This week’s update is a little different because the Alabama Legislature is on Spring Break. They return next week (March 29) with only 7 legislative days left to do business.
Instead of focusing on such important bills as the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP bills HB150 and SB184), which protect children from parents who want to change their child’s sexual appearance, and SB324 which prohibits marijuana dispensaries (once they are up and running) from selling marijuana to pregnant women [Click here for information], it appears that all the Alabama Legislature has time for is pushing gambling.
Though legislators are not at the State House this week, go ahead and send them emails and letters, and call if you have their phone numbers. Let them know that you are opposed to gambling expansion in this state. Don’t listen to their rhetoric about how the bills will restrict gambling because that is simply not true.
Sen. Greg Albritton’s bill, SB293, will result in a state-sponsored lottery, a total of 8 full-fledged casinos, 2 satellite casinos (10 in total), and sports betting in the casinos and online. Rep. Chip Brown’s “lottery only” bill (HB501) will result in lottery ticket outlets at every convenience store in Alabama and possibly Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs), which are nothing more than slot machines, in convenience stores and grocery stores throughout the state.
Most of the lottery tickets will end up in the trash cans and landfills of this great state while more homes are torn apart and more lives are destroyed. Both bills actually call for money to be designated for problem gamblers (an indication that the legislators know the number of problem gamblers in Alabama will increase substantially).
Let me give you a little lesson concerning the odds of a person purchasing a winning lottery ticket:
- The odds of winning a Standard Lotto are 1 in 14 million (an average golfer is more likely to get 1,100 holes-in-one than they are to win a Standard Lottery jackpot).
- The odds of winning a PowerBall Lottery are 1 in 175 million.
- The odds of winning a Megamillions Lottery are 1 in 260 million! A person’s odds of winning a jackpot in this lottery are so bad that you are FAR more likely to be killed by an asteroid!
Yet, State Legislators want to lure you, the citizens they are constitutionally supposed to be protecting from fraudulent businesses, into throwing away your money on pieces of paper that will likely end up in the trash can. If legislators were on the payroll for a major investment firm, they would go to jail for decades if they suggested or invested their clients’ money this way.
And, the media seems to be complicit in this fraudulent scam. They report only on the big winners in other states and never tell the stories of gambling addicts whose lives have been destroyed. They interview people who drive to other states occasionally, without reporting that far more people will gamble, and they will gamble more money if the lottery ticket outlets and/or casinos are in their own neighborhoods.
Remember that all the money that legislators tout as coming to the state through gambling will be coming out of the pockets of the citizens of Alabama! Do people in Alabama already gamble? Yes. But they will gamble a whole lot more if gambling is legalized and outlets and casinos are put in their neighborhoods. Also, illegal gambling will not stop and corruption will become an even greater problem in this state.
ACTIONS TO TAKE:
1) We need to stop this insanity! Call your State Representative today and let him/her know that you OPPOSE HB501 (the “Lottery Only Bill”) and call your State Senator to let him/her know that you OPPOSE SB293 (the “Lottery, Casino, Sports Betting & Online Sports Betting Bill”).
2) Ask your State Representative to SUPPORT HB150 and/or SB184 (the “VCAP Bills”). Also, contact Speaker of the House, Rep. Mac McCutcheon and ask him to allow these bills to come to the floor for debate and a vote. Also, call Governor Ivey’s office and ask her to encourage a vote on the VCAP Bill.
3) Ask your State Senator to SUPPORT SB324 (the “Marijuana During Pregnancy Bill”). Also, contact Governor Ivey’s office and Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth’s office and ask them to allow this bill to advance before time runs out on this Legislative Session.
For more information visit alcap.com and StopPredatoryGambling.org.
PRESIDENT AND CEO JOE GODFREY ON ABC 33/40
Friday afternoon, President and CEO, Dr. Joe Godfrey, was interviewed by ABC 33/40 news in Birmingham about the new lottery only bill introduced in the House last week. Click the image above to watch the video to learn how a state sponsored lottery would harm the state and its citizens.