This is an opinion.

The first thing to understand about gambling in Alabama is that our lawmakers, for the most part, aren’t opposed to gambling.

Not against casinos, nor a lottery.

And that might strike you as odd, seeing as how Alabama has neither of those things. But in the cross-purpose politics of Alabama, the reason we don’t have gambling is that so many folks are for it — just not all for the same kind.

Democrats and a handful of Republicans are for one kind of gambling, which benefits Alabama dog tracks and video bingo halls.

The bulk of Republicans are for another, which benefits the Poarch Creek Indians.

It’s an impasse that has lasted for nearly 20 years.

But that might be about to change.

Democrat gambling

Before he died last year, Milton McGregor was Alabama’s gambling magnate. If you’re curious how someone gets the title “magnate” the best answer I can offer is a story the late Tuskeegee newspaper publisher Paul Davis told me.

McGregor had once reverse-pickpocketed him, Davis said.

Davis and his wife had attended a media event at McGregor’s Victoryland casino in Shorter. As they were leaving, they ran into McGregor who gave Davis a boisterous pat and asked whether they’d had a good time.

When he took off his pants before bed that night, Davis said, he found $500 in his pocket.

(Davis told me he applied the money to McGregor’s next advertising bill.)

McGregor was a bigger-than-life character you’d only find in Alabama. His suits were stylish, but never quite fit right. His helmet of hair looked as though it might repel gunfire.

And he was generous with his wealth, especially with politicians. To many — mostly Democrats — he gave campaign donations. Others got conspicuously lucky playing the bingo machines at Victoryland.

For much of his time as a magnate, McGregor pushed lawmakers to loosen the state’s gambling laws — hard enough that he once faced (and beat) federal corruption charges. But his acquittal on those charges in 2012 was McGregor’s last clear victory in a long political war with Republicans leaders, especially former Gov. Bob Riley, and the Poarch Creek Indians who backed them.

Since his death last year, folks like me have been waiting for the PCI faction of Montgomery lawmakers to finally subdue what was left of McGregor’s faction and win the war of attrition.

On Thursday, they’ll make their move.

Republican gambling

How the Poarch Creek Indians fit into Alabama’s gambling debate involves an innavigable mess of legal minutiae and tribal law I’d rather not get lost in.

What matters more right now is outcomes — and Alabama’s bottom line.

A lottery bill sponsored by state Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, has PCI support. The bill would allow Alabamians to vote for a paper-only lottery that would exclude electronic gambling machines elsewhere in the state.

However, such a lottery would constitute Class III gaming in Alabama which, because of that mess of legal minutiae, would allow PCI to negotiate a compact with Alabama, which in turn could allow more conventional casino-style gambling at their bingo halls.

But only on tribal lands, and there’s the thing: It would give PCI a huge competitive edge — some say a monopoly — over other existing gambling operations in Alabama.

Potentially with a much smaller, if any, tax benefit to Alabama.

What’s more — and this isn’t likely to go over well with voters — the bill would put lottery revenue into the Alabama Trust Fund and General Fund, which pays for roads and prisons and stuff, not education.

But last year, PCI gave more than $1 million in campaign contributions in Alabama, including $40,000 to Albritton and $30,000 to state Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh, and that money seems to be having its desired effect. Marsh has said he wants Albritton’s lottery bill on the floor for a vote this week.

And this time, Milton McGregor won’t be there to stop them.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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