Gaming machines are popping everywhere in the heart
of Alabama and the local governments are having a hard
time being able to coordinate exactly how to regulate
the ambiguous machines. Much of the confusion come
from the fact that the machines are remarkably similar
to slot machines of other video gaming gambling
machines, but have successfully positioned themselves
within the " sweepstakes" loophole. How they are able
to work this angle is by setting up the machines to
sell phone cards or something of similar monetary
value.
Once the player buys their phone card they are then
eligible to win a prize, much like if you went into
McDonalds and buy a large fry in order to play the
Monopoly game, and lets face it most Americans need
excessive amount of phone cards as much as they need
excessive amounts of French fries. Regardless,
of need these phone cards seem to be selling like
hotcakes in the rural areas of Alabama. I am sure this
has nothing to do with the gambling aspects of the
activity now would it, right? No... everyone in
Alabama just really loooves talking on the phone...a
lot.
This predicament is what brought officials in the
Huntsville area to the conclusion that is store owners
wanted to operated said machine they would need to
give a portion if the proceeds to the city. This seems
to be working rather well for them and the money
collected is much needed for city wide projects. But
the more rural outskirts of the counties do not fall
under the city's jurisdictions and the county itself
does not have the authority to regulate the gaming
machines in this way. This brings the state to the
supreme court in order to find a way to regulate the
gaming machines in a more unified way statewide.
