Alabama lottery, casino legislation heads to conference committee

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Legislation that would authorize a lottery and other types of gambling in Alabama is headed to a conference committee as lawmakers try to bridge divisions over sports betting and the number of casino sites.

The Alabama House of Representatives voted Thursday to reject Senate changes to gambling legislation and go to a conference committee to try to negotiate a compromise. Lawmakers are trying to find common ground between a sweeping House-passed plan that would include sports betting and up to 10 casinos with table games and a scaled-back version of the bill, which excluded sports betting and allowed fewer casinos, that was approved by the Alabama Senate.

Rep. Chris Blackshear, the House sponsor of the bill, told representatives that he believed the Senate was leaving the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue “on the floor” with the scaled-back bill. Blackshear said he is hopeful that lawmakers can reach an agreement, but he also acknowledged there is a vast difference between what the two chambers approved.

“I think we’ve got to identify what that middle ground is first because it’s such a distance between the two. They’re not even close bookends. So we’ve got to first off establish what that middle ground looks like and then have those conversations,” Blackshear said.

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