Gary Palmer: Penalties for illegal gambling: Cost of business or a crime?

  If you wonder how much difference there is in the Alabama Legislature between the old Democrat majority and the new Republican majority that was elected in 2010, take a look at the bills that are on the agenda.

  From the early 1990s through the 2010 legislative session, gambling was the one issue that dominated the agenda of the Democrat-controlled legislature. During that time, gambling bills to legalize everything from full-scale casinos to video gambling machines posing as electronic bingo dominated practically every legislative session. Gambling interests spent millions of dollars to beat down opponents in an effort to get their gambling operations legalized … but according to Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, the days of the legislative session being held hostage by gambling interests are over.