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| [April 05, 2009] |
(Decatur Daily (AL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 5--JASPER -- Jim Miller of Falkville can't get enough bingo.
He retired in February after more than 26 years as bingo caller for American Legion Post 15 in Decatur.
He's been the only caller for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10774 in Falkville for 14 years.Those are traditional charity paper games.
Now Miller and his wife, Sheila, are players in a new age. The Millers drive to Walker County to play charity electronic bingo.
They have their choice of about 30 halls, most open 24 hours a day, six days a week. A Decatur Daily subscriber inquiring about the bingo halls said they reminded him of a small-scale Las Vegas.
If you travel Alabama 69 South, the first hall is a quarter-mile from the Cullman-Walker county line. Most of the halls are on U.S. 78, seven miles southeast of Jasper.
But is electronic bingo legal? Gary Watkins says it is. The Oklahoman is a computer programmer whose specialty is design applications. He said he pioneered electronic bingo. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 15001 contracted him to manage two adjacent VFW bingo halls on U.S. 78.
'The tribes in Oklahoma wanted to be more efficient and turn the game into something faster,' he said. 'I put bingo cards on file servers and adapted paper bingo to electronic bingo.' To critics, among them state Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, the devices are slot machines.
Watkins disagreed.
'How do you play a legal game of bingo on a supposedly illegal device? That's an oxymoron. It may look like a duck and quack like a duck, but it isn't necessarily a duck.' Hammon believes the Walker machines are illegal.
'This is an out-of-control situation,' said Hammon, who is against gambling. 'If we don't do something now, every county in the state will be like Walker County, and we'll have 35 (halls) in every county.' State Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, is sponsoring the so-called 'Sweet Home Alabama' bill as a constitutional amendment to be voted on in 2010.
The bill would limit electronic bingo to 10 halls in Etowah, Greene, Houston, Jefferson, Macon, Mobile and Walker counties.
Jefferson County would have two halls -- one at the Birmingham Race Course and one in an undisclosed location.
The bill would establish a state gaming commission to regulate bingo.
Hammon said he supported the legislation last year because it limited gambling, put controls over it and made illegal gambling a felony.
'It would shut down all those halls in Walker County,' he said. 'But there's a lot of work left on this year's bill. It is still a pretty good concept, but it extends gambling into a couple of new counties, Walker and Etowah. I'm going to have to study it more, but I'm leaning toward voting no.' Hammon said he wants to be sure the new bill has felony provisions for operating illegally.
The door for charity bingo opened in Walker County in 1992 with a constitutional amendment allowing paper bingo.
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In the technological age, charity is part of the equation. To bingo around the clock -- 8 a.m. Monday until Saturday midnight --halls must be co-owned by a minimum of 15 charities, said Bruce Hamrick, chairman of the Walker County Commission.But the VFW operations are different. Their charity money after expenses goes to the state VFW for disbursement for charities among 92 posts.
Figures aren't readily available from the other halls, but Watkins said the VFW sites contributed more than $600,000 to charity last year.
Who oversees the bingo halls? The Walker County Commission is the oversight through permitting and its rule-making power. In addition to other licenses and fees, the county levies a $500 business permit per machine through the probate judge's office.
For example, one VFW hall has about 500 machines.
'We collected $1.2 million last year,' said Hamrick, a lifetime member of VFW Post 4850 in Jasper. 'We expect that this year it will be more than $2 million.' Hamrick said each charitable organization applies for a permit approved by Sheriff John Mark Tirey.
'A member takes it to one of the bingo establishments the group wants to be a part of,' he said. 'The permit is good for one year, and they can't hop-scotch around. When the permit comes up for renewal, the charity can stay where it is or go to another place.' Hamrick said Tirey has a deputy compliance officer who checks complaints. The commission has a license inspector who audits the number of machines.
He said he follows the controversy around the 'Sweet Home Alabama' bill to shut down 'illegal bingo operations.' Hamrick added, 'If they were illegal, they already would have been closed.' A recent court action appears to give the edge to electronic bingo. A circuit judge has ruled that charity electronic bingo is legal in St. Clair County.
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Two days earlier, retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mark Kennedy ordered Gov. Bob Riley's Task Force on Illegal Gambling to return machines the force took in a March 19 raid at the White Hall Entertainment Center in Lowndes County.
Hamrick said Walker County is awaiting a decision on a declaratory suit the sheriff and district attorney filed, asking a judge to determine if electronic bingo can be played in the county.
Officials asked for the decision because the constitutional amendment refers to paper bingo.
'We probably need to look closer at expenses versus charity payouts by the bingo halls,' said Hamrick.
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'But the judge's ruling in the next few months will dictate, 'Is it full speed ahead or does all this stuff go away?' ' See Also: Bingo parlor BingoTmc Bingo
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