If you blinked during a recent Houston County Commission meeting, you may have missed two votes that could turn the area into a national tourist attraction smeared with gambling.
In an unprecedented move, the Houston County Commission decided Feb. 25 it had the authority to determine what type of gambling is allowed in a community that has been given permission to hold limited charity bingo, said Birmingham attorney Eric Johnston.
And the rapid pace by which the decisions were made has left some residents feeling taken advantage of.
First, the group adopted new regulations that restrict special charitable bingo permits to companies with $2 million in liability insurance, $500,000 in liquor liability insurance, onsite security and first aid personnel. The companies, which can provide electronic bingo around the clock – except for nine hours on Sunday (4 a.m. to 1 p.m.), must also be part of a development that incorporates a hotel, restaurants, dinner theaters, retail space and a 3,144-seat entertainment venue.
‘More stringent’
Although charity bingo halls are currently limited to weekly five-hour sessions using paper cards, Chairman Mark Culver said the new rules are “more stringent.”
“We were told that electronic charitable bingo … could have been done (since a 1994 amendment legalized bingo in the county),” said Culver who has been on the commission since 1986 and chairman since 1997. “Our commission is a very conservative commission. Four of (the five of) them are Baptists. We wanted to regulate it to the extent that we could to keep bingo halls from popping up all over the county. We … felt like we were doing the right thing for the citizens of the county by restricting it.”
But former State Rep. Riley Seibenhener, who voted to pass the charity bingo enabling legislation in 1995, strongly disagreed with passing the new regulations.
“I’ve always been opposed to gambling, and I didn’t like the sneaky way they did it,” he said. “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.”
Seibenhener said he didn’t get a copy of the information being discussed until less than three hours before the meeting started. And when he and others asked the commission to delay their vote, their requests were ignored.
Culver said he did not believe tabling the commission’s vote would change it in the end.
“We had Mr. George Jones (representing the Gilley Properties venture) sitting there in the audience,” he said. “Without that component, there was some concern that the project and all the monies for charities would be lost.”
Johnston said that while the commission may have indeed followed all the rules for open meeting laws, there is still a question about what was done. “The ordinance is a very long, carefully written document, which they paid someone a lot of money to write,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen overnight.”
The bingo decision moved through the commission quickly, as did the second vote — to enter a development agreement with Ronnie Gilley Properties to create Country Crossing, a 500-acre entertainment district. The site, projected to open June 2009, will include an amphitheater, three hotels, several restaurants, an amusement park, dinner theaters, retail shops, an RV park and an electronic bingo facility.
Originally planned for Coffee County, a predominantly dry county without legalized bingo of any form, officials switched locations because they could not get a liquor license, Johnston said. “Houston County became a better location because they could get gambling and liquor and make it a casino.”
The development is expected to bring in nearly 5,000 jobs and more than $206 million in tax revenues to Houston County over its first 10 years. Organizers of the bingo facility say they will make $1 million yearly for local charities.
But Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program, warns about the facade of promised income and exactly how the rules apply.
Several country music stars including Jones, Tracy Lawrence and Darryl Worley have already committed to participate in the project through regular appearances and signature venues.
Culver said the great majority of county residents are excited about the new development.
Others disagree.
“They are going to create a gambling mecca in a new, growing, family-oriented city, which will change the complexion of it forever,” Johnston said. “It will have strip joints, bars and other scummy things that go along with that.”
Seibenhener believes the development could have been developed without gambling.
“When VictoryLand in Macon and Greenetrack came in, it was only dog racing,” he said. “In the 30 years they have existed, they have grown to a full-scale casino. They were taking little steps, and we are fooling ourselves if we think this is not going to happen Houston County.”
Ireland said it would indeed “open Pandora’s box.”
“It’s just a stepping stone where eventually gambling will be legal all over the state,” he said.
Noting a group of prominent Houston County citizens is currently exploring legal action, Ireland said, “I think the county commission overstepped their rights.
“It is such a tragedy that you mesh all this together and build it as family entertainment.”
(Jennifer Rash contributed)
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