With reports of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians (PCI) rumored to be pushing a gambling bill in the Senate, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) says any gambling bill out of the Senate must be comparable with what the House agreed to last year to garner consideration.

On Thursday, 1819 News detailed reports from sources that PCI is pushing lawmakers in the Alabama Senate to pursue gambling expansion during the ongoing legislative session.

SEE: Poarch Band of Creek Indians making another gambling push after acquiring Birmingham Racecourse

So far, talks on gambling are said to be preliminary, with no bill being filed yet.

Gambling soured the 2024 legislative session. House members swiftly passed a comprehensive gambling package before sending it to the Senate. Senate members heavily amended the bill before sending it back to the House.

The House, unwilling to accept the Senate’s changes, convened a conference committee—a meeting between members of both houses to hammer out a compromise.

The conference committee produced a compromise that seemed ready for final passage. However, after the House voted “yes,” the Senate again failed to garner sufficient votes before the session closed.

See also: RIP GAMBLING 2024: House closes session by approving the education budget after a last-minute gambling push

The gambling package’s demise earned no lack of sour grapes from the House sponsors and leadership.

Related: State Rep. Blackshear puts failed gambling package on Senate – ‘Ask one of the 15 senators that voted against this legislation’

Since the drama last year, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) has made it abundantly clear that the onus is on the Senate to produce any gambling reform.

On Thursday, however, Ledbetter stated that any legislation from the Senate that is not comparable to the agreement last year has little to no chance of getting considered.  

“The thing about it is, looking at what happened last year, if it [doesn’t] compare with what came out of the House, there’s no use sending it down here,” Ledbetter said. “You know, we’re not going to mess with it. Listen, I’m the last one to ever think about this. I don’t gamble. I don’t think about gambling. The Speaker’s Association was in Las Vegas this year; I didn’t go because I don’t like being there.”

He continued, “[I] t’s a problem in this state. I think my job as speaker is to face problems and try to fix them. I think our body did a good job last year and tried to do that. Was it time to do it? Evidently not. I think there will be a time when something probably will happen. I don’t know when that is. I can’t speculate, but I can tell you this: it’s not coming out of the House. Something’s going to have to come out of the Senate.”

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.

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