Alabama Anti-Gambling Task-Force Chief Wins Jackpot, Resigns. Then Things Get Weird.

[DainBramaged]

The latest down there is that David Barber, the appointed head of the state Task Force on Illegal Gambling, won a jackpot gambling in Mississippi. So while he’s fighting gambling in Alabama, trying to keep it illegal, he’s popping over the border for some quick cash. The Dothan Eagle reports:

“On a recent visit to Mississippi, I visited a legal casino and won a $2,300 prize playing a legal game,” Barber wrote in his resignation letter to Gov. Bob Riley. “While my actions were in full compliance with the law, I am convinced that the forces that operate illegal casinos in Alabama will focus on my actions as part of their continuing effort to smear you and your Task Force.”

And it turns out he was actually followed there by a P.I. hired by the Victoryland Casino. Which is just sad. (The name “Victoryland,” that is.) I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting, but I picture it looking a lot like the roadhouse from Porky’s.

To top it all off, Governor Riley (who totally does not want gambling in Alabama, in case you weren’t clear on that) allegedly received millions of dollars in campaign cash from the “Mississippi Indians” who run the casinos there. Chief Doubles-Down-With-Eleven apparently hoped Riley would keep gambling out of Alabama so gazillions of wampum beads would flow into Mississippi as Alabamians cross the border to gamble.


http://deceiver.com/2010/01/26/alabama-gambling/

[scarletwoman]

1. Unrec'd for the racism.

"Chief Doubles-Down-With-Eleven" "gazillions of wampum beads"

Fuck that shit.

[WolverineDG]

2. is it racist to point out the hypocrisy?

This has been done before. In Texas, the Alabama-Coushattas in East Texas hired lobbyists & donated to politicians to have the highly successful Tigua casino in El Paso shut down, so their fellow tribesmen in Louisiana could make more money. Never mind that the Tiguas were dirt-poor & the casino was rapidly changing life on their reservation.

dg

[scarletwoman]

6. An intelligent writer should be capable of "pointing out the hypocrisy" without resorting to

racist stereotyping.

[theothersnippywshrub]

8. Some writers are intelligent enough to use sarcasm to make or emphasize a point.

Some readers are intelligent enough to recognize it.

[DainBramaged]

7. It's the purity patrol, they think they see racism everywhere

who knows what their true motives are?


:shrug:

[DainBramaged]

3. (sigh) why not send a note of displeasure to the WRITER of the article

DU, where people think the posters are the originators of the material they post about.


How about I put you on ignore for the cursing at me?


On edit,

Of course, hit and run without the courtesy of responding.


You made the ignore list. Pity, you've been around a log time, you should know better than to libel by association.


Goodbye.

[scarletwoman]

4. Duh. I'm quite aware that you didn't write the article.

You saw fit to post it, however. And I didn't curse at YOU, I cursed the language in the article.

[AnnieBW]

5. I'm shocked! Shocked! There's GAMBLING going on in this establishment!"

"Your winnings, sir."

[eppur_se_muova]

10. LOL! Life imitating art, indeed! nt

[JoeyT]

9. What a shocker.

OK, not really. It's been pretty common knowledge for a while now that Alabama Republicans are getting sickening amounts of money from out of state gambling interests and "Republicans are hypocrites" isn't exactly new either.

I do take issue with the original article's blaming of Indians and their "wampum".
The racism isn't so much in the word wampum (Though it certainly doesn't help) as it is in the fact that it utterly ignores the Biloxi casinos, who had an even bigger part in financing Riley's campaign, and who are most certainly NOT run by Indians of any sort. Hell they'll barely let us walk in to gamble in there.
If the idea that Riley and co are corrupted hypocrites gets more traction than "Indians are corrupting Alabama politics." it won't be because the author of the original story made any effort to have it turn out that way.

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. Victoryland looks like a roadhouse from Porky's?

It's actually a very nice, modern facility. I've driven by it several times, but I've never been inside.

http://www.victoryland.com/

Here is the new hotel located there.

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2009/11/300-room_hotel_at_victoryland.html