Sparks Still Pushing for Gambling in AL
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Last week there were waves made in the gambling laws in Alabama. As you may or may not know, there were eleven people cited in various indictments in the state. They were all allegedly involved in taking as much as $2 million in bribe money to push for gambling to be legalized throughout the state. The parties involved were not small players, but rather “high ups” who had a lot of clout in the gambling world. Alabama is reeling for a lot of reasons due to the indictments and now is trying to come together to revisit the issue. The legal infractions were handed down by Montgomery County in the state. One legislator who is fighting still is the Democratic candidate for the position of governor Ron Sparks. He believes that the indictments in themselves are political in nature. With an election coming up, is it difficult to say why this exact time was chosen to bring up the issue of gambling. He believes that it was to put a bad spin on the activity and shore up opponents to legalizing gambling in the state of Alabama.
Sparks has long been a supporter of the activity. He believes like other proponents that it would be a sure fire way to bring in millions of dollars and jobs to the market. His position is that if he is elected, he will make sure that gambling is legalized and regulated throughout the state. Though he has a strong support system, it may be difficult for him to change the laws. Current Governor Robert Riley already has took a strong stand against gambling and even created the Task Force on Illegal Gambling. The final say some believe should be with the voting public, but even that is proving to be a difficult task. Recently a bill was proposed that would have done just that—put the issue up for vote in November of this year. It never made the ballot though because the anti-gambling Republican party rejected it. This means that the issue will have to be settled in other ways. It will take time to recover from the indictments since they named huge players in the political market as some of the biggest law breakers.

