00:00All right. So maybe 2026, we've discussed Alaska, maybe driving online sports betting soon. Who knows? Let's get to Alabama. Is there a chance? I mean, this seems like such a long shot that Alabama, amongst all the states that are left, that they're the ones in the South that are going to get this done this year.
00:16Oh, man. Yeah, you're spoiling the story here, Craig. There's a chance, but it's also a long shot. So how much of a chance really is it? There's been an effort to legalize sports betting in Alabama pretty much every year since they've been able to, which goes back all the way to 2018, which is crazy to think about was eight years ago.
00:35So they're going to try to break that eight-year streak once again this year. There's a bill, SB 257, which is now in the legislature. It's awaiting a hearing in the Senate Tourism Committee.
00:46Whether or not it actually moves is another whole different story. Alabama really doesn't have much gaming at all. So it's a lot easier to legalize sports betting if you're a state like New Jersey that had casinos forever, or Nevada, which has had in-person sports betting.
01:00Then you can just turn it online. Same with Mississippi, at least in theory. With Alabama, it's been a lot tougher because they don't even have a lottery. They don't have in-person casinos.
01:08They do have native tribes, which kind of throws a monkey wrench in the situation, too, complicates it even more because they want a piece.
01:15If this bill passed, it actually wouldn't legalize sports betting. It would allow voters to then choose if they want to legalize sports betting.
01:22So if the bill passes, it's signed by the governor, then voters would decide at the ballot next election whether or not they want sports betting to be legal.
01:31Then it would take even longer to actually do it. So it's a long shot that it happens quickly. It's less of a long shot that it happens at all, I would say.
01:38But the real holdup here has been the Senate just hasn't really wanted to negotiate sports betting at all.
01:43They don't think the votes are there. The leadership keeps saying. So it's not a situation, at least right now, where there's one group vehemently opposed to it happening.
01:52But it's kind of like lawmakers don't want to get each other on board unless they're confident that it'll pass.
01:57It's very strange sometimes how these legislatures work. They don't want to vote on something unless they know it's going to pass 100 percent.
02:04I don't know always why that is the case, but that's been the case in Alabama so far.
02:08So we'll see if there's any progress. We'll definitely be watching it. There's not a lot of other progress going on, as you mentioned, just Alaska really out there now.
02:15There's a similar effort in Hawaii. But voter referendum sounds promising if the voters or the public, rather, can kind of demonstrate that they really want this, whether it's calling their local senator,
02:27whether it's answering more polls that the SBA does down there or whatever.
02:31Maybe that could spur lawmakers in other action. But right now, it kind of seems to be the same story.
02:35It's been for the last couple of years, which is just, hey, we don't really have a huge reason to be doing this.
02:40We're kind of fine with it. Now, if we want to talk about prediction markets and whether that'll spur them to get the tax revenue,
02:45that's a whole nother story. But we'll see if that changes anything this year as well.
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