Share 
Former college football coach and Senator Tommy Tuberville will likely win the election as Alabama’s 55th Governor, says he will not block a legal gambling bill if it passes the legislature and lands on his desk.
Alabama has tried numerous times to legalize sports betting, with the last attempt falling one vote shy in the Senate in 2024. With the 2027 legislative session opening on February 27, lawmakers can tee up another bill for consideration in Tuberville’s first year in office.
Tuberville wants an omnibus bill
Should Tuberville reach the governor’s mansion, he would prefer that the legislature work with the governor’s office on a bill that includes other budgetary items. He was clear that he does not want to piecemeal the issue of sports betting:
“Let’s do it right. Let’s don’t have to go back and change this or that. Put it all together, whether it’s lottery, whether it’s casinos. I don’t care what it is.”
Tuberville also decried Alabama’s medical marijuana rollout, which he deemed a ‘disaster’ that he does not want to repeat. Any comprehensive framework would likely need to address strict state oversight, consumer protection, and responsible gambling funding to ensure public safety measures are properly baked into the legislation from day one.
Failure defines Alabama’s attempts to legalize sports betting
Alabama legislators are acutely familiar with the state’s repeated failure to adopt legal sports betting legislation.
A sports betting bill fell one vote short in 2024 after a number of amendments stripped the language down from the original bill text. During the 2026 session, lawmakers did not even attempt to craft a bill that would legalize sports betting in the state.
