By Sondra Washington
Since Gov. Bob Riley formed the Task Force on Illegal Gambling without Attorney General Troy King’s support, many of the state’s highest officials have questioned King’s ties to illegal gambling operations around the state.
It didn’t help that King was rumored to have growing personal ties to VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor. Now similar connections are being made to developers of Houston County’s Country Crossing and its bingo business.
At a recent press conference held in Montgomery, King strongly criticized the task force’s attempted raids on VictoryLand and Country Crossing. After the owners asked King to intervene, some expected him to announce plans to take over the task force. He refused but issued a warning to the governor that he may do so in the future.
King denied having any links to McGregor or Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley beyond “know(ing) them.”
The attorney general acknowledged attending an “economic development party that had nothing to do with gambling” when Country Crossing was proposed for Coffee County. Both Gilley and King are from that area.
King did attend a Jan. 24, 2008 event at Gilley’s home where the invitation read “Come dressed for fun and join Attorney General Troy King for a bash you’ll never forget!” The party occurred one month before Houston County commissioners changed the county’s bingo rules and entered into an agreement with Gilley to move the Country Crossing venture from Enterprise to Dothan. A year later, Country Crossing officials announced their Dothan-based “entertainment resort” could not be built without a 1,700-machine “electronic bingo” facility.
In March 2009, Gilley told legislators who were considering a bill to legalize slot machines at Country Crossing and other “points of destination” across the state that he could not build the entertainment center without the machines, which he called “electronic bingo.”
“It took Branson 40–50 years to build what they have,” Gilley said of the Missouri tourist destination that boasts more than 50 live performance theaters. “We don’t want to wait that long.”
He said the only reason he needed gambling legalized there was to finance the $250 million venture.
Since Houston County’s constitutional amendment only allows charity bingo games, questions remained as to how the facility’s charity bingo operations could serve as the financial backbone of a 400-acre project. Gilley and Wiregrass politicians said they received approval to operate in that manner. King provided at least one of the approvals in an Attorney General’s Opinion.
Months before Gilley’s March 2, 2009 ground-breaking ceremony for the Houston County development, King issued two official opinions related to Country Crossing. The first, issued April 21, 2008 to Gary Sherrer, attorney for the Houston County sheriff, said the sheriff is “required to issue” electronic bingo permits when he has “conducted an investigation and determined that an applicant has met the requirements and qualifications.” Previously there was confusion over whether the sheriff had discretionary authority in issuing permits.
This opinion is widely known. But five months later, King issued another opinion — one that some say violates the constitutional amendment allowing bingo in the county.
In the opinion, King responded to a request made by former Rep. Warren Beck, R-Geneva, explaining how Gilley was to receive money from the center’s “bingo” gambling operation.
“Your request states that a private club will operate bingo games in Houston County on premises leased at a fixed rate from an affiliated entity of a real estate developer,” King wrote. “The bingo games will be operated by the club’s employees. The club will, through a development and license agreement, purchase a license from the developer to operate the club’s electronic bingo machines and will obligate the developer to meet the economic development objectives set forth in a separate agreement between the developer and the county. The club will license … the name Country Crossing from the developer or its affiliate. The compensation to the developer under the development and license agreement will be a percentage of bingo revenue less prizes paid. This office understands that the compensation to the developer or its affiliate under the trademark license agreement will be a percentage of bingo revenue before prizes are paid.”
Houston County’s bingo amendment states, “No nonprofit organization or club may pay consulting fees, any compensation or salary to any individual or entity for any services performed relating to operating or conducting any bingo game. … One hundred percent of the net revenues derived from operating bingo games shall be designated and expended for charitable or educational purposes.”
Yet in his conclusion, King said, “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. 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.”
King’s ties to Country Crossing don’t end there. Randy Owen, lead singer of the country group Alabama, owns one of the venues at Country Crossing. Owen campaigned extensively with Gilley to garner support for slot machine-type gambling for the development.
Just one month after the development held its official Dec. 1, 2009 grand opening, Owen honored King with a Jan. 5, 2010 fund-raising event in Birmingham for King’s current re-election campaign. The invitation read “Please join Randy Owen of the Country Music Group ‘Alabama’ for an event honoring Alabama’s Attorney General Troy King.” Cost of the event was $500 per couple.
Yet in the aforementioned Montgomery press conference, King said Gilley had not held any fund-raising events for him and he “never attended an event in support of” the development.
He said nothing about campaign efforts on his behalf by Owen and Country Crossing.
At the same time events were being held in King’s honor, Riley’s task force had planned a raid on Country Crossing for operating illegal slot machines. King refused to get involved but sent several letters to Riley strongly opposing his actions.
“As a native son of the Wiregrass, I can tell you that some of Alabama’s finest citizens call Dothan and southeast Alabama home,” he wrote. “I am now in receipt of a letter from Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver and Dothan (Area) Chamber of Commerce President Matt Parker asking that I superintend these matters, restore civility and order to the process and litigate responsibly the issue of whether the machines at Country Crossing are bingo machines or slot machines. … Because the integrity of this office has been questioned, in light of your accusations, I am refraining from superintending this case at this time.”
When one Dothan official asked King to “step up to the plate in regards to what is going on down here in Houston County with Riley’s task force,” King responded, “I have been outraged by the governor’s attacks on my friends in the Wiregrass, and I have told him so. I am attempting to find a civil way for us to lay down the guns and the rhetoric and to take up the law and settle this matter once and for all. I hope you can respect my approach.”
In a letter responding to one of King’s letters, Riley wrote, “At the outset, we can agree on one thing: Houston County is populated by people of outstanding integrity and character. The illegal slot machines being operated at Country Crossing do not cast any cloud over those fine people. As you know from your experience as attorney general, even the best communities have criminal elements within them. And even the best communities can fall victim to the alluring promise of jobs and tax revenue that criminal enterprises used to gain a foothold for their illegal operations.”
(Jennifer Davis Rash contributed)
Share with others: