‘Why us?’ Black Belt counties struggle with state of Alabama casino legislation
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Casino legislation is floundering again in Montgomery. Frustrations for those wanting a lottery or to bet on a football game are being felt statewide.
But the economic impact over the fate of the current bill is poised to most affect the smallest and poorest counties in Alabama, where a majority of residents are Black. The Alabama House does not have casino legislation on its calendar during the final day of the legislative session.
For years, some of the counties in Alabama’s Black Belt region have come to rely on “bingo” games to fund their governments. A host of bingo halls would be closed in the latest legislation, but legality of those bingo machines are in a perpetual state of flux as lawsuits out of Montgomery continue cloud their futures.
The legislation has also created a debate over winners and losers. Opponents say that hundreds of jobs will be lost by closing four existing bingo halls in Greene County. Those closures, they say, cuts off a reliable flow of revenue to hospitals, schools, and sheriff’s departments.
Then there is Lowndes County, the fourth smallest county in Alabama and among its poorest. Once referred to as “Bloody Lowndes” because of the high rate of white on Black violence after the Civil War, the county was left out of the state’s casino plans. On top of that, two bingo halls in White Hall would be forced to close their doors if the latest casino legislation passes.
Under the current proposal outlined in SB319, Lowndes County would be the only Alabama county with a bingo hall in operation that would be left without Class III gaming. All other counties in which voters adopted past local constitutional amendments in support of electronic bingo, would have at least one of their current venues authorized for casino gambling – slot machines, table games like Blackjack and craps, and video poker and electronic bingo.
The omission of a casino Lowndes County prompted the question from officials, “Why us?”
The answer likely boils down to political clout. Lowndes County, with a population that is 74% Black, has very little political heft in a state Legislature where Republicans rule by a supermajority.
“The battle in Alabama, as usual is between various special interests,” said Alabama historian Wayne Flynt. “Blacks and bingo will lose because they have less legislative artillery.”
Lack of clout
An attempt was made last month to get at least one of the Lowndes County bingo halls transformed into a casino complex. During a Senate floor debate on SB319, state Senator Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, attempted to amend the bill to add White Hall Entertainment Complex to the list of new casinos. The Senate, with an 18-11 vote, voted against it.
“Our stance has been, ‘Why are they excluding Lowndes County and leaving us off the bill?” said Jason Hendrix, general manager of White Hall Entertainment. “Adding us onto this bill would have given us over 450 employees, from a straight up job standpoint.”
Said Hayneville Mayor Jimmie Davis, “I never got a real clear answer on it.”
Charlie King, the chairman of the Lowndes County Commission, wondered aloud, “We are one of the poorest in Alabama. No one can seem to answer that question as to why.”
State Senator Jim McClendon, R-Springville, the sponsor of SB319, offered a blunt assessment. “It’s simple and it’s an easy answer. The bill that came out of the Senate was constructed to obtain the necessary votes to pass the Senate. A number of changes were made to satisfy the needs of different Senators and that’s how it works.”
The lack of Lowndes County’s inclusion into SB319, has public officials worried ahead of the final day of the legislative session on Monday. The gambling measure, which fizzled in the Alabama House last week, faces an uphill climb for passage during the last day of the spring legislative sessions. But future iterations of the gambling package, if resurfaced next year or during a special legislative session, could include a similar omission of Lowndes County.
Officials are worried. The legislation, if approved as written, would shutter the White Hall bingo facilities and eliminate more than 50 jobs. Also gone would be a reliable source of revenue the bingo games funnel into local coffers.
As King noted, “when (the bingo hall) is giving to the non-profits and to the volunteer fire departments, it keeps them off the county commissions’ budget. They don’t have to come to the county commissioners to ask for funds when they are short.”
Davis said Hayneville, the county seat with a population under 900 residents, receives about $50,000 a year from the bingo halls through an annual donation.
“In a small town like mine, that $50,000 is like $500,000 for a city the size of Montgomery or in Jefferson County or somewhere like that,” he said. “It would be a huge impact if you lose it.”
Initially, the casino bill also omitted the Crossing at Big Creek bingo hall in Houston County. But that venue was included in last month’s version of the casino bill that passed out of the Senate. SB319 also calls for casinos at locations which once hosted greyhound dog races – Birmingham Race Course, VictoryLand in Macon County, GreeneTrack near Eutaw, and Mobile County Race Course near Theodore. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians would also have casinos at its three locations – Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka – and they would operate a new Northeast Alabama casino constructed either in Jackson or DeKalb counties.
The bill also establishes a state lottery and allows for sports wagering. If approved by lawmakers on Monday, the measure would still need to go before voters for approval in November 2022. McClendon says the chances of its approval during the final day of session are “slim to none.”
Senator Malika Sanders-Fortier, D-Selma, who has been absent from the spring legislative session while battling cancer, is making a last ditch effort to get Lowndes County included in the package if it receives another consideration in the Alabama House.
In a statement to AL.com, the senator said Lowndes County is the “sole exclusion” from the legislation where bingo venues exist and she derides SB319 as “very unfair” for the county.
“If the Alabama Legislature is going to act to open up gaming and expand it to an area of the state, Northeast Alabama, in an (area) where it never existed before, (then) it is wrong to exclude White Hall in Lowndes County where it has existed for almost two decades,” said Sanders-Fortier.
She said that voters in Lowndes County and Alabama approved a local constitutional amendment in 2002 that allowed for electronic bingo in White Hall.
“We live in American in a free market economy, where people get to make choices about their businesses and their lives,” Sanders-Fortier said. “However, I have concerns about whether that great American principle is fully being implemented here.”
The senator, in her statement, repeatedly asked how Lowndes County could be passed over for Class III gaming in other areas of the state that “aren’t hurting for jobs like Lowndes County?”
New casino or status quo
At least two Black Belt counties are poised to get casinos with Class III gaming and face similar economic hurdles as Lowndes County. Macon and Greene counties, among the smallest and poorest counties in the state, could have aging bingo halls transformed into renovated casinos.
But the issue is roiling Greene County over whether the legislation would be a boon or a bust for Alabama’s smallest county. The debate focuses on whether a transformation of GreeneTrack into a casino, while closing four existing bingo halls – River’s Edge, Palace and Frontier in Knoxville and BAMA Bingo in Eutaw – would generate less revenue for non-profits and local entities like the Greene County Hospital and the schools.
On one side of the debate is Singleton, who voted in support of SB319, and GreeneTrack’s longtime president & CEO Luther Winn Jr. On the other side are critics like Forkland Mayor Charlie McAlpine, who is worried over the loss of revenue from closing down the bingo halls and a system of generating revenues for the county’s agencies.
Under the current system, the county’s sheriff formulates rules and regulations governing bingo, and then administers how the proceeds from the machines are spent. The money, according to the 2003 constitutional amendment, goes to E-911 services, a volunteer fire department, the school system, and the Sheriff’s Department.
A report last year provided by River’s Edge Bingo shows that bingo revenues under the current system provides $600,000 per year to the Greene County Hospital and the Greene County Nursing Home. The county commission gets $1.4 million per year from the bingo funds for its operations, and the School Board receives $750,000 annually.
McAlpine said the loss of the bingo venues could be a $9 million hit “for municipalities, the hospital, and school and sheriff’s department.”
“The way it’s set up, this funding keeps Greene County afloat,” said McAlpine. “We don’t have the tax base other counties have. About a third or a fourth of our budget comes from the fees we receive from those facilities.”
Sheila Hann Smith, a former member of the Eutaw City Council who is a president of a charity that receives its proceeds from the existing bingo halls, said the city of Eutaw got $160,000 to $170,000 annually from the bingo games to support city operations. She said without the existing venues, “the hospital would have been gone a long time ago.”
Ken Aycock, a Tuscaloosa attorney and Eutaw resident, said the monthly revenue generated from the bingo facilities are a lifeline to a county struggling to find ways to attract jobs and revenue to fund basic services.
“The funds provided by the various bingo facilities have basically kept our hospital open,” said Aycock, who represents Frontier. “It’s kept our sheriff’s department staffed enough to do their job effectively. I would be concerned about what would happen (to Greene County) without it.”
No independent cost analysis has been publicized on whether SB319 would be detrimental to Greene County’s finances.
Singleton could not be reached for comment for this story, but Winn said the legislation is a job-winner for a county that is 80% Black and has the highest percentage of children living in poverty among all of Alabama’s 67 counties.
Winn said there could be spin off businesses created if GreeneTrack was redeveloped into a full-scale casino.
“If the bill were to pass, and (the casino) is located at GreeneTrack, there (could be) a 150 to 200-room hotel built next to the casino along with restaurants and all of the other amenities that come with casino gaming,” Winn said. “It would be a boost for the area.”
Winn, who began his career in 1978 as a security guard at the greyhound park, said that GreeneTrack’s bingo hall employs 89 people right now and projections are for that number to grow to more than 400 if a new casino opens. Salaries would also grow, from an estimate of $13 per hour right now to what he projects would be $15 to $17 an hour plus benefits – health care, short-and long-term disability, 401k matches, and more.
Electronic bingo, Winn said, has been a boon for Greene County. But he said a standalone casino would pack a much stronger economic punch.
“If you look at every bingo facility in Greene County right now, you have only 250 people working,” said Winn. He said that GreeneTrack would have more employees as a transformed casino than it did during its heyday as a bingo hall in 2009, before the state under former Gov. Bob Riley had the venue shut down out of concern that electronic bingo was illegal and violated the Alabama Constitution.
“This is important for Greene County because there are no real significant amount of jobs in this county or in West Alabama,” Winn said. “We lag behind in job creation for, I don’t know how many years. This would be an opportunity for the state to get revenue and to generate jobs for the Black Belt region.”
Aycock, though, is unsure whether Winn’s lofty expectations would become reality. Meanwhile, he said, Palace Bingo is undergoing an expansion project.
“You hear all of these things all of the time that it will be as much as, but it never quite is,” he said.
Looming lawsuits
Time is also ticking on whether the bingo halls can continue operating as they have in recent years.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s Office has three lawsuits pending in Greene, Lowndes and Macon counties over the legality of the bingo operations. He asks the courts to declare the casinos public nuisances and permanently bar them from operating games with the machines. The Greene County case is pending before the Alabama State Supreme Court, while the other two cases are scheduled for hearings this summer.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state to allow the litigation to proceed against the electronic gambling industry in those three counties.
For bingo halls in Alabama, this isn’t new territory. State-organized raids of the bingo halls have occurred in the past, but the facilities continue to reopen as battles begin anew in courts over whether the games are legal in Alabama.
“Greene County has a constitutional amendment that says we can have electronic bingo,” said Aycock. “For some reason, everyone is trying to keep us from doing that.”
Marshall’s office filed the lawsuits against the three counties - plus two others in Houston and Morgan counties - back in 2017, arguing that electronic bingo machines look and play similar to slot machines and are illegal in Alabama.
If the courts rule to shut down the bingo halls, and casino legislation is not approved, the jobs and the revenues could vanish in counties where replacing them with new economic development is remote.
Winn said he’s worried about the county losing hundreds of jobs, though he remains hopeful the Legislature will approve SB319 during its final legislative session day on Monday.
“I hate to even think about it not passing,” he said.
