In Circuit Court in Montgomery, Alabama, Judge William Shashy heard four days of testimony presented by the state attorney general’s office and attorneys for VictoryLand casino in Shorter. The casino was closed after state agents seized 3,105.81 in cash and 1,615 electronic game machines during a February 2013 raid there. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange claims the machines are illegal and wants Shashy to order them to be destroyed. If the judge sides with VictoryLand, attorneys for the casino said casino owner Milton McGregor likely will reopen the venue. Shashy will take the case under advisement and rule later.
Once Alabama’s largest casino and the largest tax-revenue generator in rural Macon County, the now-shuttered VictoryLand complex featured the vast casino, an upscale hotel and live dog racing.
In two days of testimony, the state set out to prove that the gaming that took place at VictoryLand was illegal under the Alabama Supreme Court’s description of bingo, since no numbers were called, players did not mark their cards and no players claimed a win by shouting “Bingo.”
Furthermore, an investigator for the attorney general’s office, Gene Sisson, testified investigators did not do a forensic analysis of the machines before removing them from the casino and their determination that they were illegal was based on visual inspection. He said that was the same process used in gambling hall raids he conducted in Lowndes and Houston counties, where judges ruled the machines could be destroyed. Sisson acknowledged the VictoryLand machines are similar to games at three Poarch Creek Indian casinos in Alabama, which operate under federal law and have not been raided by the attorney general.
Attorneys for VictoryLand said since no forensic analysis was performed, the state cannot prove its case. But Assistant Attorney General John Kachelman said an analysis wasn’t needed; what matters is how customers played the machines.
VictoryLand attorneys argued owner Milton McGregor was running a legal business at VictoryLand. They presented testimony showing Macon County voters approved electronic bingo machines by a 3-1 margin in a 2003 referendum and that the amendment provided for all types of bingo, including the version played on the seized machines. The attorneys said the machines complied with regulations established by the sheriff to implement the constitutional amendment.
Former state Rep. Johnny Ford, who sponsored the 2003 constitutional amendment for Macon County, said he designed the constitutional amendment to allow electronic bingo machines, and Macon County citizens knew that when they voted for approval. Ford has repeatedly called for the casino to reopen, as it provided hundreds of jobs in a county with 10.2 percent unemployment.
Casino attorneys said the gambling machines seized from VictoryLand are identical to those in other gambling venues in Alabama. They noted Center Stage in Houston County and Greenetrack and Greene Charity Bingo in Greene County offer the same type of machines that VictoryLand had prior to the raid. However, Assistant Attorney General Sonny Reagan said the state has raided all three operations, which have reopened with new machines.
Attorneys for the casino also sought to prove that state agents could not be sure if the cash they took from VictoryLand came from illegal gambling operations or from the facility’s other businesses, such as the restaurant or bar. In addition, questions were raised about why it took agents seven months to count the seized cash it, which resulted in the state finding it had taken about $30,000 more than it originally thought. Assistant Attorney General John Kachelman said numerous obstacles prolonged the start of the trial, including the removal of one judge, the death of another and appointment of another in the case.
Regardless how Shashy rules, the case could end up getting appealed to the state Supreme Court. The justices said that based on undercover surveillance video and an affidavit from an investigator, “a man of reasonable caution could reach no conclusion other than that there is a ‘fair probability’ that the machines in question are not the games of bingo and, instead, are slot machines or other gambling devices that are illegal under Alabama law.”
