If another gambling and lottery package is brought up in the Senate for a vote in the 2025 session, it will happen early, according to incoming State Sen. Pro-Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman).

The final version of a gambling and lottery package passed the House but fell short by one vote in the Senate in the final days of the 2024 session in May. 

Gudger said during an interview on Talk 99.5’s “Dixon & Vining” morning show on Tuesday that if there’s another vote in the Senate on the topic, it would likely happen early on after the legislature convenes in February.

“The question on the entities of wanting to push the gambling/lottery vote, I think it’s overwhelming that the public wants to be able to vote on the lottery,” he outlined. “Whether they want to vote for it or against it, you can tell that over 75% of the people in the polling that we’ve done shows that they want to be able to vote on it. The number one thing that I really want is to eliminate the illegal gambling that’s going on. And there’s more of that than anything else that’s happening in the state of Alabama right now. So by not addressing it, it’s really still allowing the illegal gambling to get larger and larger in this state. So we need an enforcement arm, umbrella, as you would say, that would be able to tackle that and handle that correctly instead of just being able to only fine these operators $250 per machine, where they’re making $2,000 per day on a machine. That’s nothing for them. And it’s a misdemeanor.”

“So the key is if we’re going to do something, we need to have some strict enforcement,” Gudger continued. “Number one, get rid of illegal gaming, which would help with the enforcement side of it, number two. Then number three, if the people want to vote, I think that they’re smart enough to know if they want to vote for it or against it. And I would always have voted to allow the people to have the vote, not the people in Montgomery. But having to figure out where the money goes is always the big question, and how we’d put that either towards the education lottery for scholarships, or do we put it towards mental health? Do we put that towards, as the Democrats want Medicaid expansion? So there’s a lot of discussion in Montgomery. I think you’re exactly right, Jeff. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to have to do it early in this session.” 

He added, “And the key is, I’m going to be polling my colleagues in the Senate to make sure that they want to tackle this situation and this issue. And if they do, then we’re going to make sure that we have the votes before we take it to the floor. I don’t want any of my colleagues to take a bad vote when it gets there just because there’s not enough votes. But if they do want to tackle this and get it behind them for once and for all, then I’m going to allow them to do that. If they don’t, then as the leader I would not allow them to do that. So I think it’s very crucial that if we’re going to do it, we’ve got to do it early though.”

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.

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