There was more than $1.5 billion spent at south Mississippi casinos in 2025.
I’m going to pause here and allow you to truly think about that.
I hope, if you’re an Alabama lawmaker reading this, that you’re spending that moment thinking about the number of cars with Alabama license plates that are routinely parked in those south Mississippi casino parking lots. How many of those visitors to those south Mississippi casinos would probably much prefer the far more popular destinations in Alabama, where a major interstate helps tourists from all over America vacation.
You might also spend some time considering all of the money that’s being lost – to freakin’ Mississippi.
In public comments recently, both of the guys who control the flow of legislation to the Alabama House and Senate – Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger – have said it’s unlikely, again, that gambling legislation advances far in this legislative session. Ledbetter has declined to start the gambling process after his members pushed through a very good, very thorough bill two sessions ago only to have it upended in the Senate by a group of senators who were dead set on undermining it. Gudger has simply said that he’s not sure if the votes are there this year.
And so, another billion or so in lost tax revenue will walk out of the state.
Make no mistake – it is absolutely lost revenue. Because Alabama has all of the gambling that Mississippi has, it’s just untaxed and mostly unregulated.
We have three very legal Native American casinos operated in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. They are wildly successful. The state collects zero dollars in taxes on the gambling revenue they generate. (The Poarch Creeks pay lots of other taxes in the state, but federal law dictates not on gaming.)
Even with that advantage, the Poarch Creeks have been supportive in recent years of gambling expansion that would bring them increased competition. That legislation would also have allowed them to expand and grow more rapidly, and would have allowed the state to better regulate gaming all over Alabama.
Because it is, indeed, all over Alabama.
There are long-time gambling establishments in Shorter (VictoryLand), Birmingham (The Birmingham Race Course), Mobile (Mobile Greyhound Park) and Greene County (all sorts of small electronic bingo facilities). The locations in Shorter, Birmingham and Mobile all operate historical horse racing machines, which have been deemed legal by the state, and along with pari-mutuel wagering on dog and horse racing, generate the state’s only sources of in-person gambling tax revenue. They have all also long been operating within the state, are owned by reputable, respected people, and have a history of compliance, which is why those locations are typically included in any proposed gaming legislation.
The only other source of gambling tax revenue comes from mobile wagering on daily fantasy sports apps. Those offerings have expanded from the basic selections of fantasy teams to all manner of player prop bets (over/under points, yards, rebounds, assists, etc.).
And then we get into all of the illegal gambling.
In sports betting alone, Alabamians gambled more than $2 billion in 2023. In 2024, during the NCAA basketball tournament, Alabamians attempted to access Tennessee online sportsbooks nearly 200,000 times. Last year, it was estimated that nearly a half-billion dollars was gambled by Alabamians on the Super Bowl.
Not a dime from any of that gambling found its way into state coffers. Almost all of it was wagered on unregulated off-shore websites. Which state authorities are powerless to stop.
But the “illegal” gaming doesn’t stop there. In every county in this state, there is an illegal casino operating. In most of them, they offer some sort of slot machine or electronic bingo gambling.
Some cities in the state are actually issuing gaming licenses to these casinos, which are operating with the full knowledge of local authorities. In some cases, it has been alleged (quite convincingly) that the local authorities have an ownership stake.
I have heard stories of these illegal casinos, which are thoroughly unregulated and unmonitored, laundering money for all sorts of nefarious purposes and bad actors. These are the people who rig sports and operate loan shark businesses. Some of our state schools have been caught up in this nonsense.
And do you know how those schemes were uncovered?
Through regulated casinos and sportsbooks providing clear, audited records to authorities and investigators, who comb through the data to look for patterns. That’s how they get busted every time.
Honestly, what Alabama is doing right now is incredibly irresponsible. And anyone who tells you otherwise is either so out of touch with reality or so in the bag for out-of-state gaming interests that they shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Gambling is everywhere. It’s all over Alabama. It’s readily available on any mobile device. And since every major sports league in the world has now partnered with various gaming companies, there is zero chance that we’re ever going to reel this back in.
The only responsible thing to do at this point is pass legislation that authorizes legal gaming in the state, allows for sports wagering through reputable companies with strong reporting standards and that’s willing to allow state oversight, and implements a statewide lottery. Along with that, the first revenue generated should go towards a regulatory body that has the authority to police illegal gambling around Alabama and fund programs that address gambling addiction and responsible gambling practices.
Because let me put this in perspective.
Not only is Mississippi stealing hundreds of millions of our tourist dollars every year, they’re also using those dollars to pay for a variety of projects around the state and properly regulating gambling in Mississippi, shutting down illegal operators, providing counseling services for problem gamblers and prosecuting bad actors.
Even Mississippi is doing this better.
