Greenetrack will reopen tonight

Greenetrack will hold a grand re-opening tonight of its Gaming Center. The casino closed in the aftermath of the Alabama Supreme Court decision finding for the state, stripping the “charity bingo” of its non-profit status and ordering Greenetrack to pay $76 million in disputed back taxes.

Greenetrack is reopening on very shaky legal ground. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that three other casinos in Lowndes and Macon County were illegal gambling halls, not bingo halls as their owners maintain. The state’s highest court remanded the case back to the lower court and ordered those judges to issue orders that those three casinos close within thirty days.

The Court on Friday expounded on earlier court decisions going back to 2009 that bingo is a game played on paper cards. The court has ruled that gambling machines at the facility, very similar to the ones at Greenetrack, are (under Alabama law) illegal gambling machines and not electronic bingo machines as their operators claimed to the court.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement that he was pursuing a separate court action to permanently close Greenetrack.

Greenetrack CEO Luther Winn told the Tuscaloosa Thread that the casino will reopen Friday at 5 p.m. and will offer “Las Vegas-style games, mechanical reels, new titles,” and more.

“We’re reopening with a product proven to be the top-growing market in the United States with historical horseracing,” Winn said, “We’ll have really nice games that are very competitive and fun to play.”

Winn said Greenetrack, which employs an estimated 80 people in Eutaw, is essential to the Greene County economy.

“Re-opening means that Greene County, I’m hoping, can take a deep breath, and people can depend on Greenetrack again for employment for years to come,” Winn said.

The Alabama Constitution of 1901 outlaws games of chance. That 121-year-old document has not been reversed. Confusion entered into the law when certain counties, including Greene, Macon, Jefferson, and Mobile, passed local county-wide constitutional amendments allowing dog and/or horse racing in Alabama. Greenetrack opened as a dog track where people could bet on live dog races. That was followed by amendments allowing charity bingo. Over time, the tracks went to bingo and then put in electronic bingo machines, which state officials allowed.

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians (PCI), Alabama’s only federally recognized Indian tribe, asked for and got a license from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to build their own “electronic bingo” halls in Atmore and Wetumpka under the 1986 Indian Gaming Act.

Then-Attorney General Troy King issued an attorney general’s opinion that affirmed that electronic bingo was legal under the charity bingo amendments to the Alabama Constitution. Then Gov. Bob Riley appointed Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, a political rival of King’s, to head a gambling task force that began seizing the electronic gambling machines. The Alabama Supreme Court found that Riley and Tyson were correct and that bingo cannot be played on a machine. Robert Bentley followed Riley as Governor, closed down the Governor’s gambling task force, and issued an executive order that prohibited state troopers from enforcing the law against gaming.

Gov. Kay Ivey has continued the Bentley policy on gambling. In 2020 the Governor’s task force on gambling issued a lengthy report urging the Legislature to pass legislation allowing the current casinos to operate legally and impose a state lottery.

State Sens. Greg Albritton and Del Marsh both separately brought the governor’s legislation, and it passed the State Senate in 2021 and 2022. The Alabama House of Representatives did not. Gov. Ivey has said that her greatest regret from her first term is that the Legislature has not passed gambling legislation.

Marshall, meanwhile, has pursued legal actions to shut down the casinos.

The Greenetrack Gaming Center has been in the process of remodeling and refurbishing its gambling machines since August. It reopens tonight, but its legality and its future remain in doubt.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.