By Sondra Washington
So many gambling lawsuits are facing Alabama judges that it’s difficult for many of the most involved opponents to keep up with details in each case.
Almost weekly, new cases are filed across the state. Several deal with the legality of slot machines being called electronic bingo. Others seek to protect casinos from criminal prosecution. Some pertain to disputes over money between the involved parties.
But experts say they all boil down to one issue — casino operators fighting to hold on to an industry that “takes money from a lot of poor people and [gives] it to a few rich people.”
The most recent gambling cases filed with Alabama courts concern gambling operations in Chickasaw, Bessemer and Etowah counties.
When Gov. Bob Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling recently raided a slot machine operation in Chickasaw, lawyers for the facility filed a civil lawsuit for a declaratory judgment on the legality of the business.
Task force Commander John Tyson said he plans to file criminal charges against the facility for operating illegal slot machines.
In Bessemer, Birmingham attorney Kim Davidson filed a lawsuit on behalf of the City Council’s bingo committee.
The group hopes Jefferson County Circuit Judge Eugene Verin will validate an “electronic bingo” ordinance vetoed by Mayor Ed May and prevent May from denying bingo permits to businesses seeking them from the city.
Most recently, Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp announced he filed a declaratory lawsuit to determine whether machines planned for a $200 million casino in his county are legal.
Harp said he planned to inspect the machines to make sure they meet the six characteristics of legal bingo issued by the Alabama Supreme Court. But Todd Stacy, Riley’s press secretary, said the court’s ruling is clear.
“The Supreme Court didn’t lay down six guidelines for converting a slot machine to a bingo machine,” he said. “They said, ‘This is what constitutes bingo, and if it doesn’t meet these guidelines, it’s not bingo.’ … The fact that casino bosses are trying to take this test and use the Supreme Court’s rules to justify illegal machines is ridiculous.”
Eric Johnston, a Birmingham-based attorney and president of Citizens for a Better Alabama, believes the proliferation of lawsuits across the state is nothing more than gamblers’ attempts to complicate the issues and delay the inevitable.
“All these lawsuits are not going to do anything but make it last a little longer, but in the end, they are going to lose,” he said. “These are criminal issues. In essence, the Supreme Court said you can’t do these things in civil courts. … The bingo they are playing is unlawful.”
Stacy added, “What’s getting lost in all this is these are illegal casinos that for years have been preying on the poor in Alabama and destroying communities. Finally the law is catching up to them, and now they are desperate. … It’s been a shell game all along. It’s been a sham but that’s the nature of casinos and the gambling industry: to deceive.”
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