The White Hall Gaming Center in White Hall, Alabama offers 450 bingo machines for area residents. Open 23 hours a day, seven days a week, the center attracts 1,500 customers a day, and provides 160 jobs to local residents.
But Attorney General Troy King says that the bingo hall is operating illegally, dismissing arguments that the hall supplies jobs and entertainment to area residents, and ignoring the center’s numerous charitable contributions. King filed a complaint stating that the center was operating based on an Alabama constitutional amendment which was passed without the correct procedure. King filed with the Lowndes County Circuit Court for the court to declare the bingo amendment invalid. The amendment, according to King, was passed in the legislature with opposition, meaning that it should have been forwarded for approval by the state’s voters.
Locals argue that the area’s businesses would be harmed by removing the bingo hall, claiming that local townships benefit from the 160 employed residents who spend their earnings in nearby towns. King says that a new law would have to be passed to make the electronic bingo hall legal.
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