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Gov. forms task force to probe gambling
Published Monday, December 29, 2008
MONTGOMERY — Gov. Bob Riley created a task force Monday to investigate gambling operations statewide and picked a veteran antigambling prosecutor to lead it.
Riley bypassed state Attorney General Troy King to create the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling, headed by former Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber. Riley initially appointed King in 2004, but they now disagree about Alabama's gambling laws.
Riley said King believes there are loopholes that permit electronic gambling machines in some locations, but Riley considers many of them to be illegal slot machines.
"I believe what is going on in many of these halls all over the state is illegal," Riley said at a news conference in the Capitol.
Neither Riley nor Barber would single out any operation they consider illegal, but Riley said the legal argument for electronic bingo halls in Walker County "goes against well-established judicial precedent."
The attorney general said later that he and the governor are both opponents of gambling, but he must abide by state law on gambling.
"We are constrained not by how I would like the law to be, but by how the law is," King said in an interview.
He said his office had helped shut down more than 30 illegal gambling operations without assistance from the governor's office.
"Fighting illegal gambling is expensive and time-consuming. I wish all these resources coming available now had been available earlier," King said.
Electronic bingo machines operate at the dog tracks in Macon and Greene counties and at gambling halls in Lowndes and Walker counties. A resort featuring electronic bingo machines is being constructed in Houston County, and other gambling halls are planned elsewhere.
These electronic bingo games operate under state constitutional amendments permitting bingo that benefits charities. They do not pay any state tax.
Some legislators have discussed expanding gambling and levying state taxes to help ease budget cuts, but Riley said he will oppose that when the Legislature convenes Feb. 3. He said the proposed taxes would be "table scraps" when compared to the operators' profits from more gambling.
"The gambling axis in Alabama is not interested in rescuing Medicaid or education. They could care less," he said.
In addition, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians operates electronic bingo gambling in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery. Those machines operate under federal supervision rather than state supervision, and they also do not pay state taxes.
Barber spent 24 years as the district attorney in Birmingham. He successfully fought electronic games that offered $5 gift certificates to winners, and in 2006, he won a case at the Alabama Supreme Court that shut down video sweepstakes games at the Birmingham dog track.
Milton McGregor operates the dog track in Birmingham as well as the dog track in Macon County, which has the state's largest installation of electronic gambling machines. He was out of his office Monday and not immediately available for comment.
For several years, the Legislature has considered bills to allow electronic bingo machines at the dog tracks in Birmingham and Mobile in return for them paying a tax, but the legislation has never passed.
In six years as governor, Riley has appointed many task forces to study issues and recommend solutions, but he is taking a new approach by creating a task force headed by a prosecutor who has backup from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
Riley said Barber retains legal authority as a "supernumerary" district attorney who can be called back into service by the governor. He said Barber will have statewide authority and can bring civil or criminal actions.
Barber said he will work with local district attorneys and sheriffs, some of whom already have court cases pending over the legality of bingo operations in their counties.
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Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 29, 2008 at 8:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ok. This is "expensive to investigate". Now we are already paying David Barber over $100,000.00 per year in supernumerary retirement. Now we are going to give him an office and a state vehicle. A gas card and a staff of employees. Uncle Milton's not getting revenue from Walker and Lowndes county bingo halls. And they ARE eating into his dog track profits. So he leaves his house on South Court street, walks over to the Guv's mansion two blocks away a has Uncle Bob go after the bingo machines. We spend piles of money fighting an issue that is legal in 44 states. Why not legalize all gambling, tax it, and reap a little of the SINNERS money? Man! Talk about backwards! Then, we have the Alcohol Beverage Control board, (headed by Dick Tracy himself, Uncle Emory Folmar) getting in on the action. All the while most of the enforcement officers and prosecutors go to Tunica, Biloxi, Philadelphia, and Vegas to gamble. Why? Because it's legal there. Sometimes the DA's and different law enforcement agencies even have conferences at some of the hotels with casinos. I know this from having attended some of the classes and conferences paid for by the State of Alabama. This is a political ploy instigated by the right hand because the left hand never gets to hold the cash.
Posted by TheDude (Michael Wells) on December 30, 2008 at 6:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Gambling is an addiction. Gambling ruins people's lives, increases crime, and invites corruption. So many lives would be ruined if ignorance opened this "Pandora's box" in the State of Alabama.
Posted by kittycreek (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 8:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The gambling is already here and so is the corruption. Keeping it illegal only deprives Alabama of revenue that is now going to other states or to the hands of a few people who are raking in the bucks for themselves.
Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"All the while most of the enforcement officers and prosecutors go to Tunica, Biloxi, Philadelphia, and Vegas to gamble. "
To quote a former professor of mine "42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot."
"Most" are going to gamble? Are there documents to back that up?
I just love it when people say "They're doing it anyway. Why not legalize and tax it?"
We have legalized and taxed tobacco and the government spends billions every year treating people with tobacco-related health problems.
Legalized alcohol? Treat the people with cirrosis and other medical problems, not to mention those left incapacitated after drunk-driving accidents (not just the drunks, but the innocent victims too).
And today, we have the "legalize" cries out for marijuana, gambling, and some even want all drugs legalized and "controlled" so we can use the taxes to improve our lives.
Gambling is an addiction for many, even when it's hard to do. Make it easier, and the addictions become more prevalent. Stories of people gambling away their rent, food and diaper money aren't rhetorioc, they're reality. So are the stories of people commiting crimes to feed the habit or to get some money after they've lost theirs.
Look around the casinos. How many pawn shops can you find? They're not there so the big winners can come out and buy a nice watch.
Georgia was going to educate every child in the state with Lotto funds. They've already had to change the deal a couple of times because that panacea didn't produce the ever-flowing river of revenue they had hoped for.
I don't give a rat's hindparts if my neighbor drives to Florida for lotto tickets.
I'me waiting for the day they catch McGregor with his hand in someone's pocket.
Posted by TheDude (Michael Wells) on December 30, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Got your back brother! That's what I'm talkin' about ...
"To quote a former professor of mine "42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot." Good one, steve42. The thing is ... would the revenue collected from gambling be worth the thousands of lives that would be devastated from it?
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 9:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't buy the addiction crap. Whether it's gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. Being "addicted" is being weak minded. And I've never heard of a carjacking or home invasion to feed a "habit" of playing poker, blackjack, pai gow, craps, roullette, keno, bingo, or to buy lottery tickets. Alabamans want guns, alcohol, and cigarettes, but no gambling, unless, Milton McGregor sanctions it and is the sole beneficiary of it. Sounds like uncle Miltie should be elected governor, coach of Alabama and the next pope all at the same time. Lord knows Alabamans GIVE him enough money and he has more than all three of the aforementioned positions. Furthermore, legalized gambling IS coming to the state. This task force will eventually give it's results to a future gaming study. That will eventually lead to legalized gaming. Meanwhile we will throw millions of dollars in a bottomless pit. There is a local contractor currently building a hotel in Mobile with the future expansion plans for a Casino. There are political plans to develop Mobile for the first state regulated casinos. So cry foul, addiction, or criminal gambling cartels if you want, but it IS coming in a legalized format.
Posted by southernpride (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Stop whining over what all the so called negative things gambling brings unless you are at Uncle Milton's gambling establishments protesting against them!!
Face it if someone is addicted to gambling they will go out of state or gamble on football games, buy raffle tickets from schools or sheriff's departments and etc..
Drugs are illegal and any idiot knows you can get all you want anytime you want. No I am not advocating legalizing them.
Seems to me that this is akin to those that want a dry county but buy alcohol in clanton support businesses in Clanton that do sell it.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 10:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Steve42, no need for documents. I've been there and have seen it for myself. We had a couple of locally elected officials whom I have witnessed gambling in the casinos and then come home to Alabama to enforce the laws against that same activity. If they were in Holland using legalized heroine then came home to enforce those laws would there be an outcry?
Posted by TheDude (Michael Wells) on December 30, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Some just don't get it. You ought to think about someone else's needs besides your own, sometimes. A lot of people are suffering because of the recession and you want to throw them to the dogs. Smart thinking ...
Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've been in those convenience stores just across the state line, and I've watched people climb out of 20 year old cars that are held together with coat hangers and duct tape and go drop 100's of bucks on a stack of lottery tickets.
I've NEVER seen anyone get out of a new Mercedes, Inifiniti or BMW and buy a single ticket. Gambling is a regressive tax on stupidity.
I have protested McGregor, and I've never given him a dime.
Greentrack was going to save Greene County, and anyone who can say those people are better off than they were 25 years ago is a liar or a fool. Crime is up though.
Are the schools better in states that legalized gambling than they were before they did so? How about the highways and bridges? I've seen drugs and prostitution thrive in Biloxi and Gulfport. Why? Because the people who make the most money off of gambling also make the most money off prostitution, drugs, and racketeering.
Oh, but I forgot all the jobs they create. People clamoring for $9 an hour hostess jobs working 3rd shift. I would think your unions would be setting to work to deal with the evil casino owners to prevent exploitation of the workers.
There's a long term plan. We should legalize gambling and encourage unionization of the workers. In 30 years, all the casinos will move to Mexico so they can compete again. :-)
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 12:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ok, let's see. We have prostitution right here in Clanton. We have alcohol sales too. We have crime going up also. If you want to make an argument against gambling, try doing it with scripture and using a moral platform. Because your argument from an econmic and social standpoint is useless. Administrative failures in government spending is what has led to the demise of America's infrastructure. Not the evils of sin and it's taxes.
Posted by eagle1 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You're talking about the ratio of an A-bomb compared to an M80, kw.
Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We've got crime now, so why take measures to prevent more? Lovely.
If I were to make a moral/scriptural argument, then I would get hammered for trying to force my religious beliefs on others. Now my socio-economic arguments are "useless."
In other words, any argument I make is invalid because it doesn't line up with the DNC, the IBEW or any other group that supports "the working man".
Thanks, but I'll stick to my own researched and self-derived opinions. I might be wrong, but no one will go bankrupt or get into so much debt that they lose their wife and kids along with their house by following my advice on the matter.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 2:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If a person is so weak that legalized gambling in Alabama will cause them to lose their house, family, cars, and dog, then they probably aren't responsible enough to take care of those things anyway. My work requires me to travel. For the last year I have stayed in a retiremet community while in Las Vegas working. I am literally 200 yards from one of the largest Casinos in Vegas. The Palms. In this community I have seen no prostitutes, car jackings, robberies, burglaries, or murders. Now there is all of that in this town. But it has not affected me. I don't know what goes on in the casinos but the local news did show a stabbing death at a local curch during a service. When I was home in November there were robberies and burglaries in Clanton just a couple of miles from my house. I saw prostitutes a few blocks from the airport in Birmingham. Think those prostitutes would leave if they closed the airport? Think there would be more if the airport expanded? Think Wetumpka has had a huge spike in crime with the Poarch Creek gaming? And as for pawn shops...there two within two blocks of downtown Clanton. Sure are a lot of gamblers in those two blocks! People's behavior is going to be erratic if that is how their personality is. I have never smoked cigarettes or dope. So I don't know what an addiction is. Have never had a gambling habit. Not my thing. Not predisposed to violence unless provoked, then, it's a last resort. So, why not make money off of peoples stupid little whinney addictions. If they lose everything and die under a bridge, then overpopulation control has it's merits.
Posted by November162000 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 3:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
kw: I'm with you on this one. You pretty much nailed it. Some of the same people who are in favor of going after this terrible moral crime that our Goober In Chief in Montgomery has gotten all fired up about have no problem at all with more population and expansion moving into Clanton and bringing their crime and other moral turpetudes with them. But we sure can't have some fool sitting around smoking his brain out while putting money into a machine.
I'm with you on the 'addiction' issue, too. And the population control angle as well. If the number of pawn shops or payday loan stores are the measure that we use for gauging the benefit of having gambling in our midst, then we must have a HUGE casino here somewhere that I just haven't seen yet.
Posted by PhilBurnette (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 3:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Moral arguments aside, AG King is doing his job to the best of his ability with respect to the laws currently on the books. Riley is not satisified with that so he trots out "supernumerary" Barber whom he feels will be a yes man and pawn for him.
Riley should be forced out of office. How many times will the citizens of Alabama allow him to do as he pleases regardless of laws in place or election results? Anyone else remember the property tax assessment debacle? His massive ego does not belong in the Governor's mansion.
Bob Riley does not represent what is best about Alabama or her people. And he certainly does not care about your opinion if it differs with his.
How about we remove him and put Troy King in? Our Attorney General has respect for our laws and does not try to find ways of circumventing them.
Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was typing a response, but you know what? Never mind.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Posted by TheDude (Michael Wells) on December 30, 2008 at 5:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's hard to respond to a brick wall, steve42. Break it down, go over it, or around it. kw, there are a LOT of people in this world that aren't like you. They have problems, which life dealt out to them and some have to deal with these problems the rest of their lives w/o help from others. They don't get to do what they want to do and go where they want to go. Survival is day to day. Gambling brings along with it, a multitude of negatives that would directly and indirectly affect thousands of people in all walks of life. Oh, and if you want to see more crime in Las Vegas, watch "COPS". It's happening all around you on any given day. DOH!
Posted by eagle1 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 5:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Stir it up, Kemo Sabe!
Posted by November162000 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 5:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
PhilBurnette: I agree with your assessment of the Guv wholeheartedly, although I'm not so sure about the AG. I do remember the property tax debacle that you mentioned. He tried to convince us that there was just no way that the state was going to be able to stay afloat unless we approved his tax sceme. We told him resoundly where to put his tax plan and less than a year and a half later the state had a large budget excess, so much money that they just didn't know what to do with it. He gave no thought whatsoever, though, about saving it for the next year that had a budget deficit. Now we're broke again and he seems to have plenty of money to spend on his latest knee-jerk crusade to save us.
Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 8:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dude,
It's not the brick wall that bothers me. It's the "useless" and "weak" nonsense. An opinion that differs from mine isn't useless. A person with problems I don't have aren't weak.
When you come into a debate with that kind of attitude, it's not a debate, it's a monologue with occasional interruptions.
Who needs it? I've got better things to do with my time than argue.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 9:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The thing about the tax plan Bubba Bob had, he side stepped us and shoved annual appraisals down our throat. That made my property taxes jump up severely. But Bubba Bob got his way. Dude I have just as many problems as the next person. But I don't WORRY. God handles the problems. I go to work. I love my work. I sweat, bleed and ache doing my job. But the rewards are worth the sacrifice. I don't blame the world or any person for my life. I love it and live it. I don't whine about it either. If I don't like a job I leave it. That RARELY happens. And I have learned to do a lot of different jobs. So gambling does not affect my lifestyle. Only when I make a purchase through E-trade do I really gamble. Commodity futures are more of a gamble than craps some days. But coffee and cocoa have been good. That's gambling. But I have a good friend who is a preacher and he day trades. Only he doesn't see it as gambling. He loses money and calls it God's will. I call it gambling on the market. And Dude, I don't watch cops. I lived
that life once and don't care to watch it on television. Billy Wayne Fulmer, Buck Foshee, Scot Ward and I went to a school in Orlando, put on by the guys who were part of the original first season of Cops in Broward County. I have never watched an episode since 1993.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 9:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dude, you noticed when Stevie's attacks got personl on me, about the same time, people with like views as mine posted opinions. Stevie decided to stop "debating" and make more attacks. He doesn't need to defend his opinion, God love him, no one asked him to. I just don't buy into the poor pitiful me attitude he defends. If a person has an addiction, that person is weak minded. That's my opinion. I have known people who suffered from "depression". I have known several who committed suicide. I never bought the depression crap. It was an excuse for not owning up to personal failures and getting over it.
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