Irish statesman Edmund Burke is supposed to have said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” And as the electronic bingo gambling “epidemic” attempts to spread to Etowah County, area ministers feel it’s time for God’s men and women to get involved in the fight.
“I think Christian people have sat back and been quiet for too long,” said Bruce Word, senior pastor of CrossPoint Community Church, Gadsden, in Etowah Baptist Association.
So when Word and other Alabama Baptist leaders learned last month that the county’s bingo operations could change from paper games conducted by a few nonprofit organizations to a proposed 35-acre entertainment complex with as many as 5,000 bingo machines, they wasted no time preparing for battle.
“I really believe they were going to try to slip in under the radar,” Gary Cardwell, director of missions for Etowah Association, said of the bingo developers. “We are developing a coalition here of clergy in our county to fight this on a united front. We as followers of Christ can’t stand by” and let electronic gaming come to Etowah County.
Although bingo has been legal in the county since 1990, county commissioners passed new regulations on electronic games last month. According to Etowah County’s Web site, this vote occurred after the sheriff received an application for the proposed video bingo establishment.
The district attorney advised the County Commission that it should “quickly act to regulate the wide spread of video bingo in the county,” the site notes. “In some counties without regulation it has created tremendous problems, especially in the unincorporated areas that do not have zoning.”
Patterning their regulations after Houston County’s hotly debated bingo rules, Etowah County commissioners now require a $200 million minimum investment in the county before issuing a permanent permit for an electronic bingo gambling hall. The regulations also require the bingo halls to create 2,000 jobs in the area and to be part of a multiuse or mixed-use development with a branded franchise hotel, restaurants and a 3,000-seat entertainment venue.
Before any video bingo operations begin, operators must pay a $500 permit fee and a $1,000 county commission stamp fee per machine.
According to The Gadsden Times, the commission is currently considering a proposal from local developer Coosa Entertainment Group LLC for an electronic bingo gambling site that could bring $5 million in license fees, $149 million in capital investments, an estimated $10.1 million in profits and 1,400 jobs to the county.
But Cardwell doesn’t believe the developer’s promises.
“They try to pull the wool over the people’s eyes,” he said. “But it has been proven over and over again that these promises that are made for solving all these financial woes doesn’t happen. They say 100 percent of profit will go back into the county, but they can set their overhead figures so high that they won’t realize a profit.”
More importantly, Word said he and Attorney General Troy King believe the new regulations violate the constitutional amendment allowing bingo in the county since county commissioners included an “alternative permitting process.” This would give them the right to issue permits in certain cases — a duty that normally belongs to the sheriff.
King “said he feels that they have violated the constitution by taking this authority into their own hands,” said Word, who asked commissioners to seek the attorney general’s opinion concerning the legality of this matter.
He also asked commissioners to add an advisory vote to the November ballots allowing Etowah County citizens to express their opinions on video bingo.
“Many people are going to say, ‘I’m just one person. What can I do?’” Word said. “All you have to do is look in God’s Word. Noah was one person and God used him.”
He added, “God’s looking for one person to stand in the gap, and I want to be that one person. I can’t speak for anybody else in Etowah County, but as far as me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.”
Word and other area leaders plan to meet with Eric Johnston, a Birmingham attorney and legal adviser for Alabama Citizens Action Program.
Johnston said commissioners in Etowah and Houston counties are using laws meant to allow paper bingo to set up major casino complexes.
“Those amendments say that county commissions can pass regulations for the permits,” he said. “But they are going far beyond the permits and creating forms of gambling. It’s clear abuse of the amendments. It’s really high-stakes gambling they are involved in. Some lawyer decided it was a loophole, and he’s created this monster that is taking over Alabama.”
Johnston believes the citizens of Alabama will eventually have to insist that legal action be taken regarding gambling.
“The attorney general is not going to do anything,” he said. “He has already said, in his opinion, that electronic bingo is legal.
“The people are going to have to bring the lawsuits. I believe the (Alabama) Supreme Court would say electronic bingo in this fashion under these amendments is not legal.”
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