VictoryLand Casino in Macon County plans to shift its business to betting on horse races after a September ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court said electronic gambling there must end.
VictoryLand president Dr. Lewis Benefield, a Montgomery veterinarian and son-in-law of the late Milton McGregor, the founder of VictoryLand who died in 2018, said the casino has shut down its electronic bingo operation and laid off several hundred employees.
Benefield told AL.com the casino hopes to instead offer betting on historical horse races. VictoryLand already offers gambling on simulcasts of horse races and greyhound races held in other states and countries, as does the Birmingham Race Course, where Benefield is also president.
Alabama courts have ruled numerous times through the years that VictoryLand’s bingo operations are illegal slot machines. Those decisions have resulted in multiple closures and reopenings of the facility.
‘Within the law’
Benefield said he will not engage in that battle in the foreseeable future. He told AL.com, “I’m not going to offer electronic bingo. … I’m fully running the thing within the law and what the law allows me to do.”
The Alabama Constitution prohibits lotteries and most forms of gambling. The unanimous Sept. 30 decision in State v. Epic Tech also applied to White Hall Entertainment and Southern Star Entertainment, longtime gambling halls operating reportedly illegally in Lowndes County.
Local officials had previously refused to take action to shut down electronic gambling in the three facilities, prompting Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall to take action.
According to multiple media reports, the Birmingham Race Course and a variety of smaller businesses scattered across Jefferson and Walker counties — as well as The Crossing at Big Creek in Dothan — attempted to operate illegal slot machines masked as electronic bingo about a decade ago, but those operations were eventually shuttered.
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians offers electronic bingo at its casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka under federal jurisdiction.
