Ala.: Bingo OK'd at Some Dog Tracks

A House committee approved a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday to allow electronic bingo games at greyhound dog tracks in Birmingham and Mobile.

The House Tourism and Travel Committee approved the proposed amendment on a voice vote. It calls for taxes on the gaming machines to go to the cash-strapped Alabama Medicaid Agency.

If approved by the Legislature, Alabama voters would decide on the proposal in a statewide referendum.

Sponsors say Medicaid would receive about $55 million from the taxes on the machines and as much as $170 million if federal matching funds are included. Medicaid officials have said they will need $150 million more in funding in the next fiscal year than they are receiving in the current year.

Legislative fiscal experts have predicted that tax revenue available for the state's General Fund budget, which funds Medicaid, could be more than $200 million less than the current year's budget. The governor's office has issued a more optimistic report, predicting there could be as much as $100 million more available for the General Fund than in the current year's budget.

Electronic bingo is already allowed at tracks in Macon and Greene counties and by constitutional amendment in Lowndes County. Most other electronic gambling operations in the state would be outlawed by the bill. It would make it a felony crime to operate illegal electronic bingo machines.

The sponsor, Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, said bingo operations would be able to continue in counties that have passed constitutional amendments allowing charity bingo, like Walker, where electronic bingo games for charity are played at 16 different locations. But Black said those games would not be able to use the same types of electronic bingo machines available at the dog tracks.

During a public hearing on the proposal, Black said electronic bingo operations are spreading across the state.

"They are soon going to be on every street corner. Every time you go to buy a gallon of gas you are going to be confronted with these machines," Black said.

But opponents argued legalizing the games at the Mobile and Birmingham tracks would lead to the spread of gambling in Alabama and would give dog track owners a monopoly.

Rev. Dan Ireland, who often opposes gambling bills in the Legislature, said the bill is confusing.

"Reading the bill reminds me of the confusion I had when I was studying Hebrew. When I got through reading, I didn't know what I'd read," Ireland said. Even with proceeds going to Medicaid, Ireland said the gambling machines would hurt poor people in Alabama.

"That money is going to come from one source - the pockets of the losers," Ireland said.

The executive director of the Alabama State Employees Association, Mac McArthur, urged committee members to pass the proposed amendment. He said it would provide badly needed money to the state in a tough budget year.

The cost of funding Medicaid, which provides medical services to low income Alabama residents, has been rising for years forcing lawmakers to find additional funding almost every session.

"There ain't nothing else to find, to steal, to borrow or beg from," McArthur said.

Written by Bob Johnson

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