Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville said this week he would not block legal gambling in Alabama if elected governor Nov. 3, but any expansion would need to come as a single, comprehensive package developed with the governor’s office.
Tuberville said on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” that he’s not a gambler but “I want to do what the people of Alabama want to do, and I told people that I’m not going to stand in the way of it.” He said the issue should go before voters in a referendum.
Alabama has repeatedly failed to legalize sports betting or a state lottery, with a 2024 package falling one vote short in the state Senate. The 2027 legislative session opens Feb. 2.
Tuberville wants to ‘do it right’
The former college football coach, now a U.S. senator, said the governor’s office “should be on top of everything in terms of how it’s all put together” when it comes to legalizing and regulating gambling.
Tuberville called Alabama’s medical marijuana rollout a “disaster” and said he does not want to repeat those mistakes. Lawsuits over the licensing process kept medical cannabis products off shelves for more than four years, according to Yellowhammer News.
“Let’s do it right. Let’s don’t have to go back and change this or that,” Tuberville said. “Put it all together, whether it’s lottery, whether it’s casinos. I don’t care what it is.”
Tuberville said he is not interested in rolling the dice on a “piece by piece” approach. He estimated it would take “a year or so” to put a full package together.
Past attempts of legalization
Gambling expansion has stalled in Alabama for years.
The House passed a package in 2024 that included a lottery, casinos and sports betting, but it died in the Senate after senators stripped it down and the compromise fell one vote short.
Sen. Greg Albritton, who first pushed sports betting in 2022, returned with a comprehensive bill in 2025 but acknowledged the votes were still not there. Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, a Republican, declared sports betting dead two months into the session.
No gambling bill advanced in the 2026 session.
