Using firm language, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against VictoryLand’s casino forfeiture case March 31. The decision allows the state to destroy more than 1,200 electronic bingo machines it confiscated from the casino and keep more than $200,000 in cash seized during the 2013 raid.
“(The March 31) decision is the latest, and hopefully the last, chapter in the more than six years’ worth of attempts to defy the Alabama Constitution’s ban on ‘lotteries,’” the Court stated in its opinion. “It is the latest, and hopefully the last, chapter in the ongoing saga of attempts to defy the clear and repeated holdings of this Court beginning in 2009 that electronic machines like those at issue here are not the ‘bingo’ referenced in local bingo amendments.
“All that is left is for the law of this State to be enforced.”
Attorney General Luther Strange said of the ruling, “[It] is abundantly clear that electronic bingo is illegal and repeated court challenges to the contrary will not change that fact. I cannot say it any better than the Court itself.
“It is now up to the governor, ALEA (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) and local authorities to ensure that the law is properly enforced.”
Eric Johnston, a Birmingham lawyer who represents the Alabama Policy Institute and Alabama Citizen’s Action Program, said he believes the Court’s ruling also has implications that reach further than bingo and possibly into statewide lottery and fantasy football debates.
“I have never seen the Alabama Supreme Court so direct and so detailed in what they were saying on any subject. They’ve made it real clear about what gambling is.”
Defying the ruling
VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor held a news conference April 4 and said the casino would reopen early this summer despite the ruling. Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson said the “games played in Macon County will be tested and approved to my satisfaction. Any person seeking to interfere with the operation of bingo games in this county will have legal issues to deal with from my office,” reported the Montgomery Advertiser.
Gov. Robert Bentley shifted the responsibility of enforcing anti-gambling laws from executive-level sources to local officials in November 2015.
Senate Bill (SB) 320, which is currently progressing through the Legislature, would clarify that voters in Macon County, where VictoryLand is located, intended to vote for electronic bingo when they passed bingo amendments in 2003. Also moving through the Legislature, companion bills SB 340 and House Bill (HB) 419 propose amendments that would allow electronic bingo in Greene County, home of Greenetrack gambling complex.
As for the fantasy football debates, SB 114 and HB 56 seek to establish the Fantasy Contests Act to regulate the operation of fantasy or simulated sports contests.
Strange said April 5 that paid daily fantasy sports contests constitute illegal gambling and issued cease and desist letters to DraftKings and FanDuel.
“As Attorney General, it is my duty to uphold Alabama law, including the laws against illegal gambling,” Strange said in a press release. “Daily fantasy sports operators claim that they operate legally under Alabama law. However, paid daily fantasy sports contests are in fact illegal gambling under Alabama law.”
Alabama is among 11 other states where paid daily fantasy sports contests are illegal.
(TAB)
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