Milton McGregor, owner of VictoryLand Casino in Macon County, Alabama, still has not announced when the facility will reopen, although he said preparations are under way. Meanwhile, VictoryLand attorneys recently filed a 91-page brief with the state Supreme Court claiming Macon County voters understood the bingo machines they approved in 2003 were “fast networked-computer play” games that would allow VictoryLand to compete with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ three Alabama casinos which offer electronic bingo.
VictoryLand lawyers added although the casino’s bingo games resemble slot machines, they’re linked to a network where players compete against each other, as in classic bingo. The brief further states Macon County decided to allow electronic bingo as a way to counter declining revenue from parimutuel wagering and to boost funding for nonprofits, schools and community services. Also, attorneys asked the Supreme Court to agree that Amendment 744 authorizes electronic bingo and therefore requires the return of $263,105 in cash and 1,615 machines seized by the state in a 2013 raid. VictoryLand has been shuttered since then.
In response, the Alabama attorney general’s office filed its own brief with the high court, stating, “If the voters in Macon County want VictoryLand to operate slot-machine-style casino games, they should pass a law that says something remotely similar to that.”
The briefs are the latest moves in the battle between Alabama and VictoryLand. Last June, Circuit Judge William Shashy ruled the machines were legal under the 2003 vote, and that the state was “cherry-picking” by raiding VictoryLand but allowing other non-Indian casinos to offer the same games. That ruling is on hold pending state attorney general Luther Strange’s office appeal to the state Supreme Court to reverse Shashy’s order and declare the cash and machines as forfeit. In its brief, the attorney general’s office states the lower court failed to apply the six-part legal precedent for bingo and that there’s no significant difference between Macon County’s amendment and those in 18 other Alabama county bingo amendments.
In November, Governor Robert Bentley issued an executive order removing the attorney general’s office from enforcing gambling laws.
