The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Attorney General Steve Marshall in declaring the operations of Victoryland in Lowndes County, and Southern Star and White Hall casinos in Macon County to be illegal gaming enterprises.
While Marshall touted the victory, his Democratic opponent still doesn’t believe the attorney general is going enough to enforce the law.
Friday on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” Democratic nominee for attorney general Wendell Major said Alabama doesn’t have “aggressive enforcement” of gambling laws.
“I would take opposition to the idea that (Marshall) has been aggressively enforcing it,” Major said. “He’s been the attorney general for approximately six years and we’ve had this problem going on I know over 10, so we do not have an aggressive enforcement of the law, if the law in Alabama is, in fact, you can’t play bingo electronically.”
The candidate accused Marshall of ignoring places that he knows are participating in the illegal gambling activities.
“If that’s the law, it hasn’t been very aggressively enforced,” he said. “I drove through from Birmingham to (Montgomery) today. I drove past several places I suspect they play electronic bingo in there, and I’m sure the attorney general of this state is very aware of them.”
Major said things will be different in this area if he’s elected to be the next chief law enforcement officer for the Yellowhammer State.
“The people of this state have to decide what the law is in this state, and then we will enforce it,” he said. “And if I’m the attorney general, we’ll enforce the law as it’s written without regard to political ideology or anyone else’s.”
The Democratic candidate also criticized Marshall of making decisions based solely on partisan politics.
“I will not be involved in petty partisan politics,” he said. “I think the attorney general of the state of Alabama should focus on enforcing the laws in the state of Alabama and ensuring not only the citizens comply, but its governmental agencies and agents comply with the law. That is what the people in the state of Alabama dictate they want here in Alabama. They want Alabama run by Alabamians.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
