Less than two weeks — that’s how long it took gambling device manufacturers to build electronic bingo gambling machines they say will meet the Alabama Supreme Court’s new regulations.
And without expert examination of the machines, electronic bingo gambling operations are standing their ground around the state.
Houston County’s Country Crossing entertainment center opened Dec. 1 featuring a nearly 1,700-machine electronic bingo gambling facility.
While Dothan’s Mayor Mike Schmitz, Houston County commissioners and several country music stars fully supported the venture, Sheriff Andy Hughes is not convinced the machines featured in the facility are legal.
He said he won’t allow his deputies to serve as off-duty security guards for the facility.
“Ethically, I don’t think it would be right for me to let Houston County deputies work at a facility that may be operating some gaming machines that may ultimately be deemed to be illegal,” Hughes said.
The same day and a little northwest of Houston County, electronic bingo gambling also made an appearance, but really more of a reappearance.
In Lowndes County, White Hall Resort and Entertainment Center reopened after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled machines used in the facility were illegal.
According to The Associated Press, the facility opened with half of its 900 machines, which attorney Collins Pettaway Jr. said are now legal.
Pettaway reportedly said the games are no longer automatic requiring more customer interaction and the customer’s announcement of “bingo” wins.
But machines like these are no surprise to “slot machine vendors,” according to Gary Green, “casino industry celebrity” and executive vice president of Florida-based Synergy Gaming.
According to PRWeb, Green gave a presentation at “the casino industry’s largest trade show” in November praising the Supreme Court’s new rules.
“If every vendor complies with these guidelines, then the Court has just legalized and regulated the games (electronic bingo gambling in Alabama),” Green reportedly said.
As it stands, Green said he has observed that “Alabama’s bingo halls seem to be wrought with wanna-be gangsters, illegal slot machines and very shady commercial casino operations posing as charities. … Companies and individuals that have been thrown out of almost every legitimate gaming state now have set up shop in Alabama because local legislation and the courts have failed to regulate the industry.
“The ‘usual suspects’ from South Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma (companies that can’t get licensed in Nevada, New Jersey or even in most Indian jurisdictions) have trucked in thousands of illegal slot machines being passed off as bingo machines. … To make matters worse, it appears that many of the charities (operating ‘bingo casinos’) have been duped by commercial operators who have decades-long histories of running ‘grey market’ quasi-legal casino operations in dozens of states.”
According to PRWeb, Green also walked through the Supreme Court’s criteria for legal bingo in Alabama and explained how “true class II machines” already have many of these functions.
The Web site also said, “Synergy has spent the last several months in Birmingham where they have been teaching charities how to operate their own casinos and how to differentiate between legitimate electronic bingo machines and illegal slot machines posing as ‘class II’ machines.”
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