That seems to be the argument former Jefco D.A. David Barber is making about the 100 or so machines seized from a White Hall Bingo center in Lowndes County before sunrise Thursday. If they have the potential for becoming a bingo machines, then they are bingo machines. There were about 950 machines at the center. Barber took only a representative sample. All of this will end up in court, as Barber, acting for Governor Riley, knows. The ultimate decision will be made by Alabama Supreme Court. But the core issue may be the fanatical battle against gambling that virtually all recent Alabama Governors have waged. And the decision to raid the bingo place in White Hall might have a connection to legislation being considered in the current session that would allow voters to decide if they want to regulate bingo AND start collecting taxes from the bingo halls AND from the Native American gaming facilities (they would be allowed to offer expanded gaming options under a "pact" with the state, but would agree to pay taxes for the first time too). You may have received in the mail the brochure pictured above, arguing for the legislation. And if you watch much TV, you've no doubt seen the ads featuring country music stars who are backing legislation to allow "charitable" electronic bingo at a string of music halls that would include bingo machines, including one near Dothan called "Country Crossing". Governor Riley gets into the act to with a Youtube video. He starts off telling us Alabama has "a quality of life that is unmatched anywhere in the world", so you know it's time to put on the boots (oh wait, he wears 'em!). I live in Alabama because it's a great place to live, but please...nobody has a better quality of life? What about the fact that Alabama has the 7th worst poverty rate in America. Do the children in Alabama who live in poverty think their quality of live is unmatched anywhere in the world? But I digress.
I've never been to a bingo hall. Been to Vegas once for a convention. Lost a few bucks on slots. Went with my parents to an Atlantic City Casino once and left a few dollars poorer. I have no dog in this fight at all. But it sure seems to me we're spending a disproportionate amount of time and money on preventing people who want to gamble, and who will do so no matter what the state commands, from doing do. The unemployment rate is headed up, and all of the traditionally high troubles we face can only get worse as the economy continues to sink. Is this the time for a war on bingo? Is anytime?
[UPDATE: Sunday 3/22/09, Birmingham News reporter Ken Faulk reports on charities that say they'll be hurt by bingo legislation]
Not that anyone nowadays would expect a "journalist" to actually look up a law before he blogs about it, but Barber was referring directly to Section 13A-12-20 of the Alabama Code and the 2006 Supreme Court decision (which he won) that shut down Milton's slot machines at the Birmingham racetrack. Both include in the definition of "slot machine" any devices which are convertible or adaptable to slot machines (i.e. capable of becoming slot machines). Neither Riley nor Barber wrote this law. The Legislature did. You have one thing right, instead of worrying about the economy or jobs or passing the budgets, the Legislature is spending an inordinate amount of time trying to exempt 5 casino magnates and magnate wannabes from the criminal law against slot-machine casinos in Alabama. Question: If this is legal electronic bingo, why are you guys so desperate to get a constitutional amendment passed to legalize it?
ReplyDeleteIf we're losing jobs to Mississippi and casinos are the answer, then why does Mississippi, with all of its fancy full-fledged casinos, have a higher unemployment rate?
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