Bingo wars return: AG sues VictoryLand, other casinos over gambling

The Alabama Attorney General's Office on Wednesday filed lawsuits against casinos in five counties, ending a two-year truce between the state and electronic bingo operators and reviving Alabama's bingo wars of 2009 and 2010. 

The lawsuits include actions against VictoryLand in Macon County and GreeneTrack in Greene County.

"These lawsuits represent a comprehensive legal approach developed by the Attorney General, with the assistance of the Office’s career experts, to finally put a stop to illegal gambling,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

Attempts to reach VictoryLand representatives were not immediately successful Wednesday evening. 

The moves abruptly revived the old wars over electronic bingo, which led to years of lawsuits and legal actions and threw thousands of people out of work at the targeted casinos, many of which are the largest employers in their areas.

While slot machines are illegal in the state of Alabama, electronic bingo machines operate in a different manner. Federal courts have ruled that electronic bingo at casinos operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka are Class II machines that are legal on the reservations -- subject to federal, not state law -- and not Class III machines, like slot machines. 

The Alabama Supreme Court, however, has consistently ruled that electronic bingo machines are illegal under the state's Constitution, which outlaws gambling. Constitutional amendments have allowed gambling in some locations, but the state's high court has taken an increasingly strict view of what bingo means, and ruled against the machines. 

But state officials in recent years turned to a don't-ask-don't-tell policy toward bingo. In 2015, then-Attorney General Luther Strange sent a memo to local district attorneys charging them with enforcing gambling laws, a move confirmed by-then Gov. Robert Bentley later that year. The change-of-course cleared the way for casinos to reopen, as local law enforcement in counties with electronic bingo generally approve of it. 

VictoryLand reopened in September of 2016. But the lawsuits make it clear Marshall wants to shut them down. 

"Because of the immense profits associated with organized gambling, the gambling industry continues to attempt to evade the clear Constitutional, statutory, and judicial prohibitions on gambling," the lawsuit against VictoryLand said.