Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

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.