Ford blasts Gov. Riley over gambling

Charity is not the issue. Jobs are the issue.

So says former Tuskegee Mayor and legislator Johnny Ford, who ripped into Gov. Bob Riley Wednesday afternoon after Riley’s office last week stated “VictoryLand is nothing but an illegal scheme to enrich Milton McGregor and his cronies ...”

It was revealed by federal court documents that the Macon County gaming facility gave only 1 percent of its 2009 revenue to charities.

VictoryLand is home to Quincy’s 777, one of several gaming facilities in the state suggested to be operating with illegal electronic bingo machines and has come under constant threat of closure by the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling.

“The governor and his whole approach is missing the point,” said Ford, who recently lost in a runoff to Billy Beasley for the Democratic nomination to represent House District 28. “No one will get anything if VictoryLand is closed. One percent of something is better than 1 percent of nothing.”

Riley spokesman Todd Stacy believes the gambling business is far from charitable.

“Bingo in Alabama was proposed and authorized so charities would raise moneyand help causes, not so gambling bosses could make millions off of people,” he said.

Ford authored legislation in 2003, House Bill 660, that legalized bingo in Macon County through a 76 percent vote of its residents. The amendment authorizes bingo games for “charitable, educational, or other lawful purposes” in Macon County.

“What Bob Riley and so many fail to realize is this did not originate with Milton McGregor,” Ford said. “It was the people of Macon County who decided that. This idea didn’t start with Milton McGregor. It started with the people of Macon County. The bill was not a charity bill. It was a job-creating bill.”

The bill does not refer to electronic bingo, though Ford said the bill was intended for “citizens of Macon County to vote on bingo of any form.”

Ford said at VictoryLand, which pumps $1.2 million into the Macon County economy through tax revenue, employment is now down by 1,400 since the winter, which saw a state police raid and the temporary closing of the entire complex before re-opening in March without a liquor license.

“People can’t pay bills, feed their children, do not have adequate health care and Bob Riley’s answer is let them draw unemployment,” Ford said. “Our people don’t want unemployment, they want jobs.”

Ford continued to take aim at the two-term governor, saying Riley’s moves are purely political to benefit Indian gaming operations.

“Bob Riley has one goal — close VictoryLand and all other tracks not Indian,” he said. “Bob Riley is trying to economically bleed VictoryLand to death. It is clearly obvious that the governor made a commitment to the Native Americans to close the tracks and give them a non-competitive monopoly in the state of Alabama. It is not fair. You can vote against gambling, let the Indians have it, but not the private sector?

“He received in his campaign millions of dollars from Native Americans,” Ford added.

Not so fast, Stacy said.

“That’s a lie and he (Ford) knows it’s a lie,” Stacy said. “It’s been proven time and again to be false.”