By Kent Faulk, Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – Several groups that host bingo games to raise money for their charitable causes are bitter about a proposed state law that would limit electronic bingo to 10 multimillion-dollar electronic bingo halls in seven Alabama counties.
The "Sweet Home Alabama" bill, either by law or through competition, would force them to stop their bingo games, the groups say.
"This is our sole means for supporting all of our charities," said Mickey Hooten, chairman of the trustees and the bingo committee at Elks Lodge 79 in East Lake. "The bill will absolutely put the fraternal organizations that depend on bingo out of business."
The Elks host bingo on Wednesdays and Sundays using traditional cards and small electronic devices that have dozens of cards programmed into them. The money goes to pay for Elks' projects to help youth, schools and veterans.
Hooten said he knows it would kill his lodge's bingo games if Birmingham got large electronic gaming halls because it happened once before. When the Birmingham Race Course got electronic sweepstakes machines several years ago, the lodge had to stop bingo nights because attendance fell. The lodge restarted bingo after the sweepstakes machines were declared illegal.
Supporters of the bill say it would not block traditional bingo like that hosted by Hooten's lodge, but would stop the spread of bingo halls using electronic machines of the kind critics compare to slot machines. The bill also would regulate electronic bingo operations and, for the first time, tax the proceeds.
"We're not out to hurt anybody," said state Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, the bill sponsor.
Black's bill is a constitutional amendment. If approved by the Legislature, it would go to a statewide vote of the people in 2010. The bill has been approved by a committee and is awaiting a vote by the House of Representatives. It also is subject to approval by the Senate.
The bill would authorize 10 destination points for electronic bingo in Etowah, Greene, Houston, Jefferson, Macon, Mobile and Walker counties. Jefferson County would be allowed to have two electronic bingo halls, one at the Birmingham Race Course and one elsewhere in Birmingham, with the operator to be chosen by the Birmingham City Council. The bill would set minimum investment requirements of $25 million to $100 million to operate an establishment.
All electronic bingo operation licenses, other than those at a point of destination, would be automatically revoked 120 days after voter approval of the statewide amendment.
If a county not on the authorized list wanted to establish a gambling destination, it could take a local constitutional amendment to a vote of the people. Those counties could have only one gambling operation, and it would be subject to the same rules as the originally planned destinations.
Black's bill would set up a state gaming commission to regulate bingo. It also would levy a 20 percent tax on gross revenues at all but three destination points. In Houston, Greene and Macon counties, the gambling operations would be taxed at 10 percent of gross revenues for the first five years and 20 percent after that.
The bill does not require a portion of the proceeds to be donated to charity. It does allow a group to form to run bingo games for multiple charities, but officials with several civic or charitable groups said the minimum development investments might make that difficult.
Nonprofit groups still would be able to host traditional bingo games, according to the bill. But representatives for several charity groups said playing on bingo cards in rooms with folding tables could not compete with playing on flashy, fast electronic machines inside casino-like bingo halls.
"If you've got the choice of going to the racetrack and winning $300,000 and coming here and winning $500, where are you going to go?" Hooten said.
Johnny Nelson agreed. He lives in Moody and is a regular at the Elks-sponsored games. Every Friday night, he travels to Macon County to play electronic bingo at the Victoryland racetrack, where he won $275,864 last year on one bingo play.
Nelson said that, if an electronic bingo hall with higher payouts were built closer to home, he would be there instead of at the Elks Lodge.
"They can put it in my backyard. I'll donate the land," he said with a smile.
Competition from smaller electronic bingo halls already has officials at the American Legion Post 170 in St. Clair County considering switching from traditional card bingo to electronic bingo. But if Black's bill is approved, it would stop that effort.
"The real charities will be destroyed by the Sweet Home Alabama bill," said Ashville Mayor Robert McKay, who also is the American Legion post adjutant.