Staff Report
MONTGOMERY—Attorney General Luther Strange announced that the Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics and Elections Committee of the Alabama Senate has approved Senate Bill 446, legislation advocated by the Attorney General to fight illegal gambling.
“I am pleased that this Senate committee has taken action on our recommendations to make Alabama’s gambling laws stronger and more effective,” said Attorney General Strange. “I want to thank Sen. Bryan Taylor, the bill’s sponsor and the committee chairman, for his outstanding leadership in moving this bill forward, and I urge members of the full Senate as well as the House of Representatives to pass this bill as soon as possible. This is my top legislative priority.”
Under current law, the maximum penalty for any illegal gambling enterprise is a misdemeanor, regardless of how many millions of dollars are being made from the illegal activity. The legislation advocated by Attorney General Strange makes the following improvements to the law:
The maximum penalties for the crimes of promoting unlawful gambling and the crime of conspiracy to promote unlawful gambling will be increased from class A misdemeanors to class C felonies. This would deter large-scale illegal gambling enterprises and also restore the punishment ranges to their original form when the Legislature first passed these statutes in 1977.
The maximum penalty for the crime of possessing gambling devices will be increased from a class A misdemeanor to a class C felony.
