Friday, March 14, 2003 | 9:52 a.m.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A bill to allow unlimited cash prizes from video gaming machines at Alabama's four greyhound racetracks cleared a House committee Wednesday, despite warnings from opponents that the machines are illegal.
The bill, by Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, would allow cash prizes from the video gaming machines that are already operating at the tracks. It also calls for the state to tax the machines, which Knight has said would bring up to $15 million into the cash-strapped General Fund.
The House Tourism and Travel Committee approved the bill on a voice vote after hearing arguments from opponents and supporters. The bill goes to the full House for its consideration.
John Giles, state president of the Christian Coalition, said he was disappointed such an important issue would be decided on a voice vote, where committee members do not have to go on record showing how they voted.
"It's more of them not doing things in the light of the public. I think the public needs to know every vote legislators make," Giles said. He had earlier told the lawmakers that "a vote for this bill is a vote for illegal gambling."
Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, stood in for Knight at the hearing and said the bill was needed so the tracks can compete with Indian gaming centers in Wetumpka, Montgomery and Atmore. He said anyone who is concerned about gambling coming into the state should visit the gaming centers on Indian lands, where the machines give unlimited cash prizes.
"It's already here. More of it's coming. It's wide open, untaxed and unregulated," Black said after showing the committee a video of long lines of people waiting to enter one of the Indian gaming centers.
Some of the revenue from the four greyhound tracks in Macon, Mobile, Greene and Jefferson counties goes to support charities in those areas.
Sharon Lewis, director of the Sickle Cell Foundation in Birmingham, said she supports the bill because her agency needs the money it receives from the Birmingham Race Track.
"We've received over $700,000 from the track since 1990. This has been a lifesaver that has benefited our families," she said.
The Rev. Dan Ireland, a leader of anti-gambling efforts, warned the lawmakers that the bill would do more than legalize the machines at tracks. He said it would also assure the continued existence of the Indian gaming centers, since federal law allows Indians to have the same types of gambling that are legal in the state.
The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals ruled last year that the video gaming machines are illegal games of chance, but that decision is being appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.
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