Alabama Governor Moves to Keep Slot Out
Alabama is in the midst of a huge debate regarding bingo machines. Governor Bob Riley has taken one more step forward in his goal to eliminate all bingo machines from the state. He believes that bingo machines are simply slot machines in disguise and maintains that slot machines at these bingo parlors are illegal. Because of those two factors, he wants all the machines removed from the state. The bingo parlors are upset to say the least and have been fighting the issue vehemently. They say that bingo is legal in the state and he should not be able to take that away from them.
Riley says that bingo is legal in the state but that slot machines are not and because of that they need to go. He contends that if they want to play bingo they need to play with the markers, balls and cards, and not with electronic slot machines. He has gotten opposition from the parlors as well as many within the government itself. The biggest issue is money. There are huge dollars available by keeping the games in the state and without them, there will be more deficits to deal with throughout the country.
There is good news for Riley, however. He just won the latest case involving the slot machines. The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the governor stating that the bingo machines are a form of gambling and because of that they are illegal. They decided that bingo is a card game, not an electronic game. The court said that based on the officer’s testimony that they had no doubt that the bingo games were slot machines due to the games’ look and gaming.
Now that the decision was made, Riley believes that his cabinet knows where the line of legal and illegal is being drawn with regards to gambling. He has already contacted game manufacturers who supply the machines to the state and told them that they are no longer allowed to bring in new machines. He also said that the state will take on the responsibility of monitoring the games in the state and assure the voting public that more games will not be allowed in.
