"In the bruising, high-stakes battle over electronic bingo, each side will end up spending a megajackpot's worth of money touting its view and tearing down opponents.

The least Alabamians should expect as they watch the Legislature debate a gambling bill they could end up voting on is to know who's bankrolling whom. In other words, as the headline on a news release from VictoryLand casino this past week said: "Show us the Money!!!"

The release targeted the Citizens for a Better Alabama, the most visible group fighting the expansion of gambling in Alabama. It said the group has been "a vehicle by which Mississippi casino interests opposed legislation in Alabama that threatened their market share on gaming."

The release cited a 2006 report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which investigated the scandal involving lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, who bilked several Native American clients out of millions of dollars. The committee's report linked money from Mississippi's Choctaw Indians to Alabama's Citizens Against Legalized Lottery, which changed its name in 2001 to CBA.

"Knowing Citizens for a Better Alabama's dubious history, the people of Alabama should be skeptical of their motives and deserve the right to know who's getting paid to wage this campaign and who's funding the opposition to the people of Alabama's right to vote," the release said.

Bingo! "

Get the Story:
Every group and politician with a stake in the electronic-bingo fight ought to show us the money (The Birmingham News 2/21)

Also Today:
Bingo start to finish (The Dothan Eagle 2/20)
Gambling interests put more than $2.2 million in PACs in run-up to election season (The Birmingham News 2/21)