Governor Riley’s witch hunt

By By Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
Gov. Bob Riley has paid the law firm at which his son-in-law is a shareholder at least $650,000 in public funds to advise a “task force on gambling” Riley created earlier this year. The chairman of the House Tourism and Travel Committee calls the task force “a witch hunt.”
Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow of Red Bay says the governor is fighting an industry which could bring in many millions in tax dollars from out-of-state patrons to fund government, create thousands of new jobs and reduce the burden on individual Alabama citizens if gambling in Alabama is properly taxed and regulated. “Besides that it’s legal and has been approved by the voters in the places it exists,” he says.
According to records from the legislature’s Contract Review Committee, lawyers from Birmingham-based Bradley Arant, where Riley’s son-in-law, Rob Campbell, works as an attorney, have been paid the two-thirds of a million in state funds authorized by Riley, to advise the “task force” on the legality of electronic bingo. Did they not know that in October, 2005, the Bradley Arant firm advised a client that electronic bingo, at least in Macon County is clearly legal?
In a legal opinion to GE Capital Corporation, which was conducting a due diligence investigation on a possible loan, Bradley Arant wrote: “We understand that Macon County Greyhound Park, Inc., doing business as Victoryland is primarily in the gambling business, principally dog racing and electronic bingo. Then the firm advised that the only two ways of reversing or negating the constitutional amendment authorizing the gambling in Macon County would be to adopt another constitutional amendment or for the state to adopt a completely new constitution, but advised that such was not very likely to happen.
Riley’s task force, headed by retired Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber, has also received an unknown amount of additional taxpayer dollars. Barber and his state forces raided a bingo operation in White Hall in Lowndes County several months back, seizing money and machines. The case is now pending in the state’s circuit courts.
On the surface, this sounds like law enforcement at work for all that is good…that is until the facts get in the way. Bradley Arant and the Riley Task Force have attempted to change the issue from whether or not bingo is legal to whether or not bingo is legal when played on electronic machines with bells and whistles.
So they raided the White Hall facility and brought in an expert on electronic bingo machines who has testified on four different occasions, each time affirming that bingo can be played electronically. His name is D. Robert Sertell and he works for Casino Horizon Corporation.
In a deposition on Jan. 16, 2009, Sertell was asked: “And I think I asked you if those electronic bingo devices could be operated legally in Alabama and you said they could?” His answer was: “Provided bingo was legal in whatever the jurisdiction was, yes.”
In St. Clair Circuit Court on March 17, 2009, Sertell was asked: “You would agree that bingo can be played in an electronic format?” Sertell’s answer was: “Yes sir, I just testified to that.”
In Montgomery County Circuit Court on March 26, 2009, Sertell was asked: “You agree that bingo can be played in an electronic format, do you not?” Sertell’s answer was: “I do, yes, sir.”
In Jefferson County Circuit Court on June 9, 2009, Sertell was asked: Q- “Let me clarify one thing. You can play bingo electronically?” A – Yes. Q- “But there are differences between slot machines and bingo machines, aren’t there?” A – “Yes.” Q- “Slot Machine gambling is a house-banked game, isn’t it?” A -”Yes.” Q- And bingo played electronically or any other way is played against other players, isn’t it? A- “Sir, if you will use my phraseology, I agree.”
So the bottom line is we have the state’s largest law firm saying in an opinion to a client that electronic bingo played on electronic devices is legal in Macon County, and the expert witness on electronic bingo machines for the Gambling Task Force testifying on four different occasions that bingo can be played electronically on machines that have bells and whistles.
MEMO TO GOV RILEY: Give us back the hundreds of thousands of dollars you’ve wasted “tilting at windmills.” Then develop a plan to tax and regulate all gambling in Alabama
Bob Martin is editor and publisher of the Montgomery Independent.
E-mail him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com