Alabama groups turn up pressure over video gambling

Phillip Rawls

Wednesday, March 22, 2000 | 10:02 a.m.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Groups on both sides of video gambling legislation are turning up the pressure, even though proponents don't plan to push for a vote until after the Legislature returns from its spring break in early April.

Sen. Charles Steele, who is sponsoring a video gambling bill for the Greene County dog track, filed a contest Tuesday against all "local" bills in the Senate. That procedural maneuver blocks a vote on all bills affecting only one city or county, such as raising or lowering a local fee or tax.

"No local bills in the state of Alabama will be passed until we get video poker for the dog tracks," Steele, D-Tuscaloosa, told more than 200 people attending a pro-video gambling rally on the Statehouse steps.

Bills are pending in the House and Senate that would allow the citizens of Greene and Macon counties to vote on authorizing the dog tracks in those counties to add video gambling. Tracks are seeking the new attractions to try to reverse declining attendance.

Steele said proponents won't try to bring the bills to a vote this week, which is the halfway point of the legislative session. Lawmakers will take next week off for spring break, so no vote will occur until after the legislators return April 4, he said.

At a news conference Tuesday, Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Windom urged Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman to get the video gambling issue out of the last half of the legislative session by taking a firm stand against it.

"If the governor will stand up and say unequivocally, 'I am going to veto any gambling legislation that comes to my desk,' then that will be the end of this legislation and we can move on and deal with critical issues," Windom said.

Siegelman's chief of staff, Paul Hamrick, said the governor expects the video gambling legislation to fail this year, like it has in previous years, and he doesn't plan to get involved.

"It's a local bill and we are not going to insert ourselves in that fight right now," he said in an interview.

Windom argues that the video gambling legislation shouldn't be considered a local bill affecting one county because the tracks draw customers from throughout the state.

"They know passing a bill in Macon County would be no different than exploding a nuclear bomb in Macon County. We wouldn't let them do it because the fallout would fall all over this state," the lieutenant governor said.

Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia, Sen. Bill Armistead, R-Columbiana, and Rep. Greg Wren, R-Montgomery, joined Windom at his news conference and promised a long filibuster if the legislation does come to a vote in the House or Senate.

"We will not give in," Wren said.

At the pro-video gambling rally, the tracks bused in supporters, who chanted, "Let the people vote."

Sarah Duncan of Eutaw, a member of the Greene County Racing Commission, said lots of Alabamians are already gambling at Mississippi casinos, as proven by the Sunday morning wreck of a bus in Tuscaloosa that was carrying Talladega citizens home from a trip to a casino in Philadelphia, Miss.

"That brought it home to folks that people are traveling up and down the highways to do what they think is right," she said.

During the rally, Rep. Johnny Ford, D-Tuskegee, threatened to file suit against the Christian Coalition to try to force the group to reveal where it is getting the money to finance its ad campaign against video gambling.

A similar suit that Greene County officials filed last year against anti-gambling groups got thrown out of court.