Alabama lottery bill fails in the House

The bill that would legalise a lottery in Alabama failed to gain the passage in the House.

US.- According to the House sponsor of the bill that would pave the way for a state lottery in Alabama, local voters won’t have the chance to decide if they want to legalise it or not at the polls in March 2020. Alabama is the only state in the US without a lottery besides Utah, Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska.

Representative Steve Clouse said that despite his efforts to gain votes on Tuesday night after the bill stalled, he couldn’t get enough on Wednesday to pass the bill. “The lottery is dead for this session,” said Clouse, chairman of the House General Fund budget committee. “Just can’t get an agreement to get to 63 votes,” he added, according to al.com.

Clouse commented that he only needed six or seven more votes to obtain the 63 needed to pass the constitutional amendment. He said that the opposition came from lawmakers that were against any type of gambling and those who wanted a lottery to feature electronic game machines in two other counties.

“I think the vast majority of the people in Alabama want to be able to vote on a paper lottery like is taking place in Tennessee and Georgia and Florida right now and soon to be Mississippi,” Clouse said.