Attorney general takes legal step to shut down bingo

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.

WHITE HALL, Ala. -- State Attorney General Troy King took the first legal step Tuesday to try to shut down the state's newest electronic gambling business in White Hall.

King filed a complaint in Lowndes County, challenging whether a constitutional amendment approving electronic bingo games in White Hall is legal. King maintains the 2002 amendment to the constitution should have been voted on statewide rather than only in Lowndes County, where White Hall is located. Under Alabama's constitution, any amendment that draws any negative votes in the Legislature must be voted on statewide, and the Lowndes County amendment had one nay vote in the Senate, he said.

If a judge rules the constitutional amendment invalid, King said his next step will be to seek a court injunction against the White Hall Gaming Center, 20 miles west of Montgomery.

Operators of the gaming center say they provide badly needed jobs in a poor rural county.