Alabama gambling task force raids White Hall bingo center

Bob Blalock By Bob Blalock
on March 27, 2009 at 2:01 AM, updated March 27, 2009 at 2:58 AM

Gov. Bob Riley believes there are illegal slot machines operating in Alabama under the guise of do-gooder bingo. And he's organized a task force to deal with the problem.

Last week, the task force undertook its most dramatic steps so far, raiding White Hall Entertainment in Lowndes County, carting off 101 electronic gambling machines and seizing $560,000 in cash.

Nobody was arrested, but that's not really the point. The task force's leader, retired Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber, wants to get the issue of electronic bingo before the Alabama Supreme Court much in the way he did the now-defunct Internet Sweepstakes operation at the Birmingham Race Course.

Obviously, the governor hopes Barber will achieve the same results, and electronic bingo will go the way of the sweepstakes. Which is to say, it will go away.

As test cases go, White Hall was a reasonable choice.

A constitutional amendment that explicitly gave Lowndes County a green light to operate "media bingo" was invalidated by courts based on a challenge raised by Attorney General Troy King. The amendment had been approved only by Lowndes County voters, but King argued it should have required statewide approval because of a single opposing vote when the measure was before the Legislature. He won the point in court.

Since then, White Hall Entertainment has continued to operate under the county's old bingo amendment, which does not refer to electronic gambling.

In King's view, though, that's OK. He contends electronic bingo is legal in counties where bingo is legal unless the specific amendment restricts the game to its paper versions. He points out the federal Indian gambling rules consider the electronic and paper versions interchangeable.

King's stance has angered gambling opponents. But if Riley and Barber have their way, the issue will be resolved by state courts, and the impact could go far beyond White Hall.

If, for example, the courts rule electronic bingo is not to be permitted unless expressly allowed by constitutional amendment, a number of counties would be affected -- and not just the upstarts like Walker County that have recently waded (or jumped headfirst) into electronic bingo.

While Greene County voters have approved an amendment that specifically defines bingo as including electronic versions, it's a different story in Macon County, home of the huge VictoryLand operation. There, the local bingo amendment doesn't refer to electronic gambling one way or the other.

Could a court ruling on White Hall reach across to impact Walker County, Houston County and even VictoryLand? Nobody can say for sure. But Barber and Riley were clearly willing to roll the dice to find out.