During Thursday's broadcast of WVNN's "The Dale Jackson Show," State Sen. Sam Givhan (R-Huntsville) spoke about a "clean" lottery bill filed last week in the Alabama State Senate.
According to Givhan, the legislation, sponsored by State Sen. Merika Coleman (D-Birmingham), would afford Alabamians the chance to vote on a state lottery, while also permitting in-person casino games and in-person and online sports betting.
"This is not a serious bill," Givhan told Jackson. "She tried to get me to sign it. She said it's a clean lottery bill. And I'm like, "You got gaming in there." She laughed. I guess it's clean to her, from the perspective of it's not cluttered with where the money is going to go. It's not cluttered with the details of the gaming operations, all of which, by the way, would be decided by a simple majority vote, not a 60% vote that a constitutional amendment requires."
Jackson also asked Givhan if betting on Sunday's Super Bowl would be legal in Alabama.
"There could be an argument that games of skill are not a lottery," noted Givhan. "I'm not a specialist in that arena, so I don't know if that's something that the attorney general has done and DAs don't want to spend time on. We've already got anti-gaming laws on the books. So I don't think it's up to us, really, to pass something to tighten the loophole, necessarily, but it could be that it is considered a game of skill, I don't know, or actual skill. I think poker is covered that way. Your Friday night poker game is not illegal.
Givhan added, "Now, if the house takes a piece of the action, that's different. That is illegal."
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