Months before Country Crossing’s casino opened in Dothan in late 2009, Houston County commissioners and the casino’s developer, Ronnie Gilley, boasted of having proof that their gambling plans were legal. Unknown to most Alabamians, the group had received approvals from at least two of the state’s highest ranking officials — Attorney General Troy King and his former assistant Ken Steely. But from the time the development of Country Crossing was announced until its voluntary closing in January 2010, many other elected officials would be linked to gambling operations at the entertainment complex.
It all began Feb. 25, 2008, when Houston County commissioners surprised their constituents by quickly passing an “electronic bingo” ordinance allowing slot machine-style gambling. While some county residents were still reeling from that action, the commissioners also signed a contract with Gilley to build a 400-acre country music entertainment center using revenue from a slot machine facility being called an electronic bingo hall that was proposed for the development.
During that meeting, the commissioners were questioned about their actions and asked to table their votes but they did not. Chairman Mark Culver later said waiting would not have changed the commission’s vote in the end. Although Culver and his colleagues insisted their plans were to make the county’s charity bingo rules “more stringent” — as many other county and city officials have done — former Rep. Riley Seibenhener, who voted to pass the county’s charity bingo enabling legislation in 1995, disagreed.
“I’ve always been opposed to gambling, and I didn’t like the sneaky way they did it,” Seibenhener said at the time. “Chairman Mark Culver and the County Commission misled the public by saying they were doing this to regulate bingo, and the real purpose was for economic development. If they wanted to regulate bingo, they did not have to open it up 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Previously bingo in Houston County was limited to weekly five-hour sessions of charity games using paper cards.
News had not yet surfaced regarding King’s and Steely’s approvals allowing the commission’s new plans for the county. But 10 days before the commission’s “bingo” vote, Steely gave Commissioner Gary Sherer a “legal opinion” concerning the commission’s plans to develop rules to license and operate “electronic or media bingo games.” Steely had recently left his position as primary assistant attorney general to King.
In his five-page letter, Steely referred to King’s 2004 findings that gambling could be operated on slot machine-style devices in Alabama. Steely also referenced a court opinion allowing “media bingo” in Jefferson County and a 2003 official opinion issued from King to Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Birmingham, authorizing bingo games on “paper cards, laptop computers or video consoles.”
“The lack of a specific rule or regulation providing for the determination or implementation of a ‘special permit,’ the Houston County Commission’s constitutional authority to provide rules and regulations for bingo games, the evolution of bingo games to include media or electronic bingo games and the Legislature’s silence regarding special permits and their acknowledgement of the Houston County Commission’s authority, all combine to provide the Houston County Commission the authority to create rules and regulations for a ‘special permit’ which would regulate media or electronic bingo,” Steely wrote.
With this “official opinion” in hand, construction began on Country Crossing and continued over the next year despite a battle of words brewing between the county’s officials and residents positioned on both sides of the issue.
In September 2008, King gave the commission an even stronger endorsement for its gambling strategy in two official opinions. One issued in April 2008 stated that the sheriff is “required to issue” electronic bingo permits after deeming applicants qualified. The other issued in September explained that Gilley could be compensated using revenue from Country Crossing’s charity bingo games.
“The club may pay compensation to a developer or its affiliates under a development and license agreement and trademark license agreement … in the form of a percentage of bingo revenue,” King stated in his opinion. “A ‘special permit’ holder is only required to comply with the rules and regulations for the operation of charitable bingo in Houston County (the constitutional amendment) in regards to operating bingo games under that special permit.”
Houston County’s constitutional amendment allowing bingo specifically prohibits this (see Houston County amendment, page 7).
Three months before King’s initial opinion was issued, he attended a party at Gilley’s home. The invitation read, “Come dressed for fun and join Attorney General Troy King for a bash you’ll never forget!”
Around this time, Sen. Harri Anne Smith, now an Independent after she did not receive the Republican Party’s support for re-election, said she was concerned about the gambling facility planned for the Houston County entertainment center.
“People contacted me both pro and con,” she told The Alabama Baptist in February. “I didn’t think the issue was clear if Houston County could offer this kind of bingo. I was concerned for my area because there was a lot of confusion. People wanted answers. The only thing I knew to do was to go to the governor (Bob Riley) and clarify.”
She continued, “I went along with [others] … (Rep.) Benjamin Lewis was there … along with business leaders from the area who were opposed to the bingo. … He (Riley) told us I needed to do a local bill and sent our group to the attorney general to see if he could do anything. We left the governor and walked over to the attorney general’s office. I showed him a copy of the local constitutional amendment. … His advice was to clarify it with legislation and allow the people to vote. … So, for two years, that has been my position.”
During the 2009 legislative session, Smith and Lewis sponsored companion bills to limit bingo in Houston County to paper games. Two weeks later, Smith withdrew her bill, saying she could not get support for it in the House from other legislators in her area.
Then, in December 2009, Smith allowed Gilley to host a $217,000 campaign fund-raiser for her. Smith said the money was not presented to her but used to pay for food, rentals, advertising, country music star appearances and other expenses associated with the event.
“A fund-raiser was held for me at the [Verizon Wireless BamaJam Music and Arts Festival] in Enterprise by Ronnie Gilley and 29 mayors in my district,” Smith told The Alabama Baptist in March.
Smith said she did not have a problem accepting Gilley’s fundraising help at that time, but allegations surfaced that she was changing her position from anti-gambling to pro-gambling.
“The accusation that the fund-raiser would in some way influence or change my opinion on how I would vote on this issue is just untrue,” Smith said. “I have been consistent in my position for several years now for allowing the people to vote.”
One month after Smith’s event and one year after King’s second Houston County opinion, King received more help from the Country Crossing family. Country music celebrity Randy Owen, who owns a venue at Country Crossing and campaigned extensively with Gilley for the development, honored King with a January 2010 fund-raiser in Birmingham.
Country Crossing held its grand opening Dec. 1, 2009. But Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling quickly swooped in to shut the business down.
Eventually the development voluntarily shut down the entire $87 million project Jan. 5 to avoid a task force raid, which reportedly could have resulted in the confiscation of more than 1,700 gambling machines.
For months, the commissioners and the Houston Economic Development Association, which was set up to receive charitable donations from Country Crossing, were at odds over whether the county should repay a portion of the $1.6 million the entertainment complex paid to operate in 2010.
In July, the commissioners entered into a court-ordered agreement to refund nearly $900,000 to the organization.
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