"Most years, the question of expanded gambling comes up in the Alabama Legislature and seldom gets very far.

But with a new year and a new session looming, state government faces potential trouble in the Medicaid program, which is expected to lose $135 million in federal funding. State prisons are overcrowded and many are in poor physical shape.

With these and other pressures on the General Fund and with the Poarch Creek Indians engaged in their own program of lucrative economic development through video bingo, legislators would do well to revisit the question of expanded gambling.

As the Press-Register editorial board has said before, Alabama would be better off with well-regulated, appropriately taxed expanded gambling operations than with the state's current situation. Pari-mutuel dog racing and simulcasts of dog and horse racing from other states are legal, and electronic bingo on behalf of charities is legal at racetracks in Greene and Macon counties.

Meanwhile, the Poarch Creek tribe makes good money without having to pay taxes on it, and Alabamians are within driving distance of full-service casinos in Mississippi and lottery tickets just over the state lines of Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

We're well aware that there is substantial political and moral opposition to any form of gambling; Gov. Bob Riley, for one, has consistently opposed expanding gaming. Regardless, it's already here. While state government can't tax a Native American tribe's operation, it can and should allow for well-regulated and well-taxed expansions; otherwise, the gambling dollar will simply go elsewhere."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Poarch Creek tribe already has casino (The Mobile Press-Register 11/27)