HB152 Alabama 2024 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Chris BlackshearRepresentative

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2024

Title

Alabama Gaming Commission, established, duties provided for; casino-style games, sports wagering, and lottery games, regulated; gambling offenses, further provided

Summary

HB152 creates a comprehensive Alabama Gaming Control Act, establishing a state Gaming Commission to regulate casino-style gaming, sports wagering, charitable gaming, and lotteries, and a separate Alabama Lottery Corporation to run a state lottery with education funding.

What This Bill Does

It creates the Alabama Gaming Commission and its Gaming Enforcement Division to license, regulate, tax, and police gaming activities in Alabama. It authorizes seven casino-style gaming establishments through open competition, with specific site reservations and local approvals, plus a compact-based license for Poarch Band of Creek Indians and related gaming provisions. It imposes a 24% tax on casino-style gaming net revenues and a 17% tax on sports wagering net revenues, distributing funds to a Gaming Trust Fund and to counties, municipalities, and education-related programs, including nonprofit allocations. It also creates the Alabama Lottery Corporation to operate a state lottery with a Lottery Proceeds Fund and a Lottery Education Fund to support education programs, scholarships, and other public needs, along with anticorruption measures, audits, penalties, and local approval requirements; and it would repeal certain outdated gambling laws if the constitutional amendment is not ratified.

Who It Affects

• Casino-style gaming establishments, operators, gaming services providers, and their employees/contractors, who would be licensed, taxed, regulated, and subject to compliance, reporting, and penalties.
• Alabama residents, counties, municipalities, and education-related interests, who would experience local approvals, tax distributions, funding for education and public services, and potential impacts on local governance and law enforcement.

Key Provisions

• Establishment of the Alabama Gaming Commission and a Gaming Enforcement Division with authority to license, regulate, enforce, and police casino-style gaming, sports wagering, charitable gaming, and traditional raffles/bingos.
• Licensing framework for seven gaming establishments with fixed site reservations, competitive bidding, suitability standards, minimum capital investment (initially $35 million), and license terms (initial term of up to 15 years, with adjustments).
• Tax structure imposing 24% of net casino-style gaming revenues and 17% of net sports wagering revenues, with distributions to the Gaming Trust Fund, counties and municipalities (pro rata), and specific allocations for nonprofit organizations and law enforcement; online sports wagering included with separate rules.
• Creation of the Alabama Lottery Corporation to operate the state lottery, including the Lottery Proceeds Fund and Lottery Education Fund to fund education programs, scholarships, dual enrollment costs, and other specified non-recurring education needs.
• Anticorruption and enforcement measures, including campaign finance prohibitions for gaming-related interests, strict suitability and conflict-of-interest rules for commissioners and executives, civil penalties, and an enforcement division empowered to investigate and prosecute violations.
• Local approvals and a process for local referenda or resolutions to authorize gaming establishments, plus provisions concerning the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in a potential gaming compact and associated licensing.
• Conditional repeal: if the constitutional amendment does not ratify, HB152 would be repealed and other related provisions adjusted per the act.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Gaming