Gambling in Alabama

I received an interesting advertisement in the mail yesterday: "The only thing worse than losing jobs...is losing jobs to Mississippi." I was not entirely surprised to open it up and discover that it was a promotion of the "Sweet Home Alabama plan" I had just heard about on the radio (SB471).

It has such positive sounding statements as "It will limit, regulate and tax legal bingo and eliminate illegal gaming machines." and "...provide our state with the money we need to improve our education system and Medicaid by keeping our tourism dollars here at home." All in all, it very cleverly disguised whether it was for or against gambling in Alabama, ending with a plea for me to call my Senator and ask him to support the Sweet Home Alabama plan. After doing some research, I do plan to call my state Senator -- but I will be asking him to vote AGAINST the plan.

One of the first sites my research took me to was "The Alabama Citizens Action Program" where I found a video of Governor Riley discussing "electronic bingo". I hope to show the video in class today. It also lead me to a site to "Stop Predatory Gambling". There they make the very true statements: "Predatory gambling is the practice of using gambling to prey on human weakness for profit and it has become the preferred method for government to raise money for public services. The gambling trade and our government have been active partners in turning millions of Americans away from a nation of small savers into a nation of habitual bettors, trapping a majority in a cycle of debt and poverty."

Article 4, Section 65 of the Alabama Constitution:
"The legislature shall have no power to authorize lotteries or gift enterprises for any purposes, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale in this state of lottery or gift enterprise tickets, or tickets in any scheme in the nature of a lottery."

There was a unanimous ruling by Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals (authored by now Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb) ruling in Foster v. State (1997): "'Bingo' used in a local constitutional amendment means nothing more than the 'ordinary game of bingo' and as such are a narrow exception to the prohibition of lotteries in the Alabama Constitution."

Ruling in 2004 in State ex rel Tyson v Ted's Game Enterprises:
"We hold that Article 4, Section 65 means what it says, and prohibits the legislature from authorizing lotteries or gift enterprises that involve games or devices in which chance predominates the outcome of the game, even if 'some skill' is involved."

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The website promoting gambling in Alabama: http://www.friendsofalabama.com