For weeks, rumors have flown around the Statehouse about a “big bingo” bill coming down the pipeline supported by “gambling bosses” that would forever change the face of Alabama as we know it.
And when identical 44-page bills — Senate Bill (SB) 471 and House Bill (HB) 676 — were revealed late March 5, the rumors were proven true.
These bills — sponsored by Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, and Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia — call for a constitutional amendment establishing a “bingo monopoly” and iron-clad electronic gambling operations in eight counties and one town around the state.
If passed, the constitutional amendment would become the most powerful bingo gambling law in Alabama, and no one could stop it, said Eric Johnston, president of and general counsel for the Southeast Law Institute in Birmingham, which deals with moral issues affecting public policy in the state.
The constitutional amendment would also require a state compact with Indian bingo gambling facilities, and would mandate the governor to enter into the compact, no matter how he or she feels on the issue.
While the legislation calls for regulation and taxation of the bingo gambling facilities, this is “just an incentive to get voters to vote in favor of it,” Johnston said. “It’s the same thing they’ve done in earlier years — bingo for books, bingo for Medicaid — they just try to camouflage it and say this is a great value. But we have to keep in mind that the revenue will have to come out of the pockets of those who are least able to pay. It’s a regressive tax.”
This bill “was dreamed up and is being carried out by the big gambling interests in the counties that are named — Jefferson, Mobile, Etowah, Calhoun, Walker, Houston, Greene and Macon Counties, as well as the Town of White Hall,” he said.
Under this amendment, the remaining eight counties will be limited to traditional card bingo gambling unless they pass a local act and establish a bingo location worth more than $50 million in most cases, according to Johnston.
“The more powerful bingo groups are saying we are the big guys, we control this and if you want to come under it, you’ve got to spend millions of dollars to do so,” he added. “They are creating a monopoly that would make it difficult for others to come in.”
These two bills set up a gambling commission to regulate and enforce gambling laws in the state, which Johnston said “exempts them from law enforcement and sets up their own self-government.”
“There is no real oversight from disinterested objective people,” he added. “It takes away any real law enforcement ability over the gambling operations.”
Gov. Bob Riley, who is pushing hard to get an Alabama Supreme Court ruling on the matter of electronic bingo gambling, said, “We will spend more than $12 billion in state and federal money on education in Alabama this year. This proposal would bring in less than 1 percent of that amount. For less than 1 percent, I don’t believe we should allow more crime, misery and corruption into Alabama.”
Noting that supporters of the bill claim it actually restricts gambling in the state, Riley said, “If supporters of this bill really believe gambling is so good for Alabama, then why does their bill say it will restrict gambling? It’s because deep down, they know the truth: gambling might make casino operators into multimillionaires, but it hurts people, families and our communities.
“It brings with it more misery, more crime and more corruption,” he said. “Alabamians know this and that’s why every time the people have had a chance to vote on gambling, they’ve rejected it.”
Riley established the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling in late 2008. The task force’s purpose is to get a case before the supreme court that defines what bingo really is and whether the machines being used to play “bingo” in some areas are actually slot machines, which are illegal in the state.
Rep. David Grimes, R-Montgomery, believes in the task force and wants to wait for its findings before making any type of decision on gambling issues in the state.
“My problem is with the taxation. I want taxation but at the proper time,” he said. “I’m waiting on the governor’s task force (to finalize its research and see what comes of it).”
Grimes said he has committed “so far” to vote “no” on the BIR (see page 6 for explanation of BIR) if this bill comes to the House floor.
But Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, said he is excited about the possibilities with the proposed legislation.
“I will be for that (bill) … to have a statewide commission … and the taxes,” he said. “This is the choice that should have been long developed. … I’m going to vote for it unless there is something terrible in the details.”
Rep. Lea Fite, D-Calhoun, said there is something terrible in the details for him — it includes Calhoun County.
He’s prepared to fight the legislation if Calhoun County is not removed from the list of counties included in the bill, he noted.
“We have high-stakes bingo in Calhoun County, but it is card bingo,” Fite said, noting he has an amendment prepared to propose for the bill.
The bill will have to go through the Tourism and Travel Committee in the House and he is a member of that committee.
“I’ve already told [the other legislators on the committee] that if they oppose me and override the amendment and this bill makes it to the floor, then I’m going to filibuster the bill till the cows come in.”
At press time, public hearings were scheduled on these bills for March 11.
For more information on this legislation and other gambling-related issues in the state, watch future issues of The Alabama Baptist and visit www.thealabamabaptist.org.
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Compact section ‘matter of interpretation’
A compact in the world of Indian gambling typically deals with Class III gambling — large-scale, casino-style gambling operations.
And while Senate Bill 471 and House Bill 676 “requires the execution of a state compact with Indian bingo facilities” on land owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians “since or before Oct. 17, 1988,” it also states that “the governor shall not execute such compact with any authorization for casino-style table games that include participation of a human dealer, such as craps, black jack, roulette or keno.”
Dan Ireland, director emeritus of Alabama Citizens Action Program, said, “The way I understand it a compact would be legalizing Class III gambling which would entitle them to any and all forms of gambling. This proposed legislation is trying to head that off and say they cannot have anything but the bingo legislation.
“But I don’t think local law can override federal law,” he said. “I think it will be a matter of interpretation by the time its over.”
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), passed by Congress in 1988 allows tribes to develop casino-style operations. According to the IGRA, tribes have the “exclusive right” to regulate gambling in Indian Territory “except when gambling is contrary to federal law or when a state completely prohibits a form of gaming.”
The IGRA recognizes three classes:
Class I — traditional tribal gambling, such as stick and bone games — is controlled by the tribes.
Class II — bingo, pull tabs, etc. — is regulated by the tribes with oversight by the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Class III — large-scale gambling operations — is subject to agreed regulatory procedures in tribal-state compacts, which states are required to negotiate in “good faith.”
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