In the latest episode of the 1819 podcast API senior fellow J. Pepper Bryars reviewed what bills passed and failed during the recent session of the State Legislature with Todd Stacy of the Alabama Daily News. Bryars and Stacy offered insig ...
Looking at the Lottery Math
"Which is the most immoral," Governor Robert Bentley mused philosophically to the press last week, "buying five lottery tickets with money you earned or allowing a child to die?" A state lottery in Alabama is "the only real choice," he warned om ...
Alabama Needs Real Hope, Not a State Lottery
There are a number of policies, particularly those that stimulate economic growth, that are proven solutions to poverty. Just as easily identifiable are policies that exacerbate poverty. Sometimes these policies have good intentions of serving the po ...
State Lotteries and the Government’s Betrayal of the Poor
A lot has changed since 1890 when President Benjamin Harrison reminded citizens that lotteries "debauched and defrauded" the public. Today, however, state governments have become the biggest proponents of lotteries. In fact, forty-four states have su ...
Governor is Right to Take Gambling off the Table
Supporters of expanding gambling in Alabama often hype the opportunities missed by our state to "keep Alabama gambling dollars in Alabama." Given the economic and social damage that would come with establishing a compact with the Poarch Creek I ...
Increasing Gambling Isn’t the Answer to State Budget Woes
With spiraling mandatory spending and reduced tax revenues threatening to send one or both of the state's budgets into proration, the options of raising additional income by establishing a compact with the Poarch Creek Indians or legalizing a ...
Penalties for Illegal Gambling: Cost of Business or a Crime
If you wonder how much difference there is in the Alabama State Legislature between the old Democrat majority and the new Republican majority that was elected in 2010, take a look at the bills that are on the agenda. From the early 1990s through the ...