On Jan. 12, Gov. Bob Riley said he will not be hustled into believing video slot machines are the answer to state revenue problems. “I can’t imagine anyone who thinks the best way to help our economy is to have Alabamans lose billions of dollars gambling,” he said in his annual State of the State address. The Alabama Baptist Convention (ABC) held a News conference announcing a resolution against gambling legislation.

The group spoke out against the continued push by out-of-state slot manufacturers trying to gain ground in local communities, and is asking the Legislature not to pass any laws that would expand gambling. Joe Bob Mizzell, director of Christian Ethics and Chaplaincy for the Alabama Baptist Convention said the ABC believes video-gambling machines are illegal. “The state Supreme Court has even ruled that these things are illegal,” he said, “but we’ve still got 17,000 of them operating.”