An Alabama senator who has been trying to round up votes for a lottery and gambling plan released the legislation on Thursday.

The plan by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, calls for a state lottery, electronic gambling at the state’s former greyhound tracks and several other sites, legal sports betting, and a compact that would allow the Poarch Band of Creek Indians to have four casinos.

Albritton said Thursday he is still short of the 21 votes needed to pass the bill in the 34-member Senate but released copies of the plan that he had previously kept under wraps.

The senator’s two-bill package includes a constitutional amendment, which would require voter approval in a referendum on Sept. 16, and a 141-page bill that spells out details of the plan.

Albritton said key reasons the legislation is needed is that gambling is rampant in Alabama and needs to be regulated, and that state budgets need revenue at a time of economic uncertainty and reduced federal funds.

“If there is anything that is a problem, the biggest problem we have with gambling in society is sports gambling,” Albritton said. “It’s affecting and afflicting, just look at the Sweet 16.

“We had sports gambling in that hallway (of the Alabama State Senate) before the Super Bowl. It’s occurring in junior highs. It’s eating us up. If we don’t get control of it, we’ll be in serious trouble.”

The plan would include:

• A state lottery administered by a public lottery corporation.
• Electronic gambling at six sites – former greyhound tracks in Jefferson, Macon, and Mobile counties and one existing bingo hall in Greene, Houston, and Lowndes counties.
• Sports wagering.
• A 24% tax on net revenue from electronic gambling and sports betting, an excise tax on each gambling machine, and a sports wagering tax on each bet.
• A requirement that the governor negotiate a compact, or revenue-sharing agreement, with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The governor would be authorized to agree to Class III gaming, or full-scale casinos with table games at the tribe’s existing three electronic bingo casinos in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka and at the tribe’s newly acquired Birmingham Race Course and casino.
• Creation of an Alabama Gaming Commission to license, tax, and regulate gambling. It would have a law enforcement division.
• Repeal of 17 local constitutional amendments that allow bingo in certain counties and prohibit any other local amendments on gambling.
• Regulations for raffles and traditional paper bingo.

Albritton noted that the plan is a scaled-back version of a comprehensive plan that passed the Alabama House last year but did not have support in the Senate.

A compromise version of last year’s gambling bill eventually failed by a single vote in the Senate.

“It is very trimmed down,” Albritton said. “It’s the least amount we can do that I think is economically viable.”

The senator, who is chairman of the Senate’s General Fund budget committee, said there are needs for the revenue that the plan would generate.

“It always good for us to have a shoring up against on what the future may hold,“ Albritton said.

”We got federal money drying up. We’re doing a cutting of taxes in a lot of areas. We have an economy that is questionable right now.”