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This was not the Alabama sports betting news that people were hoping for. Over the last few months, lawmakers and officials had been working around the clock to try and get things across the line for legal wagers. This winter, it seemed like things were moving in the right direction and there was general optimism that the green light would be given. Now, though, we know that won’t be the case, as Alabama sports betting won’t move forward in 2024.
Great, now what? It’s officially back to square one for Alabama officials. According to a report, the state has decided to move forward with a gambling bill, but sports betting and table games were not included in the package. There was some belief that both sports betting and table games would get approved, but the decision-makers decided to go in a different direction, which is a major bummer.
It’s a positive step that Alabama is getting things done from a gambling standpoint, but countless people are left quite angry knowing that legal sports betting has been delayed. Now, the efforts will be shifted to 2025, but there’s speculation that things might get pushed back to either 2026 or 2027. If things don’t arrive until 2027, it will be the worst-case scenario for Alabama as a whole.
What has hurt Alabama here is that plenty of Republicans are against sports betting arriving in the state. However, we’ve seen how strong betting revenues have been across the United States. Plenty of the southern states have been behind in getting sports betting finalized, but the hope was that the early success in Florida would encourage people to try and get this project over the line. That won’t happen, not this year at least.
Update on Alabama gaming bills.
Reminder, no sports betting included in the legislation. Lottery and slot machines. https://t.co/tcDlBNsvCD
— RLinnehanXL (@RLinnehanXl) May 2, 2024
What’s next for the Alabama sports betting push?
What’s next for the Alabama sports betting push? This is a question that loads of folks are asking themselves, as things are quite unclear now. It felt like this was going to be the year where history would be made in the state, especially with the bill being passed by the Alabama House in February. However, there was worry that things would run into problems once they reached the state Senate.
This has proven to be the case, as all hope was derailed earlier this month. Alabama indeed has been working tirelessly to approve legal sports betting for a while, but things have never been able to get past the Senate. People were hoping this wouldn’t be the case in 2024, but it ended up happening. Now, a new sports betting bill is going to have to be drawn up, but this is a process that’s going to take a long time. Because of that, people are down in the dumps over this latest news.
𝐍𝐁𝐀 𝐀𝐥𝐥-𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐞 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦
Congrats to our guy Brandon Miller! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/pz4cl7UnHz
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) May 20, 2024
As we’ve seen time and time again, Alabama is missing out on strong betting revenue potential. This past March and April, people were quite upset that they weren’t able to take advantage of March Madness betting. The Alabama Crimson Tide men’s team went on a deep NCAA Tournament run, which was a ton of fun for everyone to see. However, if fans wanted to place bets on the program, they had to do so out of state or through an illegal option.
This is something that lawmakers and officials were hoping to have changed by the time the tournament arrived in 2025, but that’s not going to be the case. Moving forward, officials are going to have to try and put together a new sports betting bill to get things across the line. The hope is that maybe March Madness betting will be on the board sooner rather than later, but it’s unknown at this time when things will get done.
No legal football betting this fall will be a major issue for Alabama
It goes without saying, but no legal football betting this fall will be a major issue for Alabama and its fans. While there is no pro NFL team in the state, people are always checking the NFL betting odds to see how teams from the south are shaping up. The Atlanta Falcons are surely a time that people pay a lot of attention to.
At the college level, however, both the University of Alabama and Auburn University are SEC powerhouses that people all over the state love to watch. The issue here, however, is that supporters of those two teams were hoping that legal wagers would be on the docket once the new campaign arrived. Both Alabama and Auburn are looking to turn a lot of heads from the moment the season gets started come Week 1.
However, if those fans want to make that happen, they’ll indeed need to either leave the state or get their bets in through an illegal bookie or an off-shore account. This is something that continues to be an issue for the state and Alabama officials are tired of it being a consistent problem. Now, though, we’re going to have to wait until at least 2025 for some good news to potentially get here.
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