Millions of Americans are problem gamblers – so why do so few people ever seek treatment?

  The opportunity to gamble has moved from a trip to Vegas, to a drive to a local casino, to the phone in your pocket. And if you’re a sports fan, nudges to place bets have become nearly impossible to ignore, with sports gambling ads and promos routinely appearing on TV, social media, sports radio, and in arenas.

  The stunning expansion of sports wagering following decades of casino expansion certainly gives any rational person reason to pause.

Access to sports betting in the US has exploded since 2018 – and we’re just starting to learn about the effects

  For most of U.S. history, sports betting was rare.

  Some people certainly bet on sports illegally via a bookie, or placed bets in the few places where it was legal, such as Nevada.

  However, gambling policy took a sharp turn in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that each state had the right to legalize or prohibit sports wagering as they saw fit.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Will legislature allow Alabamians to vote on gambling revenue?

  In 1998, Don Siegelman ran for Governor of Alabama on a platform of proposing that his administration would enact legislation creating a state lottery. It would be patterned after Georgia’s lottery, which gives the bulk of the proceeds to an educational fund. That was over two decades ago.  

  Our neighboring state of Georgia has reaped billions of dollars from their lottery in the last three decades, which has allowed them to outdistance us by a country mile in educating their children. A good many of those Georgia students attend college in their state free under the Hope Scholarship Program funded with these lottery dollars. A substantial amount of these funds going to Georgia students come from Alabamians who buy Georgia lottery tickets.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Stellar group studying gambling in the state

  Another legislative session has passed and Alabama still has no lottery. Actually, the Alabama Legislature does not in itself have the authority to pass a state lottery; lawmakers can only authorize a ballot initiative to let you vote on a lottery. It requires a constitutional amendment.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - The Phenix City story

  There are very few Alabamians left who remember the 1950s story of Phenix City, Alabama. After World War II, a good many of the military soldiers, enlisted men, stayed on for a while.  A host of them was stationed at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia. As many of you know, Columbus, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama are essentially the same city. They are only separated by a bridge and the Chattahoochee River.

  Phenix City figured that these soldiers needed some entertainment, so our border city became the poor man’s Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico rolled into one. Phenix City became known as the most sinful place in America. It was openly run by a tough redneck mafia that made the New York mafia look like choir boys.

Craig Ford: When we vote this summer for a U.S. Senator, why not vote on a lottery, too?

  This week, Governor Ivey made the tough decision to hold the special election for our U.S. Senator this summer instead of waiting until next year's elections, as Governor Bentley had planned to do.

  This was not an easy choice to make. It is estimated that a special election will cost the state about $15 million.

  But if we also put a lottery on the same ballot as the U.S. Senate race, we can resolve two major issues for the price of one and take partisan concerns out of the equation.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1548: The time is upon us!

  The time is upon us. It comes every year like clockwork. It commenced February 7, 2017 this year. It will go until mid-May. The obstacle will be great. The challenges will be gigantic. The results will fall short. It’s the 2017 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.

  Even after 33 years, I can’t tell you all or most of the issues that will come before the 2017 Alabama Legislative Session. I can tell you two for certain. I can tell you others with a great degree of certainty. I can predict others, but predictions are worth very little in this legislative narrative. It’s the 2017 Legislative Session.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: What's next for gaming in Alabama?

  During the past couple of months, everywhere I go people continually ask me why in the world the Alabama Legislature could not simply put the issue of whether they could vote for or against a lottery on the November ballot.

  The fact that this inquiry has lingered for this long tells me that folks are upset about this travesty. They are angry at the legislature. The blame, however, lies with the governor.

  Indeed, the legislature met in a special session to address this issue of whether or not to put the lottery proposal on the ballot and let the people vote on this lingering issue. Most polls indicate that the good people of Alabama would vote in favor of it, provided that there are no sweetheart deals, hidden chicanery or favoritism in the proposal.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Gearing up for Alabama politics in 2017

  While the presidential race played out this year, several things happened in Alabama politics that went under the radar.

  First, a federal appeals court upheld the Alabama Legislature’s measure that bans PAC to PAC transfers. The new Republican legislative majority that marched into the Statehouse in 2011 set out to destroy and bury the last bastion of Democratic power in the state – the once omnipotent Alabama Education Association. They succeeded.

Craig Ford: VictoryLand reopening is a victory for democracy

  I have always believed that gambling is an issue that should be decided by the voters. And I will never understand why, in the middle of the biggest economic recession our country has seen since the Great Depression, our state leaders chose to put hundreds of people out of work and shut down legally operating casinos throughout the state.

  The legal battles that followed have cost the taxpayers millions of dollars and cost the state millions more in lost revenue that would have been coming in from the taxes paid by these casinos and their employees.

Craig Ford: Another missed opportunity to vote on the lottery

  Another legislative session has come and gone, and the Republican leadership in Montgomery has still not allowed lottery or casino legislation to come up for a vote.

  Every year the Republican leadership tells us they need more money to fund the budget, but they refuse to consider the most popular revenue-raising tool we could have. (I would argue the lottery is the only popular way we could raise revenue.)

  A lottery and casino gambling are “voluntary taxes.” If you don’t want to pay it, don’t play it. And it sure beats the $86 million in new taxes on medicine and nursing home beds that the Republicans passed last year, or transferring more money out of education, like the $80 million they transferred out of the education budget last year.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1506: The squeeze of reality

  It was all coming to a head. I knew I would have to play a role. I did not expect to play the central role. I did not want to play any role. However, new realities moved in from several directions. Sometimes the squeeze of reality makes us do what we don’t want to do.

  It’s the Greene County gaming constitutional amendment, masquerading as a local constitutional amendment. It is not local and would have a far-reaching impact across the state. I had to step into a central role. Sometimes the squeeze of reality makes us do what we don’t want to do.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1505: Right and wrong vs. Senate customs

  What do we do when we are caught between institutional customs and right and wrong? I am facing such a dilemma at this very moment. The institutional customs of the Alabama Senate says that one senator does not get involved in another senator’s local legislation except to vote yes or no. On its face, that is as clear as black and white.

  The issue is electronic bingo, which the Alabama Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down. If a bingo bill affects only one particular county, it is clear where customs stop and a question of right or wrong begins. When that is the case, there is no question to ask and no answer to make. That is as clear as black and white.

Craig Ford: When ideology becomes idolatry

  We need to leave behind the idolatry of ideology and get back to what our country was founded on: Putting aside differences and coming together for a compromise that benefits everyone.

  There’s a fine line between standing up for your principles and political extremism. These days, unfortunately, political extremism seems to be the standard. There’s no clearer example of this than the reaction Alabama House Majority Leader Micky Hammon (R-Decatur) to House Democrats’ legislative agenda last week.

Darrio Melton: Alabama Republicans can't keep fighting a fictional war against Obama

  If you've turned on a TV lately, you might have caught Senator Richard Shelby's latest TV ads featuring him driving a Ford Explorer through the Alabama country roads and talking about how he fights Obama in Washington every day. Sound familiar?

  Senator Shelby isn't the only Alabama politician who prioritizes fighting President Obama, and the sentiment is echoed loudly and frequently throughout the Alabama Legislature. The sentiment also creates problems when it comes to fixing our budget woes and putting Alabama back on track for a successful future.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Conservative Alabama is nonetheless a welfare state

  It is common knowledge that the Indian casinos in Alabama and throughout the country are granted federal sovereignty and are not subject to state intervention and authority. Several years ago state attorney general Luther Strange filed a hail Mary frivolous lawsuit against PCI Gaming Authority for political posturing purposes. The federal district court in Montgomery took about three weeks to rule against the state.

Craig Ford: Robbing our children is not the answer

  Legislators return to Montgomery next week, and one of the bills that has been introduced would combine the state's education and general fund budgets. I think that would be a disaster for our state, and here's why:

  Robbing our children is not the answer.

Craig Ford: Our governor should stop playing games

  Two weeks ago, Gov. Robert Bentley surprised everyone when he called the special legislative session. Legislators had expected the governor to wait until mid-August to call the session, but the governor said he wanted to use “the element of surprise” and take pressure off legislators over the gambling issue.

  The people of Alabama expect their leaders to work together, and Governor Bentley’s use of “the element of surprise,” as he chose to put it, is not in the spirit of that. The reason this crisis wasn’t solved during the regular legislative session is because House and Senate Republicans wouldn’t work together, and neither of them wanted to work with the governor. Legislators and the governor need to be able to work together during this special session, and that can’t happen when state leaders decide to play political games.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The VictoryLand revival

  Last week’s verdict that VictoryLand be allowed to reopen is justice served. The people of Macon County voted for a constitutional amendment to allow for electronic bingo. The issue of pari-mutuel style casino betting and the closing of the ultramodern and successful luxury gaming resort in Macon County has been laid to rest.

  There have been extensive studies and articles that crystallize several obvious observations. First of all, gambling or gaming is an extremely profitable venture, and it is apparent that most Alabamians and Americans gamble whether it be online, through a bookie, or via a lottery. By the way, 48 of the 50 states receive revenue from gambling. Alabama and Utah are the only states that do not.

Craig Ford: Alabama needs a real answer to the gambling question

  Decisions made by the government and high profile court rulings consumed the news last week. Most of the breaking news has centered on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions. But there is one court ruling that hasn’t gotten as much attention, and it’s just as important to the people of Alabama because it has such a huge impact on the future of our state.

  Late last week, an Alabama circuit judge ruled that the state was wrong to “cherry-pick” the casinos it prosecuted (and I think “persecuted” would be more accurate), and that the state must return all the seized money and bingo machines. The case was brought by VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, and the judge’s ruling means that VictoryLand is once again free to open its doors.