A simple Internet search will prove that the racetracks and bingo parlors throughout Alabama are referred to as casinos in the gambling world.
But Dan Ireland, moral watchdog for the state, says the term won’t be used just in advertisements and on Web sites if citizens aren’t careful about the types of laws passed dealing with gambling issues.
And the ever-changing concept of the game bingo is to blame, Ireland said.
“The reason we can’t legalize video gambling (bingo or any other game) … is because once Alabama legalizes this type of gambling, the Indian reservations will explode,” said Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP).
“The Indian reservations have a contract with Harrah’s casinos that says once gambling is legalized Harrah’s will build multimillion dollar casinos on Indian reservations in our state.”
Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. — which operates 28 casinos in more than 10 states and manages four Indian casinos — publicized on the Internet the transcript of a July 21 conference call between the chief officers of the company.
Included in that conference call is a discussion about the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama, which operates gambling parlors in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery.
Gary Loveman, chief executive officer of Harrah’s, said, “While still subject to numerous approvals, our plans call for the development of a Class II facility outside of Montgomery, Alabama. In fact, in Wetumpka.
“I believe the Class II project we propose is an attractive potential new growth avenue for us,” he said. “We also continue to pursue several Class III management opportunities.”
Class II gambling is where players play against each other, not the house, and includes bingo. Class III gambling deals with other casino-type games such as blackjack and slot machines where players bet against the house.
Ireland said, “So, not only will we be adding gambling throughout the state, the tax money we thought we would receive by legalizing and taxing video gambling machines will not be there.
“Everyone will go to the casino parlors on the Indian reservations, which are not taxed,” Ireland explained.
However, the Poarch Creek Indians did receive a blow this year when the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) objected to about two-thirds of their nearly 1,000 machines, questioning their legality.
According to the commission and Poarch Creek attorney Mays Jemison on Dec. 9 the 600 machines at the three gambling facilities had been reconfigured, replaced or removed.
While the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988 allows Indian tribes to conduct any form of gambling that is legal in the state but not be subject to regulatory laws, Indian gambling is regulated at the federal level when questions arise.
Class III games are only allowed if a pact is negotiated between the tribe and the state.No pacts have been negotiated about Class III gambling in Alabama.
But the Poarch Creeks recently announced plans to bring live poker games to the Atmore facility and possibly to the Wetumpka and Montgomery operations as well, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Legal live poker games
Because poker was deemed a Class II game by the NIGC in 1999, the games would be legal as long as the players bet against each other and not the house, AP reported.
Ireland, who has advocated amending IGRA for years, said, “It is getting out of hand nationwide. We can’t have any local input or jurisdiction over Indian gambling.”
Noting that the reservations now offer products to sell such as tobacco, gasoline and food, Ireland said they are hurting the local economy because the reservations are not taxed.
Alabama Attorney General Troy King said that while he has no jurisdiction over Indian tribal land gambling operations, he does refer violations of federal regulations to the proper authorities.
On Dec. 1 King released the findings from a gambling review he conducted across the state this year. He had no comment on Indian gambling in Alabama, but he concluded that gambling is being operated both legally and illegally in the state.
The language of the law is broad enough in Greene County and in Macon County to include certain electronic bingo games, King noted. But he also discovered gambling machines in those two counties that do not comply with the law.
“Play on these machines should be discontinued and they should be reprogrammed or replaced to comply with my findings,” he said.
For those operating gambling facilities where lotteries or bingo are conducted and played on machines without legal authority, King said, “Prepare to pay the price.”
King also found that a gambling operation in White Hall (Lowndes County) is operating under a flawed constitutional amendment, and he plans to shut it down.
Ireland said it all comes down to the fact that “Alabama does not have a clear law defining what bingo is.”
The video gambling machines, also called electronic bingo, “are just short of being slot machines,” Ireland noted. “They have the appearance of slot machines but there is enough of a twist to say it is legal,” he said.
Competing with casinos
But gambling is big business and is considered each year in the Legislature, Ireland said. It was also debated during the most recent special session of the Alabama Legislature.
A bill that would have removed payout caps and extended hours of operation for electronic bingo at the Mobile Racetrack passed the Senate but did not make it through the House of Representatives.
Lobbyists argued the legislation would provide the Mobile Racetrack with ammunition to compete with the Mississippi casinos, according to Ireland.
“But a bingo parlor is not going to compete with a casino,” Ireland pointed out. “This is the kind of thinking people have, so it has created a problem because the law is inadequate to deal with it.
“I personally would like to see a law passed to repeal all bingo, a definition of bingo be clearly stated, then come back with bills in keeping with Alabama law about charities and bingo,” he said. “The whole thing is a state of confusion.”
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