Gambling: The Issue that Refuses to Die

Every time I write in this blog that the issue of gambling in Alabama is over, it isn't. In the last week or so, Sen. Roger Bedford reintroduced his gambling bill, but with certain specificities stripped out -- namely the ten locations that would be allowed to have electronic bingo -- and now the debate has turned 180 degrees: the opponents who before didn't like the ten-counties stipulation are now complaining that the bill is too open and vague. In addition, today's Montgomery Advertiser contains an op-ed by John Tyson, the governor's appointed leader of his anti-gambling task force, who was given the legal version of a dethroning by Alabama's Supreme Court recently; the state's highest court declared that only the attorney general had the authority to do what Tyson is trying to do, while Tyson contends that they are wrong and that he has no intention of stopping. (Sound like Roy Moore?)

While the legislators and lawyers duke it out, we all wait. Even the smartest people I know admit that they don't understand what is going on nor why it is happening now. None of us do. None of us get the sense of urgency that is flooding out of all of our governmental agencies -- the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and law enforcement.

I will admit that I began this whole debate as an anti-Troy King, pro-gambling guy who up until now had liked Bob Riley. Riley is one of the few Republicans I have ever voted for, but he has lost me on this one. Why this lame-duck took off on a two-bit law enforcement tangent, usurping the attorney general and arranging raids right and left, in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the early 1980s . . . I have no clue. And he is doing a piss-poor job of explaining to the people why he is doing it. That infomercial he ran on TV seemed like pure rhetoric, had almost no substance, and made me even more against him. Why did this pro-business, somewhat progressive governor all of a sudden blow himself back to the Stone Age of Alabama politics, where banter and petty squabbles supersede dealing with actual issues? At this point, I'm clueless about what the legislature or Troy King are doing, but I bear them no ill will at this point -- it seems to me that they are working all day long to fend off this weird power-grab by Riley -- and it will suit me just fine when Bob Riley goes back to Ashland for good.