The Town of Kimberly drafted a bingo ordinance allowing electronic games in 2008. And it was business as usual until Sept. 8 when bingo operator Scott Rogers requested a bingo permit and hand-delivered his suggested list of new town regulations to the council.
Now some town leaders and residents are at odds over whether to allow or ban electronic bingo gambling in the area.
“It is unusual for the person requesting the business license to draft the ordinance,” Mayor Craig Harris said referring to Rogers, who is director of Hoover-based Community Network Association (CNA). “They (CNA) have opened up halls in Fairfield … (and have) several in Walker County.”
At an Oct. 13 regular meeting, council member Donna Cude, who is also a practicing attorney, was instructed to draft a new ordinance for consideration repealing all electronic bingo gambling ordinances affecting Kimberly.
According to Cude, a member of Gardendale’s First Baptist Church, the ordinance she plans to draft will state, “The council finds that electronic bingo is not consistent with the family-friendly nature of our community and that electronic bingo machines are, at best, of questionable legality.”
She also hopes to implement a ban on “the business of electronic bingo.”
Tracy Lane Roberts, assistant general counsel at the Alabama League of Municipalities, verified that while a council “cannot ban bingo where it is authorized by the constitution and the state Legislature,” it can “restrict or regulate bingo” gambling.
Harris believes the best decision would be to write a new ordinance that will comply with the rules and regulations promulgated by the sheriff. He admitted he is tempted to use electronic bingo gambling to increase the town’s revenue, but said, “It’s sort of almost like selling your souls to the devil. The benefits are encouraging as far as financially, but we don’t want to portray our town the way that would portray us.”
After Rogers submitted his ordinance to the council, Harris said City Attorney Charlie Waldrep would write a new ordinance, which would be reviewed and approved by the Attorney General Troy King and the Alabama League of Municipalities. But, at the Oct. 13 meeting, the council was presented with an ordinance that appeared to be the same one Rogers wrote.
Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls attended the meeting to inform the council of “what the constitutional amendment says and to point out problems with the proposed ordinance that I believe would lead … to a violation of the constitution.”
Falls said he also wanted to explain that a business cannot operate for-profit by running bingo games.
“Bingo is meant to be operated by the charity and all proceeds go to the charity,” he said.
“Kimberly’s ordinance read that all net proceeds should go to charity but they allowed expenses to be paid [and those are the] loopholes that organizers are looking for to allow potentially corrupt activity.”
Harris said he would have Waldrep correct the areas of the ordinance that are inconsistent with the state law.
In addition to his request for a bingo ordinance in Kimberly, Rogers initially told The Alabama Baptist that his organization had filed bingo permit applications in two to three cities but only wanted to have one electronic bingo gambling hall and hoped it would be in Kimberly.
Later he said CNA already operates electronic bingo gambling 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Center Point.
“We are the charity there, [and we] give to about 30 different organizations,” Rogers said noting his organization planned to “make some money and help some people” before Sheriff Mike Hale’s new bingo rules went into effect.
Harris said he was under the impression that Rogers plans to stack charities to offer electronic bingo gambling 24 hours a day in Kimberly. “They are planning to have more than one charity per place,” he said. “That is what Mr. Rogers conveyed to me as his intention. But … we are trying to remedy that loophole. … If [bingo does come to Kimberly] we will be in compliance with what the law is in Jefferson County.”
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