Attorneys general say video poker bills allow live games

Phillip Rawls

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 2:11 a.m.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's present and former attorneys general agree that bills to permit video gambling at dog tracks would actually do much more, including allowing live games traditionally found in casinos.

But a sponsor of the legislation insisted Wednesday that only electronic games would become legal. "It's guaranteed," said Sen. Charles Steele, D-Tuscaloosa.

The Legislature is considering bills that would allow referendums in the four areas with dog tracks on whether to legalize skill-dependent gambling games at the tracks.

Each track is pushing a separate bill applying only to it, but the bills for the Greene County, Macon County, Mobile County and Birmingham tracks are all similar in design. The two bills affecting the Macon and Greene county tracks have moved the fastest and are awaiting a vote in the Senate, which could come as early as next week.

Attorney General Bill Pryor reviewed the Macon County bill and said in a letter Tuesday that the definition of "skill dependent game" in the legislation would allow electronic and non-electronic forms of gambling.

"The broad definition of 'skill dependent games,' however, would certainly allow the introduction of many forms of traditional casino-type gambling, including, for example, games such as poker and blackjack," Pryor wrote.

Pryor's predecessor, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, sent a letter Monday to two legislators saying the dog tracks' bills "could easily be interpreted to cover a broad array of gambling games, such as card poker, video poker, blackjack, dice, etc."

Rick Heartsill, a spokesman for Alabama's dog track industry, said live games would not be permitted because a section of the bill requires monitoring.

"You can't have table games in our bill because the games have to be electronically connected so you have a payback of at least 80 percent," he said.

Pryor agreed any electronic machines would have to be monitored, but he said the bill never restricts the gambling solely to electronic games.

The Pryor and Sessions letters were made public Wednesday by the Christian Coalition as it took South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon and others on a tour of the state to talk about South Carolina's experience with video gambling.

"It has been a terrible nightmare," Condon said.

Springdale, S.C., Police Chief Mike Wilkie, who began his law enforcement career in Enterprise, Ala., said video poker has led to more crime in South Carolina and would do the same in Alabama.

Under a court ruling and legislation, the 30,000 video poker games in South Carolina must shut down before July 1.

"I don't think the people of Alabama want those 30,000 machines headed up I-20 to Alabama," Condon said.

Heartsill, the track spokesman, stood in the audience at Condon's news conference in Montgomery and briefly traded barbs with the attorney general.

Condon tried to goad Heartsill into revealing how much he is being paid to represent the industry, but Heartsill brushed aside the remarks.

Heartsill said South Carolina had problems with video poker because of a lack of regulation, but the opposite has been true with Alabama's dog track industry. Video poker at the dog tracks would also be carefully regulated, he said.

Heartsill and Steele both questioned Condon's visit to Alabama. "Why are the people of South Carolina so concerned about Alabama? Let us run our state," Steele said.

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