Houston County amends electronic bingo rules

Amid the confused state of Alabama electronic bingo, Houston County officials amended their local charitable bingo policies Monday to reflect the latest court definition of the game, in an effort to remain in compliance with state laws.

As bingo definitions are prone to change with the Alabama Legislature as bingo bills are debated this week, and the interpretation of existing laws evolve with each new Alabama Supreme Court ruling, county commissioners built in a provision to amend their policies as the laws governing bingo change.

The county took the action on the recommendation of board attorney Gary Sherrer.

“It makes our rules more stringent based on what the Supreme Court has ruled,” Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver said. “We continue to try to do everything to be within the law … but the Supreme Court keeps rewriting the law.”

Commissioners adopted the court’s six-point definition of bingo derived from last November’s White Hall Entertainment ruling in Lowndes County and other language from a St. Clair County ruling.
Sherrer said the only change to the county ordinance is to incorporate the six characteristics of bingo.

A second paragraph specifies that as bingo definitions change, it shall not be necessary for the commission to take action to amend its policy. “If the Legislature has adopted a definition of bingo, that definition is expressly incorporated into these rules and regulations,” the document reads.

Culver said this new definition condenses what the county passed in February 2008. “We have confidence that the machines sitting quiet at Country Crossing comply with that,” he said of the terminology.

Culver said he hopes for closure on the issue over the legality of electronic bingo soon. He is pinning his hopes on the Alabama Legislature.

The Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee and the House Tourism and Travel Committee have a joint meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday to consider constitutional amendments that would permit electronic bingo at 10 locations in the state.

Then at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill that would block the governor from initiating criminal investigations.

“We hope this week brings some calm to this situation. It continues to be an embarrassment to this state,” Culver said. “We want civility that includes no harassment of security officers at Country Crossing…. We want to bring this to a civil conclusion so we can move forward. We are complying with the Supreme Court, so we hope this helps that.

“This is not a major change. We have felt like and continue to feel like everything there (at Country Crossing) is legal. No courts have ruled they are illegal. We believe they can reopen and are legal. We also believe others who do not believe that, would be here and create a situation were they to try to reopen.”

An independent gaming laboratory in New Jersey certified Country Crossing’s 1,703 bingo machines as being in compliance with state law. The certification was made prior to the development’s opening on Dec. 1.

Country Crossing has been closed for 12 consecutive days as the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling made its third attempt in 30 days to raid the gaming facility south of Dothan

The new language reads:

“‘Bingo’ or ‘Bingo Games’ shall mean the game commonly or traditionally known as bingo. The characteristics of that game include the following: (1) each players uses one or more cards with spaces arranged in five columns and five rows, with an alphanumeric or similar designation assigned to each space; (2) alphanumeric or similar designations are randomly drawn and announced one by one; (3) in order to play, each player must pay attention to the values announced; if one of the value’s matches a value on one or more of the player’s cards, the player must physically act by marking his or her card accordingly;

“(4) a player can fail to pay proper attention or to properly mark his or her card, and thereby miss an opportunity to be declared the winner; (5) a player must recognize that his or her card has a ‘bingo,’ i.e., a predetermined pattern of matching values, and in turn announce to the players and the announcer that this is the case before any other player does so; and (6) the game of bingo contemplates a group activity in which multiple players compete against each other to be the first to properly mark a card with the predetermined winning pattern and announce that fact.”