Alabama Fights for Legal Electronic Bingo

Two bills in the state Legislature (HB 676 and SB 471) seek to make what is now illegal electronic bingo gambling legal in Alabama. The purpose of these bills is to thwart Gov. Bob Riley's task force on illegal gambling.

At the recent House Tourism and Marketing Committee meeting, Chairman Johnny Mack Morrow said all of the parties with an interest came together in preparation of the bill. It is certainly true that all gambling interests in Alabama came together to propose a constitutional amendment which would monopolize, expand and immunize electronic bingo gambling in Alabama.

The Constitution of Alabama does not permit games of chance. Alabama citizens have permitted only 18 constitutional amendments to permit limited charitable bingo by churches, civic groups, fire halls and other charities.

In the 1970s, gambling interests tried to expand gambling in Alabama with proposals such as video poker. These were based on electronic machines. The efforts failed, but it opened the door for conversion of these machines to electronic bingo gambling. Under the guise of the 18 amendments, charitable bingo expanded into real gambling. The certain knowledge of this was realized when Houston County in 2008 decided it had authority to open a casino. Following that, Etowah County proposed a casino, and bingo gambling began to expand in other counties.

Law enforcement was having a difficult time contending with this, and when there were no aggressive efforts to address the problem, Riley set up a task force and charged former Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber with the authority to bring a case to the Alabama Supreme Court to determine if this electronic bingo is legal.

For the complete story, please see A. Eric Johnston, Electronic bingo: Let's finally decide gambling issue, Al.com, April 26, 2009.