VictoryLand in Macon County may not have been the only casino skimping on its charitable giving. Numerous reports reveal Greenetrack also did little to help its host county.
According to a July 18 Birmingham News article, less than $2 million of the estimated $100 million Greenetrack made annually over the past six years from slot machine-style gambling was given to charities each year. Plus Alabama Department of Industrial Relations information shows Greene County’s unemployment rate nearly doubled from 2008 to 2009 while Greenetrack’s casino operations flourished.
The county’s poverty level is not much different now than it was before the casino moved in. During each year of Greenetrack’s electronic gambling operation, Greene County’s poverty level never dropped below 25 percent while the state’s poverty level stayed in the teens. At times, the county’s poverty rate was nearly double Alabama’s.
Greenetrack, which opened in Eutaw in 1978, eventually earned the reputation of having a “killing fields” track until animal rights groups removed injured greyhounds from its kennels in 1998.
Paul Bryant Jr., son of legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, was Greenetrack’s chief investor before withdrawing from the business and moving his money to a track in Texas.
In 2009, the Alabama Department of Revenue filed tax liens against Greenetrack claiming that its electronic bingo casino owed it more than $72 million in unpaid taxes.
Also that year, individuals filed lawsuits against Greenetrack claiming authorities rigged its electronic gambling machines to pay out $20,000 to former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford. A similar suit was filed against VictoryLand that Langford received the same “benefit.”
When Greene County voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2004, The Birmingham News reported that Greene County Commissioner Donald Means said 40 percent of the bingo proceeds from Greenetrack was to go to Greene County schools, 20 percent to the county’s volunteer fire departments, 20 percent for the county’s E911 system, 10 percent to county law enforcement and 10 percent to Greene County Hospital, county parks and recreation.
According to The Birmingham News, Greene County is the state’s least-populated county. The Census Bureau’s 2000 Demographic Profile gives the population as 9,974.
The black population is predominant with 8,013 people.
(Compiled from news articles, U.S. Census information by TAB)
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People living below poverty level in Greene County:
2003 — 25.1 percent
2004 — 26.5 percent
2005 — 33.9 percent
2006 — 33.2 percent
2007 — 33.2 percent
2008 — 30.3 percent
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
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