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SportsTranscript
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00:05 Starting off with Alabama, discussions
00:07 seem to be trending in the right direction.
00:10 Let's not get people excited down there,
00:11 or I should say for me, it's up there,
00:14 that they're going to have sports betting this year.
00:16 But it's on the calendar.
00:17 It's on the discussion.
00:18 What's the latest?
00:20 Yeah, I mean, Alabama's an interesting state.
00:23 I mean, obviously, their constitution
00:25 has banned pretty much every form of gaming.
00:28 And the public hasn't had a chance
00:30 to vote to change the Constitution in almost
00:33 a quarter of a century.
00:34 But they might get a chance to change that this year
00:38 if things continue on as they are.
00:41 Heading into the year, the session started last week.
00:44 Heading into the session just the week before,
00:46 I had reported that the House has taken the lead, which
00:50 is unusual, because the House is normally
00:51 where a Senate attempt has gotten over a couple of times,
00:55 and the House just let it die.
00:57 But this year, the House is leading.
00:59 And they had-- the source I had said,
01:02 they're going to try to move it as quickly as possible.
01:05 And that is certainly happening.
01:07 There was a hearing yesterday where
01:08 there were 18 testimonies, many for it, of course,
01:13 and many against it, of course.
01:15 As we see in every state, you've got
01:16 a lot of religious and mental health people saying, well,
01:20 let's be careful about this.
01:21 But at the same time, there were people for mental health
01:24 and veterans health saying, hey, we're not necessarily for this.
01:28 But if we're going to do it and we're
01:30 going to bring in lots of money for the state,
01:32 can you please give us money for it?
01:34 So the hearings, they were relatively uneventful.
01:38 So that's going to roll into today.
01:40 The commission will take what they heard at the hearing
01:44 and vote on the two bills.
01:46 There's one bill that is the enacting legislation that
01:49 would create up to seven casinos in the state, create a lottery.
01:53 They're one of five states without a lottery.
01:56 Allow pretty much any online operator
01:58 into the state for sports betting if they want,
02:01 and allow Governor Kay Ivey to enter a compact negotiation
02:06 with the Porch Band of Creek Indians
02:11 and see where that goes.
02:14 Now, of course, this is still early.
02:16 It will then have to pass the House and the Senate.
02:19 And in both chambers, it needs to get 60% of votes
02:22 because it is a constitutional amendment.
02:25 And the legislator can't do that on its own.
02:27 So then it'll go to the ballot in November
02:30 and allow Alabamians the chance to vote on whether or not
02:33 they want gambling.
02:34 Now, there's several kind of caveats there.
02:38 The Porch Creek might say, hey, we only
02:40 want in-person sports betting in the state.
02:42 It might even get down to where only sports betting,
02:45 or only a lottery, or only the casinos
02:49 get through because of amendments
02:51 and whatever other kind of opposition
02:54 arises throughout this process.
02:55 So of course, there's lots of problems that could arise,
02:59 lots of challenges because to this point,
03:01 Alabama does not have much gaming at all.
03:04 So it's an uphill battle still, but lots more conversations
03:08 than we've had in the past in Alabama.
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