The gambling silliness has already started. 

Still months away from the 2025 legislative session in Alabama, the smoke-filled backrooms have been packed and extra smoky, as lawmakers, lobbyists, interested parties and out-of-state gambling interests have already started the now-yearly negotiations of gambling legislation. 

But with a little extra oomph this time around. 

There is added pressure on those pushing for gambling legislation – and on those working to craft that legislation – because 2026 is an election year in the state. Numerous lawmakers will be up for re-election and few of them want to run a campaign while simultaneously advocating for or against an issue that tends to draw more voter attention than any other. And none of them want to log a vote that can be used against them on the campaign trail. 

Additionally, lawmakers have typically avoided introducing complex gambling legislation the session after an election year, believing that the freshmen legislators need a solid year under their belts before they’re asked to deal with an issue that has so many moving parts and complicated consequences. 

So, realistically, if gambling legislation doesn’t pass in 2025, it’ll likely be at least two full years before lawmakers seriously broach the topic again. The pressure to move now, especially coming off of last year’s near miss, is heavy. 

And that means the rampant political games, crackpot rumors and underhanded dealings that go along with all high-stakes political negotiations are also running wild. 

“A lot of people will be saying a lot of things over the coming months,” said Rep. Sam Jones, who is the top ranking Democrat on the House’s gambling committee. He helped craft the House’s comprehensive gaming bill last year. 

During an interview on the Alabama Politics This Week podcast this week, Jones provided some insight into where things currently stand and he discussed a number of rumors and half-truths that have popped up recently. In fact, at the Democrats’ Pro-Growth Conference in Selma earlier this week, a number of interested parties and current state operators of gambling facilities spoke, and their presence seemed to touch off a fresh round of rumors and innuendo. 

Much of it was easy-to-spot manipulation designed to push a certain agenda one way or the other or to open the door for this player or that client. For example, one rumor that has persisted for months – and that became a hot topic at the conference – is that the Poarch Band of Creek Indians have a problem hiring Black workers for their gaming facilities. The claim appears to be an attempt to undercut support for PCI among Democratic lawmakers and open the door for other players, potentially out-of-state interests, to sneak through. 

It apparently doesn’t matter at all that the claim is laughably absurd to anyone who has visited one of the PCI casinos. 

But just to put facts to what should be obvious: PCI’s three Wind Creek resorts employ just over 5,000 people. Of those, more than 1,600 are Black. Another 1,200 are either Asian or Hispanic. Less than 40 percent (2,062) are white. 

I know from past experience that the owners of the state’s other dog tracks/casinos – at Shorter, Birmingham and Greene County – also place an emphasis on employing a diverse staff. If you’ve ever bothered to walk through the doors of any of them, this fact will be obvious. 

But then, facts often play no role in rumors when it comes to gambling, and it’s easy to understand why – Alabama’s complicated gambling laws and current gambling reality confuses the average person and makes it incredibly easy to use outright lies to manipulate the process. When there’s literally billions on the table, those lies and innuendos can be very profitable. 

So, you hear all sorts of nonsense. 

But for now, the truth is this: We’re not particularly close to crafting a gambling bill that has enough support in the legislature to pass. 

Which is another explanation for why people are scrambling so hard right now. Many people feel like there’s a lot of blank pages currently that could be filled with legalese that benefits them or their clients or their friends. 

The job of filling out those pages will rest primarily with the Alabama Senate. The members of that body are the ones who blew up the negotiations last session, ripping to shreds a House bill that was probably the best, most realistic, most profitable piece of gambling legislation ever to be introduced in the Alabama Legislature. House leadership has made it clear that it will be the senate’s job to clean up the mess and build a piece of legislation that meets House approval this time around. 

That bill should look an awful lot like the House version from last year – which created a statewide lottery, awarded up to 10 casino licenses, created a gambling commission to oversee the process and enforce laws, legalized sports betting and outlined the parameters of a compact with PCI. 

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t start there,” Jones said. “That was a good bill. It had a lot of agreement. With a few tweaks, that could be the bill.” 

But sources within the senate told APR that they don’t believe the votes are there to get close to the House version. Instead, the bill they’re working on, in an effort spearheaded by Sen. Garlan Gudger, would establish the lottery, enter into a compact with PCI for full casinos at their three current locations and would allow for casinos operating historical horse racing machines at the state’s dog tracks and three other locations. 

Such a bill would not be popular in the House. 

“It’s (expletive) stupid,” a Republican House member told APR. “We had a bill that’s got the same number of casinos and that generated a billion bucks a year. This bill, with the same number of casinos, wouldn’t make half that. And it wouldn’t increase tourism. And it wouldn’t bring in the same number of jobs. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

However, others aren’t so sure that the House version can’t be passed. In fact, they suspect that much of what happened last year was less about strongly held convictions on gambling and was much more about ensuring that gambling revenue was divvied up more favorably to their districts or pet projects. 

“I think a lot of people knew that the 2025 session was the most likely time this was going to get done and they planned accordingly,” said a lobbyist who worked on the gambling legislation last year. 

But then again, how much of that is truth? How much is speculation? How much is a lie? 

When it comes to gambling legislation, those are always the questions.