Racetrack gambling bill finds resistance among legislators
- Apr 26, 2007 - comment
Efforts to legalize electronic bingo at the Birmingham and Mobile racetracks have encountered firm resistance in the House of Representatives.
The legislation — House Bill (HB) 527 — moved quickly from its passage out of the House Tourism and Travel Committee April 4 to the House calendar April 10. But instead of continuing on its fast track to success, the bill stalled quickly when it faced the full House.
“A whole legislative day had been set aside for the bill,” said Rep. Arthur Payne, R-Trussville, who is working to defeat the bill. But “we worked real hard to get enough votes to kill it.”
“I don’t think the Alabama Legislature should ever encourage people to gamble because it destroys people’s lives,” he said.
Strong opposition
Because the bill calls for a proposed constitutional amendment to be voted on by Alabamians, it must have three-fifths of House members in support of it — 63 votes. When the votes weren’t there April 10, the bill’s sponsor — Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia — pulled the bill from the calendar instead of moving forward with the vote.
Payne said there was firm opposition, but the bill’s supporters, including Birmingham racetrack owner Milton McGregor, have been aggressively working House members since the bill was pulled to gain more votes.
“I think we’ve (those opposing the bill) still got enough firm votes against it to defeat it,” Payne said.
Plus House leaders said they would not allow the bill back on the calendar unless Black can produce a list of 63 representatives committed to vote in favor of the bill, Payne said.
The lineup of bills appearing before the House each legislative day is directed by House Speaker Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, and House Rules Committee Chairman Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill. Without their support, HB 527 may not make it back up this session, Payne explained.
Hammett and Guin did not return calls and e-mails by press time.
“It was embarrassing for House leadership to give so much time and to use so much power for one bill, which ended up not having the support it needed,” he said.
Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program, said the bill is still alive but has little chance of surviving. “They (supporters) don’t have enough votes to get it passed,” he said. “Until they do, there will not be much action on it.”
Payne noted that HB 527 “would have locked in the constitution for these two tracks to have gambling and no one else and with no state regulations. … It is not a good deal.”
This article is reprinted from the April 26, 2007, issue of The Alabama Baptist, the newspaper of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
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