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Jefferson County — Bessemer: Bessemer’s electronic bingo gambling battles are far from over. Despite the mayor’s veto of a bingo ordinance recently passed by the City Council, a committee headed by council President Earl Cochran is moving forward with plans to bring the games to the city.
Councilors Louise Alexander and Dorothy Davidson (replacing Sarah Belcher) serve with Cochran on the committee.
The Birmingham News reported that city attorney Aaron Killings and council attorney Greg Harris are also working with the committee. Cochran planned to give the council a report Sept. 8.
Councilman James Stephens Jr. opposes the effort.
“Think about that as a drain on your economy and what it’s going to do to the city,” said Stephens, a member of Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer. “That’s not money that’s being reinvested into the city; that’s money that’s just going away.”
He said only paper bingo is legal in Bessemer but at least two large facilities — American Legion Hall and the Anchor Club — continue to operate electronic bingo gambling machines. Judge Eric Fancher and Judge Dan King issued orders preventing law enforcement from shutting these facilities down.
When the Bessemer Police Department raided the American Legion facility Aug. 28, seizing 22 machines, Capt. Mike Roper said the hall has a license for paper bingo, not electronic bingo, according to the News.
But as the raid was taking place, Fancher issued a cease and desist order, so about 300 machines were left inside. A hearing for the case is being planned.
On Aug. 27, officers seized 12 “bingo” machines from a house in Bessemer. Police confiscated $1,000 and charged Randale Oden, 27, with promoting gambling, a misdemeanor charge, according to the News.
“The bingo operators are contending that electronic bingo is not gambling,” Stephens said. “The city (Police Department and mayor) is contending that it is illegal. Then you have the judges that are going to hear [court cases], and what they have done is to issue a cease and desist order that says you can’t do anything until we rule on it.”
At the Sept. 1 City Council meeting, Stephens said Robert Dale White, who is affiliated with the Anchor Club, presented the council with $2,000 worth of dog food for a local animal shelter, but the gift was refused because of the club’s injunction against the city and the pending litigation on its electronic bingo gambling operation.
Six weeks earlier, before the injunction was in place, Stephens said White gave $5,000 to the school board and $5,000 to Saint Aloysius (Catholic Church and School) from the Anchor Club, which was accepted by the City Council. “The whole thing is shady,” Stephens said. “These outsiders are coming in and preying on the weaknesses of our citizens.
“I can see no instance in Alabama where a municipality or county government has allowed this to come into effect and it’s helped the community.”
Stephens urges churches to get involved. “It’s going to take an educated electorate that demands more of their elected officials to stop actions such as this.”
Jefferson County — Pleasant Grove and Pinson: Pleasant Grove City Council members want no part in the troubles many Jefferson County cities are experiencing with electronic bingo gambling. So when city leaders recently came across a bingo ordinance passed in the 1980s, they rescinded it.
“All of [the cities] are having problems with it,” Mayor Jerry Brasseale said. “Anytime there is that kind of cash floating around, you’re going to have problems. … I don’t know how anybody can expect to run something like that and not get caught.”
Pinson officials had similar concerns almost a year ago and passed an ordinance prohibiting electronic bingo gambling in the city. Adopted Sept. 18, 2008, the ordinance allows for traditional paper bingo but no form of electronic bingo.
It reads in part: “It shall be unlawful … for any person or entity to administer, operate or offer [bingo] within the [city] through the use of any electronic device, where such electronic device could enable, without substantial alteration, the [bingo] player to participate in a [bingo] game with no other human players, whether or not such device is actually being used in such manner.”
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