Alabama’s gambling battle has erupted, forcing state and local officials to pick a side and join the fight. Even Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board employees were ordered not to patronize or release any “secret security plans” about the “illegal (gambling) machines” at Houston County’s Country Crossing and Macon County’s VictoryLand casinos.
Now fear of law enforcement raids and several court rulings against the slot machines being presented as electronic bingo have gambling supporters pushing harder than ever to legitimize their practices through the state’s lawmakers.
Earlier in the legislative session, gambling opponents and supporters expressed concerns about House Bill (HB) 154, sponsored by Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, which seeks to legalize slot machines and protect gambling operations from taxes and threats of criminal prosecution and law enforcement raids. For a few weeks, the issue lay dormant at the Statehouse while some of the state’s largest casinos fought the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling to keep their doors open and machines intact. Then during the first week of February, legislators filed a flurry of bills to legalize and expand gambling around the state.
Two companion bills — HB 507, sponsored by Black and Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, and Senate Bill (SB) 380, sponsored by Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville — seek to change the definition of bingo to include games played on slot machines currently being used around the state. The bills also propose a constitutional amendment allowing a point-of-destination gambling facility in each of Alabama’s seven congressional districts.
At press time, a combined public hearing was scheduled for Feb. 9 at the Statehouse for the two bills, which could pass from their respective committees and be placed on the House and Senate calendars the same day.
“We have been told there is going to be an attempt to push these (bills) through both the House and the Senate next week,” said Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program. “They (legislators) are getting pressure from the gambling bosses. The courts, along with the governor’s task force, are one-by-one shutting these places down. The gambling bosses are fighting with every ounce of energy they’ve got and with every penny they’ve got to keep these places open, and we have to fight to stop it.”
Still those are only two of the newly filed pro-gambling bills facing Alabama’s legislators. While Bedford originally denied involvement with any bingo legislation, he also sponsored SB 379, which seeks to legalize gambling until Alabamians can vote on the previously mentioned bills Nov. 2. This bill appears to be the Senate version of Black’s HB 154.
Although these new bills were filed two days after Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, filed SB 333 and 334, Beason’s bills did not receive the same “hurry up” attitude from legislative leaders. His bills had not been placed on the Senate’s Tourism and Marketing Committee meeting calendar at press time. SB 333, which calls for a statewide vote, would specify that the Legislature “would have no power to authorize any gambling activity” and instead “shall pass laws to further prohibit such gambling activity.” SB 334 would “provide a civil cause of action to recover civil monetary penalties for illegal gambling activities.”
Sen. Marc Keahey, D-Grove Hill, who recently took over the late Sen. Pat Lindsey’s seat, filed SB 381 calling for a vote of the people to “establish the Alabama Gaming Commission to regulate commercial bingo operations.”
Godfrey encouraged Alabama Baptists to also join the fight and contact their legislators. “They (legislators) need to step up to the plate and do the right thing not for a handful of gambling bosses but do what’s good for all the people of Alabama.”
Share with others: