New Alabama Governor Wants People to Decide on Gambling

The face that may decide Alabama’s gambling debates.

Robert Bentley, poised to assume the Alabama governor’s office next week, says he’d like the much-debated gambling issue in the state to be brought to a popular vote to reconcile the subject once and for all. Bentley asserts that he’d let voters either legalize the quasi-bingo games that act similarly to slot machines, or reject all gaming, which would close even the tribal casinos now operating.

Still, Bentley allows that gambling probably won’t be on a ballot in his first year in office. Bentley also released word that he expects to make across-the-board budget cuts in services and all state programs, even as potential revenue from gaming and casino taxes are ignored.

Bentley has identified himself as a gambling foe, but he will not pursue exiting Governor Bob Riley’s policy of sending special enforcers to raid bingo halls and gaming areas. Instead, he will refer matters to the state attorney general’s office until the law is clarified by ballot or legislation, a move Riley refused to make.

“I believe the people of Alabama need to decide at the ballot box on a yes or no vote whether to allow gambling or abolish all forms of gambling,” said Bentley while campaigning for governor.

Bentley says a vote would be the only way the state can close the Indian casinos, which are under federal authority and are able to operate as long as similar gaming is legal anywhere within state borders. If presented as Bentley suggests, a gambling proposal would either grant the state regulatory powers over legal gambling, or close all forms of betting, including animal racing and bingo.