How we got bingo in 1992

Doing research for a client at Ed Howell Communication, I finally had time to look at the 1992 issues of the Daily Mountain Eagle concerning how bingo got started--at least the paper kind. It is water under the bridge perhaps, but it makes for some interesting reading in the aftermath.

In the Feb. 26, 1992, issue, the Eagle said that hundreds of people had signed petitions already for bingo as a means of raising money for fire departments and other charities. The Jasper VFW and the Elks Lodge were among those that had come out in favor. Charles Tipton of the United Mine Workers came out in favor of it, as long as the charities had existed for five years and non-profit groups were the ones who benefited, adding that retirees and locals could get funds. (He later had to apologize for giving the impression that the UMW was in favor of it, saying he was only speaking for himself.)

On March 5, it was noted by Eagle writer John Sandlin that state Rep. Johnny Cagle, D-Nauvoo, who had defeated Ed Frazier earlier to gain that seat, was sponsoring the bills. A major supporter of bingo, T. Wayne Bright, brought the legal ad to the Eagle that was necessary to run the bills.

Cagle said he had received no negative response to the bills and that it would "help a lot of schools in trouble." He expected it to pass through after a tax reform package was passed.

"I've got petitions from hundreds of people who want the right to vote. There's been an overwhelming response from organizations, and it's the same thing as tax reform. It's ultimately up to the people," Cagle said. "I'm sure there are some people opposed and I say, 'If you are opposed, vote against it or campaign against it.'"

Cagle said there are safeguards written in the bills "so people can't come into Walker County and take advantage " of legalized bingo, Sandlin wrote. Groups would have to be non-profit and in existence locally for at least five years before they could operate games.

Sandlin noted, "Several volunteer and fraternal groups have operated low-key bingo games to raise funds over the years in Walker county, either as traditional bingo or virtually the same game under a different name."

It is interesting no one in the stories talks about electronic games being proposed from the bills. In fact, on March 10, there was a story about Jasper police cracking down on video poker machines.

It appears at least on the surface the Walker County Commission, which had all different members then, had little to do with the effort. Frazier came one day to a meeting thinking there was to be a hearing, but commissioners said they had no received petitions and had no hearing scheduled. I think that was the only time the commissioners had any record in the paper of discussing it in a meeting.

Meanwhile, then-state Sen. Bob Wilson Jr. had nothing to say about it at the time. State Rep. Tom Hogan, who held Tommy Sherer's seat at the time, only reluctantly supported the bills, saying he could not block them only because of wide support.

"I don't think bingo is the way to go, but I'm not going to stop the veterans from having a chance to vote on it. There's a lot of members who appear to favor bingo," Hogan said.

It was not until the end of the session that the bingo bills were passed -- four of them. It turns out that two bills set up a Jasper Bingo Authority and a Walker County Bingo Authority, according to a May 21 report. I just realized that, and don't know if Gov. Guy Hunt signed them, as Hunt was studying them at the time. Obviously, he signed bills to set up a vote that November. There was later talk about how the act would set up a bingo committee to make sure caps on jackpots, set by the Legislature, would be followed.

The bills first passed the House. Wilson signed the measures out of the Local Legislation Committee in the last hours of the session. He told Sandlin the four bills then went on the Senate general calendar because of a legislative rule that makes any bill regarding lotteries or games of chance a general bill regardless of its local application.

"Wilson asked for the bills to be handled out of order and the Senate passed the measures before the legislative clock died," Sandlin said.

By the Nov. 3 vote, there had been a number of ads, particularly from Rev. Delmus Anthony of New Prospect Baptist Church, that worried about the proposal opening up other gambling in the county. Dr. Michael Adams of First Baptist Church (of Jasper, I presume) also opposed it.

The ballot allowed "legalizing the operation of bingo games for prizes or money by certain non-profit organizations for charitable or educational purposes...when all the requirements of Amendment 425 to the state constitution are fulfilled." Jasper voters got to vote on their proposal and the county's bingo amendment as well.

VFW leaders said 30 percent of the proceeds would go to charity causes, while 50 percent would be paid to player winnings and 20 percent would go for overhead. It was noted by Sandlin that "heat from authorities over bingo conducted by AMVETS at a building just across the Warrior River brought an end in 1984 to games conducted by the Jasper VFW post and police shut down both the VFW and the Elks when they tried to resume games last year (1991), the VFW leaders said."

Post 4850 Commander John Grimes told Sandlin that he disagreed with the stand by church leaders.

""I don't want to get into a fight with the church. The church has it's place," he said. "But bingo is bingo and I don't understand how they can say it's going to lead someone to do something else, unless they think it's going to make him go somewhere else to bet on dogs."

Meanwhile, Sandlin said Cagle was now distancing himself from a growing fray, saying he was not backing one side or another but only trying to give people the right to vote on the issue. He did say that the bills were drawn up based on bills used in Gadsden, where games were being conducted without problems.

Again, none of the articles were describing whether electronic bingo was part of the deal, and it would seem it pointed only to regular bingo when the headline on Nov. 4 referred to VFW leaders "dusting off their bingo balls" after they won the referendums the day before. The vote outside Jasper was 14,016 in favor to 11,417 against. Inside Jasper it passed 13,065 to 11,694.

Adams told Sandlin he was not persuaded on arguments that the gambling aspect of bingo would not eventually lead to big business controlling the games, based on what he had seen in other communities.

Grimes responded that the wording of the legislation would prevent that from happening since only non-profit charitable groups which had been around for 60 months could operate the games.

Well, we all know how that ended, don't we?