The Alabama Senate passed a key part of a proposal for a lottery and state-regulated gambling on Thursday after about seven hours of debate.

The vote was 22-11 on the proposed constitutional amendment, which required 21 votes.

The legislation has to return to the House of Representatives, which passed a different version earlier.

If it wins final approval in the Legislature, it would go on the ballot for voter approval on Sept. 10.

The Senate has moved on to the companion bill that spells out many of the specifics for a new Alabama Gambling Commission, the lottery, and regulation of pari-mutuel gambling.

The progress on the bill appeared to stall earlier on Thursday after the Senate adopted an amendment changing the distribution of net lottery and gaming revenues, a move Albritton opposed.

After that, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, spoke at length about his proposed amendment to dedicate a small portion of the funding to mass transit, but it was not adopted.

The legislation is a scaled-back version of a plan that passed the House of Representatives three weeks ago.

The Senate Tourism Committee on Tuesday approved a substitute plan that did not include sports betting or casinos. It would include a lottery. That’s the plan up for debate in the Senate on Thursday.

The bill is called the Alabama Gambling Control Act. It would set up a new nine-member Alabama Gambling Commission that would include a law enforcement division. The plan would repeal 17 local constitutional amendments that allow bingo and put all gambling in Alabama, including charity bingo and raffles, under the regulation of the Gambling Commission.

The plan would allow pari-mutuel gambling on horse racing and dog racing, simulcast races, and computerized historical horse racing machines at seven locations. They would be at the state’s four former greyhound tracks in Birmingham, Mobile, Greene County, and Macon County, at what are now bingo halls in Houston County and Lowndes County, and one additional site in Greene County.

Those facilities could not offer casino games or electronic bingo. The plan calls for the governor to negotiate a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians that would allow the tribe to offer the full range of casino games at its casinos on tribal lands in Atmore, Wetumpka, and Montgomery, facilities that now offer electronic bingo.

The fiscal note estimates the lottery would raise $305 million to $379 million in net revenue, and the seven pari-mutuel facilities would raise $99 million to $132 million.

If the plan is approved by the Legislature, it would go to the voters in a special election on Sept. 10.

About 5:30 p.m., the Senate adopted an amendment by Smitherman changing the rate of taxation on pari-mutuel gambling from a range of 24% to 32% to a range of 20% to 28%. The amendment was approved by a vote 27-6.

Earlier on Thursday, Smitherman had expressed concerns about the long-term business viability of the pari-mutuel facilities, especially if they have to compete with Poarch Creek facilities that have a full assortment of Las Vegas-style games.

The plan approved Thursday is scaled back from what the House approved three weeks ago.

The House plan included a lottery, seven new casinos, and sports betting. It was sponsored by Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Phenix City, and Andy Whitt, R-Madison, and hailed as an achievement by House Republicans who said they worked on it more than a year in an effort to resolve the state’s long legal stalemate on gambling and a lottery.

Net state revenues were estimated at about $600 million to about $900 million. The casinos would have been in Birmingham, Mobile County, Greene County, Macon County, Lowndes County, and Houston County. The seventh would have been in northeast Alabama and operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. That would be contingent on the governor negotiating a compact with the Poarch Band.