Editorial: Put a halt to Tunica-Biloxi Tribe video gaming project

The proposed Panola Slope barcade — similar to a kids-game arcade, except equipped with 425 video gambling machines offering payouts that can be redeemed on-site for drinks, dinners, lodging, etc. — would be in a failed condo development along a seedy stretch of Covington Highway just east of Atlanta. It’s being pushed by a developer with insider ties to the county government, Vaughn Irons, who chairs the DeKalb Development Authority and who is co-chairman of interim DeKalb CEO Lee May’s Operations Task Force. So it’s probably no surprise that it won unanimous support from the DeKalb County Commission in December.

Since that time, it has been reported that Irons nine months earlier had sold the land involved to a company called Red Alligator LLC, which was incorporated by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, which like many tribes these days operates a casino.

Georgia law prohibits casino gambling and limits the number of video gaming machines in a single location to nine, although cities and counties can authorize more than that if they choose. (And such machines are not allowed to offer cash payouts.) At present, the most such machines in a single location are the 14 at a gas station in Stockbridge.

The Irons/Red Alligator/Panola Slope proposal thus is suddenly on the radar screen of both Gov. Nathan Deal and many state legislators. Deal on Tuesday said he would ask the Georgia Lottery Corp. board, whose members he appoints, to examine the Panola Slope proposal.