Senate approves lottery bill in Alabama
Senate Bill 220 is set to put the question before voters of whether they want a state lottery or not.
US.- The Alabama State Senate passed late last week a constitutional amendment that calls for a statewide vote on a lottery. Senate Bill 220 puts the question of establishing a lottery on the ballot in next March’s presidential primary.
The bill passed 21-12, which was the minimum required to obtain a Senate passage. The vote came after more than three hours of floor debate and deliberation over the lottery bill amendment.
Sen. Greg Albritton, who sponsored the bill, said: “I’m pleased, a little surprised, and grateful it’s over,” Albritton said. “I came in fully anticipating this to be a very, very close vote, but we never had 21 votes in our head counts. I hope the House takes it as it is. I took a number of amendments, but most of those were supporting the direction we wanted to move.”
Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, co-sponsor of the bill, added: “We’ve been working on this bill and talking to people about the lottery issue for some weeks,” Marsh said. “Our job is to get something out that has a chance to get to the people. That’s was my goal today and I think we did that.”
The money collected from lottery operations would be destined to repay the Alabama Trust Fund US$184 million that was transferred to the General Fund to balance the state budgets in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
