Posted on: December 5, 2024, 11:19h.
Last updated on: December 5, 2024, 11:21h.
The City of Lipscomb, Ala. will be able to pay its employees this week after Alabama’s Attorney General’s Office agreed to release $107,000 from city accounts frozen last month over illegal gambling.
The move came after the city council met on Monday to repeal the controversial bingo ordinance that has incurred the wrath of State AG Steve Marshall.
However, a temporary restraining order on the accounts was extended for seven more days pending the finalization of litigation.
‘Menace to Morals’
Steve Marshall accused the city of licensing Jay’s Charity Bingo, an electronic bingo parlor, and claims it continues to receive “illegal funding” from the “illegal gambling.” Marshall has called electronic bingo “a menace to public health, morals, safety, and welfare.”
After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in October 2022 that only traditional bingo games were legal in the state, Marshall began energetically enforcing the prohibition.
The AG’s Office raided Jay’s Charity Bingo in late August. Inside, they found dozens of stolen machines that had been impounded by the state from another illegal bingo parlor 80 miles away. The machines still had their “state evidence” stickers on them, according to the AG’s Office.
Five individuals connected to the business were later arrested and charged with third-degree burglary. Marshall’s Office raided the premises again late November because Jay’s had reopened. This time Marshall sued the city, accusing it of complicity in the operation.
‘Proceeds of Crime’
While the council has now repealed its local bingo laws, Deputy Attorney General John Kachelman said in court this week that the city transferred more than $200,000 from the bingo account to the general fund last month. These funds were the proceeds of crime and should be seized by the state, he added.
Some city councilors blamed Lipscomb Mayor Tonja Baldwin for authorizing Jay’s to continue operating without consulting the council, AL.com reported last month.
But Baldwin told the news site that the Lipscomb needed the money. The city of just over 2,000 inhabitants is struggling financially, with many storefronts along the its main commercial drag boarded up.
“The taxes that come through the city and the council are not enough to keep them operating,” Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson told AL.com. “Where are they going to get the money from without the bingo money? All of that is going to be dead in the water because there are not enough residents there to pay the bills.”
