http://www.rickeystokesnews.com/article.php/col-murphy-says-politics-over-public-safety-6774

http://www.rickeystokesnews.com/article.php/governor-riley–28000000-and-climbing-for-bingo-and-crap-6763

and yes jinks, it will be interesting…but very very tiresome..so many better things they could and should be focusing on….i think we can all agree on that also…

It will be a floor fight with each side keeping a close eye on their vote count.

What will be interesting to see is if the past year of casino raids, closures and court rulings will affect votes in the legislature. One way of thinking suggests since it’s clearer now that the bill would legalize a currently illegal form of gambling, it will be tougher to pass than last year when it was just supposed to clarify the law. This is especially true in an election year. But, you could argue the other way too. If Gilley and McGregor are on the ropes along with their potential donations to legislators, might their bargaining position be stronger?

Last year, legislative leadership seemed to tire of gambling dominating the session and eventually set the bill aside to move on to other issues. That could happen again this year when there will be pressure to pass bills and budgets before they go home to run for reelection.

I think we all agree it will be interesting.

1 – There are either 40 or 41 DA’s statewide. The Bingo issue only affects roughly 1/3 of them. As to the others – the old political adage re not having a dog in the fight comes to mind.

2 – There is no love lost between the DA’s and Troy King, largely, in my opinion, because King has done some political grandstanding at their expense.

3 – There clearly is no love lost between the Gov and King.

4 – King has made a huge issue of him being the only person who can control litigation brought by the state.

5 – Many of the Bingo developers have invested huge sums of money based upon an opinion by King that electronic “bingo”, as played now, was legal. This opinion was contrary to the opinion of many of the affected District Attorney’s.

6 – The Supreme Court has ruled, in essence, that King’s opinion was in error.

7 – Now King is trying to shift the burden of closing these places down back to the local District Attorneys .

8 – The local District Attorney is after all, an elected official, and he/she will take the political hit for closing down the places when he/she actually had no role in them coming into being in the first place.

Therefore I can understand the local District Attorneys being upset with the whole mess.

I’ve seen “actual” electronic bingo in other casino’s… I believe it was called keno.

As for the fight in the legislature being a doozy… It’s a hot topic and a political false floor. No individual legilsator will champion something that his constituency will oust him/her for. This fight may never make it out of committee.

In other words, this is not the way to win a GOP primary for AG on Alabama.

What has been overlooked in this debate about “electronic bingo” is this: before you get to whether electronic bingo is allowed, you must first determine whether the machine is playing bingo, period. If you look at the most recent Supreme Court decision, they looked at the machines used at White Hall, defined what “bingo” is and concluded those machines were not playing bingo period.

Now could a machine be devised that could be played and met the 6 criteria the Court set forth? Certainly, however the machines I have personally seen do not.

Before you get too upset CC, no, I have not seen the Country Crossing machines since Country Crossing has yet to open.

To legalize the type of machines used in most locations, the debate will have to be: do the citizens of this State want to legalize casino gambling period.

In my opinion you will have three factions at work in the legislature. One will oppose gambling in any form. The second will champion legalizing gambling in all its forms and in all locations. The third will want to legalize gambling but limit it to a few chosen locations and operators.

I have to say, I can not blame anyone who has already invested a pile of money from wanting to protect that investment.

My advice is to get a ring side seat because I think the fight in the legislature is going to be a doozy.

BTW, as previously stated, my personal position is to either legalize gambling (in all its forms) statewide or ban it statewide in all its forms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTVI49SIclA&feature=player_embedded#

Anytime we’re talking about the economics of casino gambling, the downside has to be a part of the conversation. A lot of research shows that casinos can actually do economic harm to an area unless a very high percentage of its gamblers come from out-of-state, like with Vegas. To ignore those numbers or pretend it’s not true would be disingenuous and counter-productive.

That, more than the moral objections to gambling, would concern me with Alabama getting into the casino business in the midst of a recession. A real study by economists should be performed to make sure the costs don’t outweigh the benefits. We can’t just blindly trust Milton M. and Ronnie G. when they say their plan would bring all good and no bad to Alabama.