VictoryLand, the State’s premier privately owned
casino, reopened quietly on a Tuesday afternoon with very little fanfare.
However, it appears that publicity and advertising are not necessary to attract
patrons to the glamorous facility located along interstate I-85 in Macon
County. Public officials and the local citizenry have been waiting for the
reopening of their largest employer and economic engine for over two years.
Former Gov. Bob Riley heavy handedly closed their
facility in 2010, declaring that their bingo machines were illegal. Riley’s
actions left hundreds of Macon County people out of work and handed the Indian
casinos a monopoly on a silver platter.
The pivotal question is whether the machines, which
are so very popular at the Indian casinos and VictoryLand, qualify as bingo
machines.
Prior to reopening, VictoryLand invited the media to
come to Macon County to view and inspect the machines. They purchased all new
machines designed to specifically comply with the concept of playing bingo.
VictoryLand brought in an expert who directed the New Jersey gaming
enforcement’s testing lab for 22 years. He demonstrated how the machines
operate and comply with the rules that apply to bingo machines. He stated
unequivocally that these games are different from slot machines.
Macon County Sheriff David Warren, who is in total
control of gaming in this venue, declared the new machines are legal and in
compliance with the Macon County constitutional amendment. Warren stated, “I
accept these machines as legal. How clear can it be that these machines play
bingo?”
It would appear that in this day and time as
advanced as computer technology has become that indeed they can design machines
that comply with the concept of bingo. VictoryLand will await the actions of
Atty. Gen. Luther Strange, who has not denied that he was the recipient of at
least $100,000 in Indian gambling money in his 2010 race for attorney general.
If that is the case, then Big Luther would have an ethical conflict of interest
in even attempting to determine whether the new VictoryLand machines are in
fact bingo machines.
In the meantime, the Indian casinos in the state are
flourishing with their electronic bingo machines and paying no taxes on their
economic monopoly.
Just up the road from Macon County in Montgomery a
debacle occurred at Alabama State University. The University’s President,
Joseph Silver, resigned after being on the job less than four months. He was
put on administrative leave after he terminated long time Vice President John
Knight.
Knight is not only Vice President of Alabama State,
he is also a member of the university’s board of trustees and has been a state
representative from Montgomery for two decades. He served as Chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee in the last quadrennium prior to Republicans
taking control of the legislature. Knight is a political power in Montgomery.
President Silver displayed bold independence by
attempting to fire Knight. His reason for confronting Knight was because he
said that he had uncovered what he called “long standing bones” while looking
into the university’s finances and contracts. Silver said that when he
attempted to investigate some contracts he considered “questionable and
troubling at best and a conflict of interest at least,” he was stonewalled.
In the end, Knight and the powers that be prevailed.
Silver and the university quietly came to an agreement in late December. Silver
was more or less bought off with ten pieces of silver. To be exact, he received
a $685,000 settlement to quietly walk away.
In the meantime, the ASU board’s cavalier approach
to the matter did not escape the ire of Governor Robert Bentley. The Alabama Constitution
clearly places the governor as the chairman of the board of trustees of all
state colleges and universities. Alabama State not only failed to acknowledge
Gov. Bentley as a member of its Board, but it omitted the governor’s presence
on the board from the university’s website.
The governor has called for a forensic audit of the
finances of the university. Therefore, we may not have heard the last of the
story on this Alabama State saga.
See you next week.
About the author: Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading
political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama
newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached
at http://www.steveflowers.us.
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