Both supporters, opponents lobbied hard on bill.
State Rep. John Rogers says the battle over the bingo bill was intense. (The Birmingham News / Jeff Roberts)The stakes were high for electronic bingo operators this past spring.
Gov. Bob Riley was trying to shut them down, seeking a court ruling that the slot machine-lookalikes were illegal. Such a court decision could have closed the bingo casinos permanently unless the Alabama Constitution was changed to state the games were legal.
That's what bingo operators were trying to achieve with Senate Bill 380 -- a proposal that would have let voters decide whether to allow a limited number of bingo casinos to operate across the state. It was the lobbying for votes on that bill that led to this week's indictments of 11 Alabama legislators, lobbyists, gambling operators and others on public corruption charges.
Legislators said there was intense pressure from casino lobbyists to vote for the bill and from Riley to vote against it. Profanity-laced conversations caught by federal wiretaps hint at the pressure cooker environment.
"It was quite tough. The votes were tight," Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said in an interview this week.
"They vote-counted every day to see if they had the numbers," said Rogers, a supporter of legalized gambling.
Federal prosecutors have charged VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, Country Crossing owner Ronnie Gilley, four legislators, three lobbyists and a casino spokesman in a broad vote-buying scheme. Prosecutors allege millions of dollars in campaign contributions, a $1 million-a-year job and election-year assistance were offered in exchange for critical yes votes on the gambling bill. Federal prosecutors also have accused a legislative employee of being on McGregor's payroll.
The bingo bill was introduced in both chambers of the Legislature, but legislative leaders wanted the Senate to deal with the politically charged issue first because the Senate historically has been a hurdle for gaming bills.
At stake were hundreds of millions of dollars in bingo revenue. According to documents unsealed in an unrelated civil case, VictoryLand in 2008 grossed $162 million in bingo receipts.
Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, said the casino operators knew their days could be numbered if Riley succeeded with getting a court to definitively rule the machines illegal.
"The pressure was really on. This was a must," Dixon said.
Dixon, who voted against the bill, said he had probably "a dozen conversations" with McGregor as McGregor tried to secure his vote. But Dixon said McGregor never made him any improper offers.
McGregor wasn't the only one calling, said Dixon. So was Riley.
There was intense pressure from the governor's office to vote against the bill. A liaison from the governor's office would call daily to check on how he would vote, Dixon said.
"The pressure was intense from both sides," Dixon said.
Dixon said Riley never offered him anything, either.
"The governor gives nothing. He just tells you what he wants you to do, then he hollers and yells at you if you don't," Dixon said.
Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville said that, shortly before he was elected last year, a lobbyist representing electronic bingo interests called and offered him $250,000 in campaign contributions. Sanford said lobbyist Jarrod Massey, who is one of the 11 indicted, told him he had two bingo clients willing to give him donations. "He said his clients could easily fund my campaign two or three times over," Sanford said.
Sanford said it stuck out in his mind that Massey immediately told him there was "no quid pro quo." "I felt like he was trying to cover his tracks by saying that," Sanford said.
Massey's lawyers have said their client never had a conversation in which he offered campaign contributions in exchange for a vote.
Sanford, who voted against the bingo bill, said that, during the legislative session, there was more "of a full court press" by bingo supporters than by Riley's office. "Almost daily someone would ask you about it," Sanford said.
Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Capshaw, said bingo lobbyists approached him several times trying to persuade him to vote yes on the bill.
"They asked, 'How do you feel about it. What would you like to see changed?"
McCutcheon, a former police investigator, said he was never offered anything for a vote, but the conversations at times made him uneasy.
"There was a couple of times the conversation could have gone in an uneasy tone," McCutcheon said.
Federal prosecutors included excerpts from wiretaps in the indictment. Prosecutors and defense lawyers will wrangle over whether the conversations show something illegal or simply bravado and bluster. Regardless, they show the intensity of the hunt for votes.
According to the indictment, in one conversation Gilley told his lobbyist, Jarrod Massey, "We're going to support who supports democracy. And the ... who doesn't support democracy get ready to get their ... busted."
In another excerpt from the indictment, the sponsor of the bill, Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, asks McGregor for permission to retaliate against people who didn't keep their vote commitments. "We're coming after your ... ," the indictment quotes Bedford as saying.
Bedford, who has not been indicted in the case, said that, if he had such a conversation, it was along the lines that it should be "remembered" if people broke their commitments.
Bedford said the environment was intense, but he said it was because Riley was heavily involved in trying to defeat the bill.
"I've never seen a governor pull out all of the stops like that," Bedford said.
Bedford said Riley offered to help people with their campaigns in exchange for no votes on the legislation.
"Part of what they allege in the indictment is the exact same thing the governor was doing," Bedford said. When asked for specific instances, Bedford said he couldn't provide them.
Riley Communications Director Jeff Emerson said Bedford's accusation is "nonsense" and an attempt to deflect attention.
"Absolutely Gov. Riley warned legislators that Bedford's bill was corrupt," Emerson said, adding that it was passed, anyway.
The bill passed the Senate on March 30 on a 21-13 vote. It initially stalled in the Senate, falling three votes short of the 21 needed to get a constitutional amendment through the 35-member Senate. But Bedford tried again, and the bill passed.
Two of the three senators who cast the swing votes -- Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, and Sen. Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega -- were indicted Monday.
"People were surprised when it passed the Senate, because the House is a lot more liberal than the Senate," Rogers said.
Rumors swirled around the State House for weeks about a federal investigation regarding gambling, so much so that one legislator said he began cautioning his colleagues.
"This is as hot as a firecracker. Do not talk about bingo and money at the same time," Rogers said he told fellow legislators.
Federal prosecutors came out of the investigatory closet on April 1, when they bluntly told legislative leaders they were investigating the bill that had just passed the Senate.
The move was criticized immediately by some Democrats as an attempt to kill the bill. The bill did die three weeks later, when the House sponsor decided not to seek a vote after a morning count showed he did not have the 63 votes needed to pass it.
Join the conversation by clicking to comment or e-mail Chandler at kchandler@bhamnews.com.
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