Attorney General Raids Another Alabama Casino

A casino west of Montgomery was raided Friday morning by agents of the Alabama attorney general's office.  A search warrant was issued for the Southern Star Casino in the White Hall community of Lowndes County.   

"Today's actions are the culmination of an investigative process over the last several months," said Attorney General Luther Strange. "From my first day in office, I have worked to ensure that illegal gambling laws are enforced consistently across the state."

The raid follows others including the confiscation and seizure of about 600 electronic bingo machines at Center Stage Alabama in July.  Previously, Country Crossing (now known as Center Stage) and Victoryland closed before agents of the Governor's Illegal Gambling Task Force executed planned raids.  A previous casino operation in White Hall was among the first targeted by the task force.

"Until the Alabama Legislature acts to create an effective deterrent for large scale illegal gambling, individuals will continue to engage in illegal gambling activity and openly defy the law.  These individuals stand to make millions of dollars in illegal gambling profits while risking only a slap-on-the-wrist misdemeanor charge.  Law enforcement will continue to be forced to expend valuable resources to deal with the statewide problem, as we have recently seen in Walker County and Etowah County.  The Legislature must change that weakness in our law and create a badly needed deterrent for large scale illegal gambling by increasing the penalty for operating an illegal slot machine casino to a felony," said Attorney General Strange.

The raid at Southern Star, according to Strange, resulted in the confiscation of about 350 machines.  An unannounced amount of cash was also taken from the casino.

There has been no comment from the management of Southern Star.