State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) is still charging ahead with the package of gambling bills he previewed last month.
During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show" on Monday, Albritton said he expected his efforts to be successful in the state Senate.
However, he said the House was where the obstacles may lie.
"We've done this before," Albritton said. "In fact, we've done it a couple of times before. So, we're pretty confident about where we are, and we're going to try to get it up on Thursday and move along if we can and send it on down to the House, if we will, for them to either work on it or to ignore it, whichever they so choose."
The exasperated Escambia County Republican lawmaker said he had gotten signals from the House of Representatives urging him not to proceed with the bill.
"The only feedback I have gotten has been 'number one, don't send it down here. We're going to send you a clean lottery,'" Albritton said. "I've invited them to send me a clean lottery. They haven't dropped a clean lottery. They haven't dropped any lottery. In fact, the lottery we sent down to them a couple or three years ago -- they ignored. And then the other response I get when pressed on that is, 'Don't send it down here. We can't do it. It's an election year.' So, the impression I get from the House is they just do not want to deal with this issue."
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Despite what appears to be a reluctance by the House to consider the upper chamber's effort, Albritton insisted getting something accomplished was still necessary.
"[L]ook, the only thing I can tell you is this needs to be done," Albritton said. "Just because it's an election year doesn't mean we need to sit back and let it drift away. Just because the House doesn't want to do something doesn't mean that they shouldn't do it. Just because they say they can't get it passed doesn't mean they don't have the votes."
Albritton highlighted some of what he deemed to be the "proliferation" of gambling in Alabama, including a $35 million expansion of a facility in Greene County.
"[E]veryone says we don't want expansion of gaming," he continued. "Expansion of gaming is happening all over the place in Alabama, and we're just ignoring it."
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