Circuit Judge Houston L. Brown recently ordered the state of Alabama to return 825 gambling machines seized in a raid in 2010 at Greenetrack in Eutaw by July 21. Hanson ruled the machines comply with a 2003 constitutional amendment authorizing bingo through “electronic marking machine” in Greene County.
Greenetrack Chief Executive Officer Luther “Nat” Winn praised the decision and said he hoped that Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange will abide by it. However, in a comment to the media, Strange said, “The Greene County Circuit Court’s decision in the Greenetrack case ignores the law as made crystal clear by the Alabama Supreme Court as recently as March 31. As in the other illegal gambling cases, we will file a motion to stay the ruling and follow that with an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court and abide by its final decision.”
Strange was referring to the Alabama Supreme Court’s March 31 ruling that overturned a lower court decision from June 2015, declaring the state did not have to return 1,615 gaming machines and $263,000 in cash taken in a February 2013 raid at VictoryLand in Shorter, Macon County. The verdict overturned a trial judge’s rulings that the state cherry-picked enforcement of gambling laws and that the casino’s machines were legal under a constitutional amendment approved by Macon County voters in 2003. The Supreme Court found that the machines did not meet the legal definition of bingo.
VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor said he will not appeal the state’s high court ruling but instead will take the case to federal court or the U.S. Supreme Court. McGregor said, “There is no need to go before that corrupt Bob Riley court again, because everyone in the state knows what the outcome would be.” McGregor stated despite the court loss, he plans to reopen VictoryLand this summer, with 1,000 employees and several hundred bingo games.
Recently two bills that would have allowed VictoryLand and Greenetrack to have the same electronic gaming machines as those in Poarch Band of Creek Indians casinos failed in the Alabama Senate. State Senator Billy Beasley’s proposal received a 14-13 vote on a vote requiring three-fifths approval. State Senator Bobby Singleton’s proposed constitutional amendment fell four votes short of the required 21 votes.
