The Alabama fantasy sports bill proposal was turned down on Friday, May 19th. After a strong fight to provide Alabama residents with legalized and regulated paid-entry fantasy sports betting in the state, bill H354 was rejected without even seeing a vote.
This result and lack of a vote isn’t too surprising after the debate in the House were noticeably argumentative and barely passed through to the chamber. It was so controversial that one state representative threatened to call out everybody in the room whom he knew had participated in gambling on Alabama and Auburn football games.
This isn’t the first time that state legislation has attempted to pass an Alabama fantasy sports bill as they also were denied in 2016. Since then, a lot of the fantasy sports industry has exited the state of Alabama and a lot of this came after Attorney General Luther Strange told the big name fantasy sites of DraftKings and FanDuel to cease and desist their business in the state.
After legalizing fantasy sports in New York, Mississippi, and Tennessee in 2016, the industry was hopeful it could add Alabama as well but you can’t win them all.
Legal Fantasy Sports In 2017:
The state of legal fantasy sports in 2017 hasn’t nearly been as successful as 2016 but there is still plenty of time for that to change. Eight states passed legal fantasy sports laws in 2016 and so far in 2017, just Arkansas has been added to that list. There are several states in the process of attempting to legalize fantasy sports but they are all in the early stages.
That being said, there are also states that have experienced failed bills as well like Florida and Texas. There has been a proposal for legal fantasy sports gambling in Illinois but there has been almost no movement as far as a decision but residents are still hopeful they can get something done soon.
Other states including Vermont and Ohio are attempting to get legislation passed as well but it just seems like the push to get fantasy sports legalized isn’t as apparent as it was a year ago. Again, it’s only May, a lot can change for sports betting in Alabama in the back half of 2017.