It finally happened. The State of Alabama filed suit to stop illegal slot-machine type gambling sponsored by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Some observers said it would never happen but on Feb. 19, it did.
On the same day, law enforcement officers from Attorney General Luther Strange’s office and the Department of Public Safety struck another blow against illegal gambling in Alabama. They closed down VictoryLand, the cornerstone of Milton McGregor’s gambling empire in the state, and seized hundreds of electronic gambling machines. When McGregor reopened his casino in December 2012, he argued his new gambling machines met the requirements set by the Alabama Supreme Court for legal bingo but state law enforcement agents found otherwise.
Hitting illegal gambling another blow would be more of a victory if the Republican-dominated state Legislature had followed through with its promise to make possession of illegal gambling devices a felony rather than a misdemeanor in state law.
Alabamians can be thankful the new majority in the Statehouse means pro-gambling bills are now dead on arrival rather than bogging down the legislative process as they did in former days. Yet attempts to strengthen Alabama laws against illegal gambling also appear dead on arrival.
Last year legislative leaders agreed to make possession of illegal gambling devices a criminal offense — a felony — rather than a misdemeanor, which means only a fine. But midway through the legislative session the agreement fell apart and the penalty for McGregor or anyone having hundreds of these machines is only a fine. There is no criminal penalty.
Part of the reason the coalition fell apart was pure politics.
Some leaders feared the attorney general would get too much political credit if the penalty was changed because his office proposed the legislation, sources revealed. Once that was known, insiders say, an updated version of the bill has not even been reintroduced in the current legislative session. No Republican wants to buck the leadership.
That leaves the state attorney general to plead in news releases that “The Legislature must change the weakness in our law and create a badly needed deterrent for large-scale illegal gambling by increasing the penalty for operating an illegal slot machine casino to a felony.”
More troublesome are rumors that are beginning to swirl around the state capitol about new efforts by gambling advocates. This time, according to the gossip, the plea is for the new power brokers to do nothing, just let the cat and mouse game between law enforcement and illegal gambling go on as it is. The results mean big paydays for the gambling moguls and no help for law enforcement.
We pray the reports are false. Surely there is more integrity in Montgomery than that. Surely legislative leaders know the best ways to help themselves in future races is to do everything they can to help Alabama now and that includes strengthening state laws against illegal gambling.
While this issue plays out in the Legislature, an equally and perhaps more important issue will play out in the courts — the battle against gambling sponsored by the Poarch Band.
They have scoffed at efforts by Alabama officials to curb their ever-expanding gambling. Their casinos have electronic gambling machines that are illegal everywhere else in Alabama.
Poarch Band gambling officials claim they are exempt from Alabama laws because their activities are governed by the National Indian Gaming Commission.
That claim may now be in trouble. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Carcieri v. Salazar that only Indian tribes recognized by the federal government prior to 1934 could benefit from the Department of the Interior’s effort to set aside state land for Indian use. The Poarch Band was not recognized by the federal government until June 1984 — 50 years after the deadline set by the Carcieri decision.
In the Carcieri decision, the Supreme Court voided actions taken by the Department of Interior related to Indians in the state of Rhode Island.
The same outcome may happen here. In a related brief, Alabama’s attorney general wrote, in part, “To be sure, the United States recognized the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in June of 1984, and the Secretary of the Interior purported to take certain lands into trust on the Tribe’s behalf … in the years since 1984. But unless the Poarch Band was ‘under federal jurisdiction’ as of 1934, the Secretary had no authority under federal law to take the Poarch Band’s landholdings into trust, and its actions were null and void.”
The Poarch Band and other tribes in the United States are so fearful of the impact of the Carcieri decision they are working in Congress to legislatively overturn it. During the final weeks of 2012, many tribes lobbied for what they called the “Carcieri fix,” legislation that would validate actions of the Department of the Interior for groups like the Poarch Band.
Thankfully 21 state attorneys general, including Alabama’s attorney general, joined together to convince legislators that “A ‘Carcieri fix’ would be bad for the people of the state of Alabama. Taking land into trust deprives local units of government and the State of the ability to tax the lands and calls into question the power of the state and local governments to enforce civil and criminal laws on the land,” as the Alabama attorney general wrote elected officials.
The Poarch Band sponsors gambling that is patently illegal under Alabama law. It needs to be stopped.
Thankfully, Alabama’s attorney general is trying to close down all illegal gambling in the state. We pray his efforts will succeed. And we pray the state Legislature will provide the tools necessary to help in this process.
Share with others: