The Alabama Office of the Attorney General was able to secure a search warrant to raid VictoryLand and their sister establishment Quincy’s 777 last week. The video bingo hall is located in Shorter, Alabama. Something like this would not normally be a big deal. The machines were controversial and may very well be illegal. It was how Luther Strange, the State’s Attorney General, went about getting his way.
There is a long history of feuds between Alabama video bingo operators and the State Government. Sixteen counties have legalized bingo through local referendums allowed by state law. Counties that passed legalized bingo had their local laws ratified to the Alabama Constitution. Macon County, where VictoryLand is located, passed bingo through a local referendum in 2004. VictoryLand operated under the premise that local residents approved of their games. Macon County Sheriff David Warren agrees that the devices operated on the property are legal under state and local laws. Even though the games were declared legal by the Attorney General at the time of passage, the current Attorney General disagrees.
The Alabama Attorney General attempted to obtain a search warrant to raid VictoryLand by a local court. On January 16, 2013, Judge Tom F. Young Jr. of the Fifth Judicial Circuit heard the case. The Honorable Judge Young ruled that the State failed to demonstrate probable cause needed to obtain a search warrant.
There were several factors that weighed into Judge Young’s decision.
Judge Young took the opinion of Sheriff Warren and VictoryLand’s demonstration as to how the machines operate as having satisfied the Barber v. Cornerstone requirements for operating video bingo in Alabama.
Judge Young also ruled that the State’s constitutional amendment covering bingo in Macon County expressly left the issue of legality up to the county sheriff, who declared the games to be legal. Furthermore, Judge Young determined that since no court had ever ruled the machines to be illegal, there was no probable cause to issue a search warrant. If the machines were in fact illegal, the State would not need a search warrant to obtain access to the property as VictoryLand was open to the public and the machines were in plain-sight. That in itself, in Judge Young’s opinion, shows doubt as to whether the State’s Attorney General could demonstrate that the machines were illegal.
The state was essentially asking Judge Young to declare video bingo games illegal even though the local sheriff and experts dispute that claim and there has never been a court ruling declaring the State’s current opinion to be valid.
The judge also stated that video evidence provided did not satisfy the probable cause requirement by itself and that it was the main evidence offered by the state to obtain the search warrant.
Judge Young closed his ruling with this quote:
The Fourth Amendment is sacred and should not be the subject of political agendas of Governors, Task Force, Attorney Generals or multi-million dollar industries.
The Court of Criminal Appeals backed up Judge Young’s decision. The State then took the issue to the Alabama Supreme Court. The State based precedent for taking a search warrant application to the Supreme Court from a case dating back to the 1800’s that had not been used since.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in the State’s favor. Judge Young was ordered to sign the search warrant by the higher court. The Court ordered that the decision remain sealed until the search warrant had been executed.
Judge Young signed the search warrant with defiance. A handwritten note at the bottom of the warrant stated:
Based on the conflict in information known to this Court at this time, I do not believe that this application for search warrant provides sufficient probable cause. One month ago, based on this information, I declined to issue the warrant and the Criminal Court of Appeals supported that decision when they denied the Attorney General’s first Writ of Mandamus, by unanimous decision. No new information has been provided to this date.
The Supreme Court has now issued to this Court a Writ of Mandamus requiring the Court to sign the same warrant, despite this Court’s opinion that it is improper according to the law. This Court will, as always, follow the mandates of the Supreme Court, although it does so with the greatest of judicial reluctance.
The State then raided Quincy’s 777 bingo hall located on the VictoryLand property. The State seized over 1,000 machines and closed the property down, putting hundreds out of work.
VictoryLand Owner Acquitted of Charges in 2012
This is not the first time VictoryLand has been under fire. Milton McGregor, owner of VictoryLand, and five others were charged with bribery in a federal case that surrounded attempts to legalize casinos in Alabama. The jury acquitted the six defendants on all charges in March 2012.
Three Tribal Casinos Operate Same Games
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians operate three video bingo establishments. All three bingo casinos are operated under the same premise that VictoryLand and other properties operated under, that video bingo is legal in some counties in Alabama. Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, reservations may operate similar gambling allowed commercially within a state without a compact. The tribes and video bingo operators on private land offer the same defense. If one can operate video bingo, the other may as well.
In response to this defense, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office filed suit against the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Elmore County in an attempt to shut down video bingo operating on tribal land. The state cannot enter the reservations to shut them down. That would require involvement by federal law enforcement.
Author Notes
It is not that I think that the video bingo machines satisfy Alabama law. There is no precedent for that opinion, but that is exactly my point. No court has ever ruled the machines to be illegal. The State’s Attorney General refused to accept the county sheriff’s position, even though the Alabama Constitution gives him this power under Amendment 744:
The sheriff shall promulgate rules and regulations for the licensing and operation of bingo games within the county.
The Macon County Sheriff’s Office declared the games at VictoryLand to be legal when doing so. This fact has never been disputed.
When video bingo was passed by 16 Alabama counties, Troy King, the Alabama Attorney General at the time, stated that video versions of the game were explicitly legal due to the constitutional amendments approved by voters in these counties. The video bingo halls opened under this premise, one that has changed midgame by the new Attorney General.
Alabama will have a hard time closing the reservation casinos for these same reasons. These games have operated off and on for nearly a decade without any court ruling declaring them illegal and they have county sheriffs, who are given the constitutional duty of enforcing bingo laws, declaring them explicitly legal. Since the Alabama Attorney General cannot turn to their Supreme Court to close tribal casinos, they will have a long road in their attempt at shutting down tribal bingo.
The fact that the games have been operating on tribal land unchallenged within Alabama also gives VictoryLand a defense that their games must also be legal, at least at the time of last week’s raid. This could be quite an obstacle for the State to overcome down the road as this case makes its way through the legal system.
My last point is that Attorney General Strange went to great lengths in his attempt to receive the search warrant his office so desired. The law clearly gives the local sheriff the power to regulate bingo and the Macon County Sheriff did just that. The State was not happy with this, Judge Young’s ruling, or the one by the Criminal Court of Appeals. Instead, Attorney General Strange went to the extraordinary length of going to the Alabama Supreme Court to secure a simple search warrant, one lower courts ruled his office did not even need if their opinion was in fact true.
In my opinion, this was radical behavior that sets a dangerous precedent. Does anyone really want to live in a state where their government will take a simple search warrant application all the way to the Supreme Court when they were denied by lower courts and told one was not even needed if their opinion was backed by state law?
Judge Young had it right when he said “The Fourth Amendment is sacred and should not be the subject of political agendas of Governors, Task Force, Attorney Generals or multi-million dollar industries.” I share Judge Young’s opinion that this is an abuse of the Fourth Amendment for political gain.
Whether you are for or against video bingo, the great lengths that Attorney General Strange went to in his quest to satisfy his agenda should worry everyone that lives in Alabama.
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