Welcome Silence from Gambling Crowd

Welcome Silence from Gambling Crowd
By Bob Terry


Like other states across the nation, Alabama faces serious financial problems. Gov. Robert Bentley has been painfully honest about pending cuts in the education budget as well as in state services. It will take the best efforts of elected officials and civic and business leaders working together to address the myriad of financial challenges facing our state. Thankfully, this year, the gambling interests will not be around, attempting to pervert the public good into private gain. This year, the governor, Legislature and others can devote their attention to the real issues.

Remember 2009, when supporters of legalized gambling filibustered their own bill while trying to get enough votes for passage? That was not the only time the legislative process was stymied by the gambling crowd as it tried to force casino-style gambling on Alabama. Last year, then-Gov. Bob Riley stood in the gap, attempting to stop the expansion of gambling. Ultimately the primary gambling bill failed to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives when pro-gambling legislators fell a handful of commitments short of the number of votes needed for passage.

But 2011 is a different year. Many members of the gambling crowd are no longer in the Legislature. As of early March, not a single pro-gambling bill had even been filed for consideration. Perhaps that is because the “Big Daddies” of gambling are occupied, preparing to defend themselves against federal corruption and vote-buying charges.

Last year, Ronnie Gilley, owner of Country Crossing in Dothan and a defendant in the federal case, bragged after the primary elections that he would be back in business by mid-January. Gilley had closed his business rather than risk a raid by the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling. Now accused of trying to bribe a co-defendant, he resides in the Montgomery County Jail, awaiting his federal trial.

Some of the gambling crowd have turned on one another. This once united political front now has an every-man-for-himself attitude as each man or woman has tried to distance himself or herself from the others by seeking a separate trial, lest the guilt of one taint them all. The court rejected those requests.

At least one hired gun for the gambling crowd, lobbyist Jarrod Massey, has already pleaded guilty to the federal charges and is now in jail.

At the March 2 Legislative Prayer Luncheon sponsored by the State Board of Missions, gambling was not mentioned except for a brief reference to the absence of the issue. Gov. Bentley won’t have to address it, at least not this year. Alabama had to face the issue every single year during the Riley administration. What a difference.

Across Alabama, the gambling crowd is in full retreat. The city of Kimberly and Jefferson County recently won the right to destroy 189 electronic gambling machines seized from a building set up like a slot machine assembly line. The estimated cost of those machines and spare parts was almost $1 million. It is no wonder that a few days later, the major manufacturers of electronic gambling machines in Alabama accepted the “window of opportunity” offered by Attorney General Luther Strange to move the machines out of state without the threat of them being seized.

The three major manufacturers of gambling machines — International Gaming Technology, Bally Technologies and Multimedia Games — signed agreements to get their machines out of Alabama within 60 days. And the day before the announcement, reports surfaced of “several trucks” loading the machines from Country Crossing.

More than 12,000 electronic gambling machines were estimated to have operated in Alabama at some point in 2010. Reportedly VictoryLand in Shorter had the largest number with more than 6,000 active machines. Think of the investment these gambling giants made in the state. That is about $65 million in machine costs. And the manufacturers not only leased the machines to the operators but they also got a part of the profit in return.

While electronic gambling was brought in to Alabama under the guise of raising money for charities, it has never been about that. It has always been about casino-style gambling and the vast amounts of money the gambling crowd attempts to fleece from state citizens. The only reason the manufacturers are leaving is because they recognize the future of gambling in Alabama has changed.

But there is more to do. Three Indian casinos continue to operate. Obviously they are concerned about their future because they have begun a public relations campaign, trying to get people to look at their few charitable deeds rather than the underbelly of gambling in Alabama. It is an old trick of those who want to deflect attention away from the vice of their conduct. Thankfully the attorney general is going after the Indian casinos by asking the National Indian Gaming Commission to ban slot machine-style electronic bingo machines on tribal lands in Alabama. Admittedly that is an uphill fight given the debate over the issue since the machines started showing up in the state in 2003 and 2004.

However, it should be remembered that prior to those first machines appearing in the state, bingo gambling on Indian lands — and everywhere else in Alabama — was done on paper. It was 2004 when then-Attorney General Troy King issued a finding that state law permitted both paper and electronic bingo in Macon County (where VictoryLand is located) and Greene County (the home of Greenetrack in Eutaw) and at the three Indian bingo sites that the plague of electronic gambling swarmed the state.

Attorney General King’s views were not sustained when the Alabama Supreme Court later announced its definition of bingo. While the high court’s definition had limited application because the ruling did not explicitly outlaw electronic bingo, there can be no doubt that state law does not allow the electronic gambling machines now being carted out of the state. More proof of this is the “deafening silence” that met Attorney General Strange’s invitation to gambling machine manufacturers to settle the issue in state court.

Adding intrigue to the issue is a statement by the FBI supervisor of the current gambling corruption investigation. On March 1, FBI Special Agent Keith Baker said in court that the current case began in 2004 in a probe of VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and Attorney General King. The timing may be completely coincidental, but it will be interesting to see how this case develops and if any connection is exposed.

Neither state nor federal law on Indian gambling changed between 2004 and 2011. The only change was Attorney General King’s flawed finding. With that discredited, Indian gambling should be limited to what it was before that finding was released.

Alabama’s major destination gambling sites are closed. We hope local law enforcement will be diligent to close down the mom and pop gambling sites that continue to flaunt state law in some places. There is no question now about whether electronic gambling is legal in the state. It is not.

Again we are thankful state leaders can focus their efforts on addressing our real challenges and not be distracted by side issues like electronic gambling. Solving the state’s problems will take the best efforts of us all, and Alabama is worth our best efforts.