Sen. Charles Bishop says electronic bingo is something no county needs. And during this legislative session, he hopes to eliminate it from the City of Jasper and Walker County with Senate Bills (SB) 400 and 401.
Since local leaders allowed digital bingo in the county last year, opposing parties have been disagreeing about the legality of countless bingo machines in the area. Bishop says his bills will forever remedy this issue.
“I don’t think you need to allow gambling to run rampant in a county under any circumstance, especially in Walker County where it’s … totally unregulated and controlled by the people in the business,” he said. “[My bill] take away the electronic slot machines that they are calling bingo.”
As much as Dan Ireland would like to see the bills signed into law, he has doubts that he ever will.
‘Cooperative effort’ needed
“Sen. Bishop, Rep. Tommy Sherer and Rep. Ken Guin all represent Walker County,” said Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program. “It’s going to take their cooperative effort to get it done.”
Currently SB400 is awaiting a Senate vote date to be assigned by the Rules Committee. SB401 has been “re-referred” to the tourism and marketing committee. Both bills have received minor language changes.
Bishop and Ireland encourage Alabamians to contact their legislators about supporting these bills.
In another legislative matter, two bills dealing with alcohol made progress in the House. One (HB196) would allow increased alcohol content in some beverages, and the other (HB260) would permit alcohol sales in state parks.
“All of these bills are presented to attract tourists to Alabama,” Ireland said. “Alcohol is not the answer to tourism or anything else in this state.”
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