Bingo Machine Standoff

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley gained more ground May 21 in his quest to ban electronic bingo machines when the state Supreme Court ruled Attorney General Troy King doesn’t have the power to override the governor’s anti-gambling task force.

King doesn’t support Riley’s quest to shut down state-regulated facilities that have allegedly illegal, Vegas-style bingo machines, so he took control of the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling mid-March. Riley fired back, saying King doesn’t have the power to override him, and the anti-gambling raids continued.

Riley claims the laws allowing bingo in some counties refers to the traditional, human-interaction paper games, not the slot-machine bingo games in use across the state.

However, Native American casinos are reportedly not under the same scrutiny.

One of the casinos affected by Riley’s quest is at the Country Crossing entertainment complex in Dothan, which opened in December.

Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley and the Houston Economic Development Association ended up closing the facility voluntarily Jan. 29 because of threats of task force raids to seize the 1,700 bingo machines there. Hundreds of employees were left without jobs as a result.

State legislators reportedly introduced a bill in February to allow voters to decide at the Nov. 2 general election whether the electronic machines should be allowed.