House nonconcurs with Senate version of the gambling bill

On Thursday, April 7, the Alabama House of Representatives passed a motion of nonconcurrence on the Senate's gaming substitute sending the legislation to a conference committee.

"From the very beginning, we had three key goals with the House's comprehensive legislation," said Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) in a statement. "Those included eliminating illegal gaming operations in the state of Alabama, developing a framework for the taxation and regulation of facilities that obtain licenses through an open-bid process and establishing a lottery that benefits education and education only."

Rep. Chris Blackshear (R-Phenix City) sponsored the legislation.

"More than 14 months went into crafting this package – the first comprehensive gaming plan to ever pass in the Alabama House of Representatives," said Blackshear. "We were thoughtful in our approach to addressing every aspect of this issue, and I truly feel that the House's final product is what the people want to vote on."

The House's rejection of the Senate's more scaled back plan means that the Conference Committee will be tasked with drafting a third gambling bill – that no one has seen before.

As of April 10, the Alabamma Senate had not appointed their members of the conference committee