BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – A new and exclusive poll of likely Republican primary voters in Alabama finds 71% support expanding gambling in the state, provided the money derived from it goes to support education and healthcare.
The Gray Television/Alabama Daily News poll conducted by Cygnal surveyed more than 500 likely GOP primary voters on the question: “Would you support or oppose a proposal to institute a state lottery, expand and regulate casino gambling, and allow sports betting with tax proceeds funding state needs like education and healthcare?”
71% of those surveyed either somewhat or strongly support the idea, while 20.5% oppose it, and 7.3% neither support or oppose.
“Above 70% support, and these are just Republican voters, support for a gambling proposal, that’s a significantly high number,” said Alabama Daily News Publisher and Capitol Journal Host Todd Stacy.
“We really just wanted an unvarnished base test of where voters are, but it is a significant result. Remember it’s the Republican legislature that’s ultimately going to be deciding whether or not it goes to voters, so at the very least they can see it’s not a political risk that it may have been 10-15 years ago.”
What’s changed? Stacy said Governor Ivey’s popularity and making this specific proposal a big part of her legislative agenda gives this proposal more momentum than the last major gaming push that passed the Senate but died in the House in 2021.
“This year’s different,” Stacy says. “Everybody heard the State of the State where, near the top of the speech, the governor endorsed not just the idea of gambling, but this specific proposal that house members are putting together. That changes everything. Sometimes it takes a governor to really be pushing it, to be out there in front. So I do think that’s a decisive factor this time around that’s in favor of a gambling proposal actually passing.”
According to Cygnal’s analysis of the poll results, “there is broad support for casino gambling and sports betting among Republicans under the age of 65 and moderate GOP voters. But 30% percent of 4/4 Republican primary voters (those who have voted in 4 of the last 4 GOP primaries) and 41% of extremely conservative voters are opposed.”
“These are your base Republicans, these are the most reliable voting block that support the GOP,” Stacy said. “Also they probably remember the gambling wars of old. They probably remember the casino battles, the bingo battles going back to the 90′s and 2000′s, so they probably are more steeped in that history. I do think this proposal is going to see significant opposition. You’ve got the Alabama Policy Institute, the conservative think tank, out there with reports and polling trying to convince the legislature not to move forward on expanded gambling. You’ve got ALFA out there affirming their decades-long opposition to expanded gambling. Those are influential groups in the state, and there are others. It’s not going to be an easy ride. These are, at the end of the day, conservative lawmakers, and they’re going to listen to the most conservative voters and groups.”
The gambling proposal polls better amongst this group of GOP voters than does the Education Savings Account (ESA) proposal legislators are also considering, that is also one of the highest-profile bills under consideration this session. The plan to redirect some public tax dollars to a school of a family’s choice, be it public or private, got support from 59% of these voters, while 17% opposed, and 22% chose “neither” or “unsure.”
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