A day-long push to get a comprehensive lottery and gambling push through the Alabama House of Representatives collapsed late Thursday, after an attempt to cut the bill down to a simple lottery by a group of Republicans failed.
"We've been working on that bill, and there was a division in the membership on this, and there was not enough votes to pass it," House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said late Thursday. "We were looking at any other options on that, including a lottery bill."
The developments led to angry accusations from Democrats, who said Republicans locked them out of meetings and abruptly introduced the lottery bill late in the day on Thursday, and Republicans who said they worked in good faith to try to get something out for voters to approve.