Gov. Bentley removes AG Strange from authority to enforce gambling laws, puts power in hands of sher
By Charles J. Dean | cdean@al.com AL.com /Byline
Montgomery, AL
series /series Aka Story Package gallery-preview /gallery-preview Aka Secondary Package Attorney General Luther Strange will no longer lead Alabama's efforts to enforce the state's anti-gambling laws.
Gov. Robert Bentley, the man who put Strange in charge of enforcing those laws, removed him from that job today the same way he put him in charge: by executive order.
The new order removes Strange from the primary role of responsibility for enforcing anti-gambling laws and puts that authority in the hands of local sheriffs and district attorneys.
In the executive order Bentley notes that the state has spent more than $9 million enforcing the anti-gambling laws to end up in a place where a judge is now calling into question what is and is not legal.
"Recent judicial rulings have raised concern with the unequal enforcement of Alabama's criminal laws, including gambling laws, against individual and businesses," reads a section of the executive order.
On the responsibility for enforcing state laws, the order states:
"The responsibility for enforcement of Alabama's criminal laws most properly lies with he elected sheriffs and district attorneys of each county and is to be guided by their respective interpretation of the laws of the state of Alabama in their capacity as constitutional officers and officers of the courts."
Bentley's very first official act as governor came on his first full day in office in 2011 when he issued his first executive order naming Strange as the state's point man in enforcing gambling laws.
That order also disbanded a task force that former Gov. Bob Riley had appointed to enforce gambling laws in late 2008.
In appointing that task force and naming a commander of it Riley removed then-AG Troy King from being in charge of enforcing the laws on gambling. Riley acted after he came to believe King was not enforcing those laws.
No immediate reason was given by Bentley for removing Strange.
Bentley's action comes as the Alabama Supreme Court is weighing an appeal by Strange of a recent lower court order that would clear the way for controversial casino owner Milton McGregor to reopen his shuddered gambling operations in Macon County.
Last month Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy ruled that electronic bingo was legal in Macon County and that the state was "cherry picking" its enforcement of gambling laws when it shut down VictoryLand casino two years ago.
Strange has asked for a stay of that order and has appealed the ruling directly to the Supreme Court.
Should the high court rule against the state and Strange, then McGregor could move to reopen soon depending if he could find businesses to lease him gambling machines, which the high court has ruled to be slot machines and illegal under state law.
A high court ruling striking down Shashy's decision would kill any hopes McGregor could reopen.
Should the high court side with McGregor and McGregor to reopen his VictoryLand casino in Shorter, it could also likely lead to the reopening of the closed GreeneTrack casino in Eutaw in Greene County.
Voters in Macon and Greene counties years ago approved constitutional amendments authorizing bingo at the two places.
However the Alabama Supreme Court has consistently held since then that electronic bingo is a form of a lottery and as such illegal under state law.
The high court has also ruled that the machines that had been used to play electronic bingo are slot machines and as such are illegal.