Republican Governor and Senate leader setting stage to start Las Vegas style gambling in Alabama?
By Charles J. Dean | cdean@al.com AL.com
Montgomery, AL
State Senate leader Del Marsh, the Legislature's top proponent of legalizing gambling, is praising Gov. Robert Bentley's decision today to remove the responsibility for enforcing gambling laws from Attorney General Luther Strange and handing it to sheriffs and district attorneys.
"The state and federal courts have now settled the question about whether or not we are going to have gaming -- it is legal and it is here to stay," said Marsh in a prepared statement.
Marsh, an Anniston Republican, is expected to push legislation early next year that would allow voters to decide if the state should have a lottery and whether the state should approve Las Vegas-style gambling at four sites across the state.
Two of the four sites that Marsh's legislation includes are the VictoryLand Casino in Macon County and GreeneTrack Casino in Greene County. Both places may have nudged a little closer to reopening to offer customers electronic bingo without Marsh's legislation Thursday with Bentley's decision.
Both the Greene County and Macon County sheriff's departments and the district attorney offices have a long history of having to be legally forced to enforce gambling laws that eventually shut down both places.
But Marsh didn't address any of that in his statement. Marsh has long held that gambling is a fact of life in Alabama and that the state needs to legalize it and tax it to better fund state services.
"The question is whether or not we are going to allow the people to vote and use it to generate badly needed tax revenue and badly needed jobs," said Marsh. "Governor Bentley has taken the bull by the horns on this issue and he has my full support. My priority, like the Governor, is making sure we have a job for every Alabamian. I look forward to the next Regular Session when the Senate and House will work together with the Governor to further this jobs agenda."
Marsh was not the only heavy hitter on the gambling front to note what Bentley did Thursday. The Alabama Jobs Foundation also praised Bentley. The group was formed earlier this year to push legalizing gambling.
"The Governor's action today reinforces a message the Alabama Jobs Foundation set forth at the outset of this debate: Gambling already exists in Alabama but we have not reaped the full financial impact nor have we maximized job creation opportunities," said Chip Hill, the foundation's executive director.
Hill said the foundation will continue to fully support passage of Marsh's bills that it maintains will further regulate gaming, generate over 400 million dollars annually, provide over 11,000 new jobs, and have a statewide economic impact of over $1.2 billion.
If VictoryLand and GreeneTrack are eventually allowed to reopen and play electronic bingo it's expected to employ several thousand, mostly workers who lost their jobs when the casinos were closed when former Gov. Bob Riley began a series of raids on them. He claimed that the electronic bingo games they offered were illegal and played on slot machines that are illegal.
The Alabama Supreme Court has consistently said that electronic bingo is illegal under state law and that the machines it is played on are illegal slot machines.