A recent Jefferson County court case has set the stage to put an end to the mushrooming video gambling industry in Alabama. Now what is needed is fortitude on the part of public officials to enforce existing state law.
The court case was a recent decision by Jefferson County District Court Judge Wayne Thorn that video gambling machines are games of chance and not games of skill. The machines, Judge Thorn said, are nothing but slot machines and illegal under Alabama law. That ruling came after the gambling industry’s own expert witnesses testified that the machines are set at a certain payoff level and no amount of skill can overcome that setting.
As a result of Judge Thorn’s decision, more than 6,000 video gambling machines in Jefferson County have been closed down.
Thankfully, the ruling provided the impetus for other counties to act. Walker, Autauga, Elmore, Chilton, St. Clair, Tuscaloosa and Etowah all have served notice that video gambling machines must be closed down and moved out.
In Baldwin and Mobile counties, the district attorneys did not wait on a court ruling. More than a month ago all video gambling operations in the counties were closed because the machines violated state law concerning games of chance.
Unfortunately, not all public officials are so inclined. In some counties, officials are holding back, allowing video gambling to continue until a ruling is handed down by a court in their county or by the Alabama Supreme Court. One can only wonder what would happen if such selective enforcement of state law were allowed on other issues besides gambling.
Video gambling is not a nickel and dime operation. Court testimony and interviews with arcade operators show it is big bucks. A single machine can produce around $1,000 per week in profit with average play. Put 20 or 30 of the two-foot square machines in a single room and the money adds up quickly. Arcade owners say it is easy to clear $25,000 or more each week.
Put 200 video gambling machines at a dog track, as one Alabama owner did, and the dollars jump considerably.
Most of that money is headed out of state. Alabama dollars land in deep pockets in Texas, New Jersey and elsewhere. On page 1 of this issue is the first of a two-part series tracing the money flow and ownership of many of the video gambling machines and arcades across Alabama.
What the stories show is that out-of-state gambling operations are fleecing state residents. The video gambling invasion of Alabama started after South Carolina courts closed down the wide-open casinos in that state. Alabama was a target for the gambling machines because of advance work about five years earlier in the state Legislature.
What was supposed to be an innocuous bill to allow games for kids (the Chuck E. Cheese bill) turned out to be a loophole through which the video gambling machines popped up all across Alabama. When the Chuck E. Cheese bill was introduced, Dan Ireland of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP) opposed the bill, saying it was unnecessary for the kids’ games. He warned legislators against passing the bill, but heavy lobbying got the bill adopted and signed into law.
Interestingly, the major financial backers of that bill are now showing up as major financial backers in the video gambling arcades. Coincidence? No. The gambling industry is well financed. Its strategy for spreading the gambling vice across Alabama and America is calculated and complex. It must be stopped.
Some video gambling patrons complained that with Alabama arcade gambling closing down, they will have to go back to the Mississippi casinos where they used to play before arcades began mushrooming in Alabama about a year ago.
Gamblers know the machines played in Alabama arcades are just like the slot machines in the Mississippi casinos. The only difference is the amount of payout. Both are games of chance, and both are illegal according to Alabama law.
It is amazing that some public officials are slow to recognize this fact and hesitant to act when they do reach this inevitable conclusion. Alabama needs more public officials like the judges, district attorneys and sheriffs who are acting to put an end to video gambling in Alabama. The opportunity is at hand. It must not be missed.
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