State Sen. Gudger explains legal gambling vote in candid video to constituents – ‘set the record straight’ – Yellowhammer News

State Sen. Garlan Gudger, a member of the Alabama House-Senate conference committee on the 2024 legal gambling package and State Senator for Cullman dispelled the substance of a viral text chain circulated throughout his district over the weekend.

In an Instagram video to his 22.7k followers, Gudger (R-Cullman) said he wanted to “set the record straight” after the viral text accused he and proponents of the plan were “expanding government” and ultimately expanding gambling in the state.

Gudger voted yes on the plan when it was presented to the Senate after passing the House. In the video, he explained his vote, and walked constituents through his decision-making process. Below is the full video and transcript:

State Sen. Garlan Gudger: 

“Hey, guys. This is Senator Garlan Gudger. I wanted to come on Facebook and tell you about a chain text that is blowing my phone up today. I’m at work, and I took out a few minutes to be able to tell you my side of the story, and really set the record straight, because so many people have texted me about this particular chain message.

First of all, we don’t know who sent it out. If I ever do anything that’s important, my name will be behind it. If I believe in it, obviously, there’s no one that you can find out who sent this out. So number one, they’re hiding who they are. Number two, is that this chain text says I’m expanding government on a vote that I took on the gaming bill that just happened in Montgomery.

So, let’s go to that real quick. Let me tell you some facts on it very quickly: First is this was a lottery bill. And personally, my vote as a yes was so that you could have the vote to choose if you wanted the lottery.

Or if you didn’t want the lottery, the only thing that we were able to put the money towards is an educational lottery. And so I believe that you’re smart enough to know if you want it or not — I don’t need to be a dictator in Montgomery and tell you  this is what we’re gonna do. I wanted the vote to come back to the people now — I will always do that if I’m able to.

The second part of this is sports betting. A lot of people were talking to me saying we’re worried about sports betting, our college students or high school students are hitting sports betting $5, $10, $100 at a time, and their parents are getting a bill for $20,000 at the end of the month on their credit card. I don’t want to see that happen in Alabama.

And the people that are using this right now or offshore accounts in the Caymans and New York and everywhere else. It was not enough time, and education and data that we had to make a good clear decision on how to handle this. I do think it’ll come back. And I’m willing to dig into that when it comes down.

But we just didn’t have enough time to really dig into that information to make a vote on this particular bill. So, we have eliminated that from this particular bill. The third is casinos people say this had casinos built into this particular bill. But from that, we have over 60 bingo parlors in the state of Alabama right now that’s not including the illegal gaming that is in every county in the state of Alabama, 67 counties.

We went from over 60 bingo parlors down to seven. So, we shrunk the number of bingo parlors that were in the state of Alabama — and why did we even leave them in the bill to begin with? Because their representatives and their senators said that ‘this is our economic development’ in that particular county — they produce jobs, and they produce paychecks for people so they can go out and buy groceries and milk and diapers for their kids.

The reality is just not in our county [Cullman] and not in North Alabama. And so when we listen to our colleagues in the Legislature, we wanted to leave them. So, they had seven of the largest ones that were there. In the end, we allowed seven out of 60 bingo parlors and shrunk that size down put a net over on the sort of taxing them, so that all Alabamians would get a benefit from it.

We eliminated sports betting that everybody’s been worried about. And then the third, we gave an educational lottery back to the people so that they could vote for this: Yes or no. And it doesn’t matter how you voted, but you have the option to vote, not people in Montgomery like myself.

In the end, this chain text said we’re expanding government. The reason it says that is that we put an umbrella of a gaming commission with an enforcement arm underneath that umbrella to handle all gaming in the state of Alabama for the first time in Alabama’s history. So from that ‘growing government’, what it really was is enforcement of the bad actors and the bad people that are doing bad things in the state of Alabama and now they would have to answer to some one agency instead of two or three different agencies.

I believe in this bill. I’ve voted yes on it. I would vote yes again, because I think it’s the right thing to do for Alabama to create revenue to be able to handle the illegal gaming that is rapid in the state of Alabama and then taking those 16 Bingo powers down to seven. I think it’s the right thing to do for the state.”

Although the seal of approval from a House-Senate conference committee represents the furthest state lawmakers have gotten to placing the question of legal gambling back to the voters of Alabama since 1999, the two-bill package has stalled in the Senate.

When lawmakers adjourn on Tuesday, two days will remain in the 2024 state legislative session.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.