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The question won’t go away: should Alabama legalize sports betting, regulate it, and take a cut in taxes instead of watching the money flow out of state?
A new round of debate is picking up again after sports analyst John Longshore argued that Alabamians are already betting anyway, just without any consumer protections or state oversight. In a statewide opinion piece, Longshore claimed Alabama could be missing out on as much as $90 million in potential revenue because wagers are being placed through offshore sites, out-of-state options, and channels regulators can’t police.
But inside the State House, the response is still cautious, and in some corners, bluntly negative
Rep. Ron Bolton, a Republican from Northport, has said the bigger issue is the damage that comes with problem gambling, especially for families that can’t absorb it.
He’s pointed to the reality that addiction doesn’t show up neatly in a budget spreadsheet. Instead, it shows up in households that suddenly can’t pay bills because gambling became a compulsion.
Bolton also downplayed the idea that sports betting revenue would meaningfully move the needle for Alabama’s finances. He argued that even a figure that sounds large gets swallowed once it hits a multibillion-dollar state budget, and that it won’t magically fix funding problems.
Other lawmakers say that same budget reality is exactly why the state keeps revisiting the idea
On the other hand, some lawmakers say the state should stop pretending sports betting doesn’t exist and put it to a public vote.
Rep. Sam Jones, a Democrat from Mobile who backed last year’s wider gambling push, has argued Alabama needs new revenue sources if it wants to keep up with core responsibilities like education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Rep. Andy Whitt, a Republican from Harvest, has said he’s open to legislation that brings sports betting “under control” through regulation and taxation, while also stressing that voters should have the final say.
“I am supportive of any legislation that we can do that brings this under control, that regulates it, that taxes it,” Whitt said, adding that a vote would give the public the final word.
Alabama’s broader gambling push and sentiments
Alabama has spent years circling broad gambling plans that often combine multiple elements, lottery, casinos, and sports betting, only for negotiations to collapse over scope, locations, and moral opposition. In 2024, a major package stalled after the Senate changed the proposal and the House did not move forward with it.
And in 2025, the outlook stayed shaky. Reporting at the time noted that a fresh proposal discussed in the Senate was still short of the votes needed to pass, despite revenue projections in the hundreds of millions of dollars depending on the final shape of the bill.
That’s the push-and-pull Alabama is dealing with right now. One side says the state is watching a market grow without any guardrails or tax benefit. The other side says the quickest route to “guardrails” is also the fastest way to expand access, and that the costs could outweigh whatever the state brings in.
Source: WRBL News
