MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – A judge trying to decide the legality of 1,615 gambling machines seized from VictoryLand casino in Macon County said Friday the issue would be simpler if a constitutional amendment allowing bingo in the county had used the term “electronic bingo.”
Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy has presided over a four-day non-jury trial focusing on the machines. The attorney general seized them in a raid on Feb. 19, 2013, and wants the judge to declare them illegal and allow their destruction. VictoryLand’s attorneys are seeking a ruling they are legal forms of bingo, which could allow what was once Alabama’s largest casino to reopen.
The judge expected to complete the trial Friday afternoon and then take the issue under advisement.
The Alabama Legislature approved a proposed constitutional amendment in spring 2003 to let Macon County voters decide whether they wanted to legalize bingo in the rural county. Voters approved it overwhelmingly in November 2003 and the VictoryLand casino opened the next month 15 miles east of Montgomery.
The Macon County constitutional amendment used the term “bingo” but did not define it.
“It would have been a lot simpler to put ‘electronic bingo’ in there. It would have been simpler for everyone,” the judge said in court Friday.
Former Rep. Johnny Ford, who sponsored the 2003 legislation, testified Friday that he intentionally left out a definition because he wanted to include all forms of bingo. Former Sen. Myron Penn, who guided the legislation through the Senate, and Ford testified voters understood the constitutional amendment would allow electronic bingo.
To back up their statements, they pointed to fliers and newspaper ads run by proponents and by opponents, such as the Christian Coalition of Alabama, that said the issue was over electronic bingo games.
“We explained to our citizens that when they voted on bingo, we meant all forms of bingo,” Ford testified.
The attorney general’s office says the VictoryLand games don’t meet criteria set by the Alabama Supreme Court in a similar casino case from Lowndes County. In that case, the court said the machines didn’t have the elements of traditional bingo, such as players paying attention to numbers called, marking their cards and announcing when they won a game.
VictoryLand casino did not reopen after the raid last year. One gambling hall in Houston County and two in Greene County that were raided by the attorney general have reopened with new machines. Houston, Greene and Lowndes counties have constitutional amendments allowing bingo, but they are each worded differently.
The Poarch Creek Indians now operate Alabama’s largest casinos, with facilities in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka, but they are governed by federal law.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
