When the Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled the state does not have to return electronic bingo machines seized from VictoryLand Casino in Shorter, owner Milton McGregor said he hoped to reopen the shuttered facility by Christmas, with new machines. “When they took the machines out of here, they caused a lot more damage than we realized. In some cases, they cut the wires, and in others they just reached down and jerked it out of the ground. Hell, had they asked, we would’ve unplugged the things for them. They just didn’t care,” McGregor said. So far repairing the damage has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
State Attorney General Luther Strange’s office seized 1,615 electronic bingo machines and $260,000 in cash during a 2013 raid at VictoryLand. The state claims the machines resemble slots which are illegal. Casino operators argue the machines offer legal bingo play. McGregor’s attorney Joe Espy added Alabama voters approved electronic bingo when they voted for a constitutional amendment in 2003.
In August, Montgomery Circuit Judge William Shashy ordered the state to return VictoryLand’s machines by November 16. Earlier Shashy said the state was “cherry-picking” by closing one casino when others were allowed to remain open.
However the state supreme court recently stayed Shashy’s ruling in order to let Strange’s appeal work its way through the courts. Strange said he expected the pending litigation “to further clarify the law to the benefit of state and local law enforcement.” Espy said the seized machines probably would not have worked properly.
Meanwhile, McGregor said he may open his casino by leasing new machines. However, in 2011, an agreement was struck between Strange’s office and three of the top electronic bingo machine vendors, allowing vendors to retrieve machines worth thousands of dollars from shuttered casinos around the state and move them to other locations. Many of those seized machines ended up at the state’s three casinos owned by the Poarch Creek tribe, which was exempted from the deal. In return the vendors agreed not to return to the state or face any liability. As a result of the agreement, many key vendors are reluctant to do business in Alabama. A spokesman for Strange’s office said the agreement still is valid.
Recently Governor Robert Bentley signed an executive order stating local sheriffs and district attorneys should handle gambling law enforcement—not the attorney general’s office. Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson welcomed the news. “Enough is enough. We’ve been putting up with this for far too long, and we’re tired of being mistreated here in Macon County. The people in this county voted for electronic bingo. It’s legal here. We are suffering without that casino being open, with so many people in this county out of work. We are going to stand our ground here in Macon. I have every intention of protecting the rights and well-being of this county’s citizens. I’m not threatening anybody when I say this, but whatever we have to do, that’s what we’ll do.”
McGregor concluded, “I’m opening. They can do what they want, but I have a judge who was appointed by the Supreme Court telling me that we’re legal, and the governor has turned the enforcement over to local law enforcement. The sheriff here tells me he believes we’re legal. I’m opening.”
