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Bessemer: Although a new electronic bingo gambling ordinance was the first item on Bessemer’s Sept. 30 agenda, council members never discussed the proposed rules publicly.
“The president of the council (Earl Cochran) looked around and noticed how many people were there and said we are not going to do this today,” said Councilman James Stephens Jr., noting the large number of local residents and church members against gambling attending the meeting. “(Cochran) put [the ordinance] back to the (bingo) committee and said they will do it another time. I asked when we will revisit it, he said he wouldn’t tell me that right now.”
Cochran, who heads the council’s bingo committee, said he postponed the discussion because Dorothy Davidson, who also serves on the bingo committee, said she had not read the ordinance. Cochran added that the ordinance was the same one the council passed earlier this summer, which was later vetoed by Mayor Edward May. He felt certain he had the votes to pass it.
But Stephens plans to continue his fight against gambling in Bessemer. “This proposed ordinance will cause a tremendous economic drain on our citizens and our city,” Stephens wrote in a statement he prepared to give at the council meeting. “There has always been a gambling faction operating in the shadows of our city, but you want to legitimize their actions and join in their bounty. I know that their motive is greed and that leads me to question yours.
“The choice is clear. Bessemer should wait for direction from the Alabama Supreme Court about the lawfulness of this form of electronic gambling. It is our duty to enact legislation that is in the best interest of our citizens. This clearly does not.”
At press time, a bingo committee meeting was scheduled for Oct. 5 at 9 a.m.
Prichard: Like leaders of many other financially strapped municipalities across the state, the Prichard City Council looked to bingo to solve its economic woes, passing an electronic bingo gambling ordinance Sept. 28. But Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson quickly stepped in and shut their plans down.
Tyson said he advised Mayor Ron Davis and council President Napoleon Bracy before and after the council passed the ordinance that only paper or card bingo is legal in Mobile County.
“Every local government and state government has some severe economic challenges and these kinds of activities are supposedly economically lucrative,” Tyson said. “I certainly respect all the financial problems all the governments are having. I had the same problems. … But the answer is not going to be electronic bingo (in Mobile County) under the current state of Alabama law.”
According to Mobile’s Press-Register, Prichard expected to receive a minimum of $1.25 million annually from bingo fees.
Tyson told The Alabama Baptist that Davis told him Oct. 1 the city’s electronic bingo plans had ceased.
“I think electronic bingo in Mobile County is a dead issue today,” Tyson said Oct. 2.
Yet City Clerk Darlene Lewis also told The Alabama Baptist on Oct. 2 the city attorney is currently reviewing the council’s changes to the ordinance.
Still Tyson said, “If anybody starts moving, we are going to set forth the motion to seize the machines and start prosecution for gambling and the promotion of gambling.”
Attorney General Troy King also quickly spoke out against Prichard’s efforts to bring bingo machines into Mobile County, according to Local 15 WPMI.
“There can be no question,” King reportedly said. “The bingo that’s allowed in Mobile County is the kind that’s played on cards and paper sheets, not on machines.”
Tyson agreed. “I think any time you get the governor, the attorney general, the district attorney and the sheriff to agree that something is illegal, you probably ought to listen to that advice.”
Prichard’s next City Council meeting to discuss next year’s finances is Oct. 8 at 5:30.
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