The House gambling bills quickly swept through that chamber but ran into a buzzsaw in the Senate. A 1.49 million percent increase in access was too much to consider; the ability of an unaccountable gaming commission to transfer locations and/or operators was untenable; and the timing of the statewide vote and those faithful souls who believe that Alabama should resist balancing state budgets on the backs of the poor were among those who refused to vote for the House-approved bills.
Those concerns all came to bear in a chaotic committee meeting last week in the Senate. A Tourism Committee meeting was called but had no agenda. After waiting almost a half hour for the committee chairman and a quorum, several senators proposed leaving for other meetings. Others questioned if there was a duly called public hearing (there wasn’t).
Finally, a public hearing was allowed on the House bills, revealing some interesting bedfellows. No bill proponents were present, but those testifying against the bill included representatives from ALFA, API, and ALCAP, a well-spoken concerned mom of six from Cullman, Vestavia Hills City Councilwoman Kimberly Cook, and former governor and promoter of the failed 1999 lottery campaign, Don Siegelman.
A similar morass unfolded in the Tourism Committee this week. The meeting was hastily set for 2 pm, but quickly gaveled out at the call of the chair. After members met in the hallway outside the committee room, the committee officially gathered at 5:15 pm and promptly substituted the bills with something virtually no one in room had seen (much less read). After a motion from Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) and a second by Andrew Jones (R-Centre), the committee voice voted the subs out. This is not the way a transparent governmental process works.
Last week, Siegelman suggested that legislators and their immediate families should be barred from serving on any proposed commission, implying that the process could be corrupted otherwise. The level of corruption written into the House bills has been a matter of much discussion amongst the Senate and they struck the ability for legislators to serve, but not their families. However, there is still nothing in the gambling bills to prohibit elected officials from receiving “complimentary services meals, rooms, gifts, cash, coins, tokens, or other items” at the casinos they are contemplating legalizing. Some Alabamians may want a lottery, or even casinos or sports betting, but zero Alabamians want more government corruption.
Siegelman also asserted, “This bill turns it back on children and working adults in Alabama.” He’s right and the subs don’t fix that. Casinos aren’t limited to locations away from child-centric locations such as schools or daycares. Minors are allowed to work in casinos, and since the entire goal of the legislation is to maximize profits, there is also no provision against gambling advertising at school events or sporting events where minors are present or participating.
Regarding the most vulnerable, it’s also important to consider the impact of the legalization and expansion of casinos on human trafficking in the state. It is a well-understood and statistical fact that human trafficking increases in and around casinos. An open letter from many of the state’s leaders fighting human trafficking has made a strong impression and called into question just how many casinos (if any) should be formally legalized in the state. The American Bar Association and the U.S. Department of Justice have also opined that casinos and casinos with hotels are hotspots for human trafficking. Even the American Gaming Association admits that gaming operations are routinely used to facilitate human trafficking.
API estimated that the House bills would increase the number of problem gamblers in Alabama by 37%. One in five problem gamblers attempt suicide – that’s 41,583 additional suicide attempts in Alabama due to the proposed expansion of gambling. Only .001% of gambling revenue is specifically designated to combat problem gambling in the proposal, and that is only if there are unclaimed lottery prizes.
There weren’t enough votes to pass the House bills in the Senate, but instead of voting the House proposal down, Plan B was developed to focus on a paper lottery and the grandfathering in of current illegal operators (plus a few others for good measure). Better than the House bills? Absolutely. A good solution? Absolutely not. Rewarding illegal operators could never be the right decision and the Constitutional Amendment is flawed.
The Plan B bills that passed the questionable Senate committee Tuesday require a Constitutional Amendment and compact with the Poarch Creek Indians (PCI), leaving the door open for PCI to gain a casino at the beach – OWA would be first on the list as it is already owned by PCI – in Birmingham, in Huntsville, or anywhere the tribe can successfully convince the liberal Department of Interior that it would benefit them. How many times has the Department of Interior turned a tribe down nationwide? Just once that we can find, and that was in California and only because it was a protected wetland. In short, when a compact is signed, PCI won’t need a vote of the people or any local input to have an operational monopoly over gambling in the state.
Some Senate members may have had good intentions to pare down the corrupt House bills that expanded gambling by millions of percentage points statewide, but they didn’t go far enough to protect the vulnerable or remove the corruption. The only things that the Tourism committee and those negotiating these bills behind closed doors seem to have agreed upon so far is to have a paper lottery that doesn’t fund education, to have unlimited casino locations for PCI … and that crime really does pay in the State of Alabama.
Stephanie Holden Smith is the president/CEO of Alabama Policy Institute.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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