Saturday, January 20, 2007

District attorneys statewide plan to use a recent Supreme Court decision
outlawing a type of video gaming machine at Birmingham's dog track to shut
down adult arcades and casino-like operations across Alabama, a key
prosecutor said Tuesday. The ruling, which overturned a lower court order
that allowed so-called "sweepstakes" machines operated by Birmingham Race
Course owner Milton McGregor, means that nearly any type of video gambling
is illegal, Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber said in an
interview. Barber said he is giving video gaming halls around Birmingham
until Jan. 30 to shut down because that's the day the court's ruling becomes
final, and he expects many other local prosecutors to do the same. "Every DA
in the state is pretty much on the same page. We're going to consider
anything that might be considered a gambling device to be a gambling
device," said Barber, whose office was involved in the case that led to the
decision against McGregor's operation. He said the issue was a major topic
of discussion among district attorneys attending a statewide conference in
Birmingham on Tuesday. McGregor denied that the Supreme Court ruling
extended to anything other than sweepstakes machines. "It's not that broad.
They're only addressing the sweepstakes," he said. "Barber's playing games
and he needs to go back to law school." McGregor's comments came as the
state attorney general's office sent letters to hundreds of sheriffs and
police chiefs explaining the action by the Supreme Court. Last Friday it
refused to reconsider a December decision in which it said the sweepstakes
machines operated at the Race Course violated state gambling laws. Deputy
Attorney General Kenneth Steely said he had received calls from all over the
state asking whether certain types of machines were legal, but "it's up to
the locals" to enforce the law. "The letter is to give them guidance about
what the court's ruling said," Steely said. At Leisure Time Arcade in
Adamsville, attendant Chris Nation collected money from a lunchtime crowd of
a half-dozen people who were playing video machines allowed under a past
ruling by a Jefferson County judge. In their midst, more than two dozen
sweepstakes-style machines sat unplugged, their screens blank.

Nation said all the machines would soon be operating again after workers
removed their sweepstakes circuit boards and replaced them with another
type.

"They're coming in here tomorrow to switch the boards," said Nation.

But Barber said that won't be enough under his interpretation of the court's
action.

"As far as I'm concerned, they're all illegal," he said. "I think the
Supreme Court spoke loud and clear."

McGregor shut down his sweepstakes operation at the Race Court after the
Supreme Court ruled last week, and some smaller sweepstakes arcades also
closed.

At McGregor's Quincy's MegaSweeps, customers bought computer time on an
electronic card. Customers received sweepstakes entries for their purchase
of Internet time, and winners were revealed using computerized card readers
that resembled slot machines.

A lower court ruled that the operation was nothing more than a sham casino
and was allowed under state law, but the Supreme Court disagreed.