February 4th, 2010
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Author: February 04, 2010, 6:04PM
View full sizeAlabama Gov. Bob Riley, left, watches as Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. discusses his new role as the new commander of the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling during a news conference Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, at the state Capitol in Montgomery, Ala. Tyson said Thursday, Feb. 4 that the state Supreme Court has issued an opinion ruling in favor of the task force and allowing raids of bingo halls in the state to take place.MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Gov. Bob Riley’s anti-gambling task force, lifting a temporary restraining order and allowing raids of bingo halls in Alabama to take place.
“We’ve just received the opinion and have not yet finished reading it,” John Tyson Jr. of Mobile, the head of the anti-gambling task force, told the Press-Register. “They did rule with the task force and we are about to go into a news conference. Beyond that there’s not much I can say.
“We’ve won this round.”
Tyson said the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in the task force’s favor.
The Supreme Court said the trial court lacked “subject-matter jurisdiction.”
VictoryLand, Alabama’s largest
gambling business, has closed its hotel, restaurants and dog track in
Shorter.
VictoryLand shut its casino Monday night to perform what
its lawyer said were upgrades to computers for the food and beverage
service. A spokesman said it closed all other parts of the facility
Thursday.
The Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling tried to
raid the casino Jan. 29, but was blocked by a court order. The Alabama
Supreme Court decision on Thursday lifted that order.
The task force also tried to raid Country Crossing at Dothan last week. The owners immediately shut down the entire complex.
Country
Crossing’s attorney, Jim Parkman, said today that he has advised the
owners to keep it closed until they can get a court ruling that their
games are legal.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
(Updated at 6:27 p.m.)
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