FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
November 26, 2012
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Alabama Attorney General
Suzanne Webb (334) 242-7351
Page 1 of 1
Statement of AG Strange in White Hall Gambling Case
(Montgomery) – Today, the Attorney General’s Office obtained a final judgment for the
State of Alabama in a so-called “electronic bingo” case arising out of the execution of a search
warrant at a Lowndes County casino. In 2009, pursuant to a warrant, the State seized over 100
so-called “electronic bingo” machines from the White Hall Entertainment Center, along with
more than a half million dollars in cash proceeds from illegal gambling at the casino. The State
then filed an action seeking their forfeiture under an Alabama law that makes illegal gambling
devices and illegal gambling proceeds forfeited to the State. Earlier this year, Judge Robert
Vance of the Jefferson County Circuit Court declared the seized money forfeited to the State’s
General Fund.
Today, Judge Robert Vance declared that the illegal gambling devices be forfeited to the
State as well. After several years of litigation, four slot machine manufacturers “consented to the
relief sought by the State.” The slot machine manufacturers were AGS, Inc., Eclipse Gaming,
Inc., Bally Gaming, Inc., and Nova Gaming, LLC. Judge Vance held that “the State is entitled to
the relief sought in the complaint, namely the forfeiture and condemnation of the ‘Gambling
Devices’ identified therein. The State may promptly make the arrangements necessary for the
destruction of such devices.”
Attorney General Strange said that he was pleased with Judge Vance’s decision to grant
the State’s petition for forfeiture. “Today the trial court ordered that the gambling devices seized
at the White Hall casino in 2009 are to be destroyed pursuant to Alabama law. This is exactly
what the State has sought all along and I am pleased that this controversy was successfully
resolved in the courts,” he said. “The over half million dollars seized at the White Hall casino
was previously ordered by the court to be forfeited to the State of Alabama’s General Fund,” said
Attorney General Strange.
Attorney General Strange also stated that he hoped Judge Vance’s order would help end
the attempts of organized gambling to bring illegal slot machines into the State. “Since I took
Office, I have worked hard to end illegal gambling in an orderly fashion through the court
system. Today is a significant step in that direction. The slot-machine manufacturers’
willingness to consent to this forfeiture judgment should end this controversy once and for all,
not only in Lowndes County, but throughout the State,” Attorney General Strange said. “There is
no reasonable argument that these so-called ‘electronic bingo’ machines are legal anywhere in
Alabama, and these manufacturers have effectively admitted as much by consenting to this
judgment.”
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501 Washington Avenue * Montgomery, AL 36104 * (334) 242-7300
www.ago.alabama.gov
