From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
JEFFERSON COUNTY — Captain David Agee with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office explained Monday why the sheriff’s office is focusing more on fighting drugs than fighting electronic bingo.
While standing in front of a storage facility full of gambling machines, Agee explained that illegal gaming investigations include paying a deputy to play the games, paying an electronic bingo expert and paying for storage of machines that are seized.
“We have to take them into our custody and put them in storage in a secure location,” Agee said. “We have to pay for this. This adds up. Some of these machines sit here for years and years and years.”
Agee said the county pays for several storage units like the one he showed the public today. That one unit, which holds about 400 machines, cost the county $7,152 in 2018. The county is in possession of about 1,500 machines. Agee said money used on housing machines could be used on things such as summer programs for teens, computers, equipment and maintenance.
“So as far as enforcing and going after these bingo establishments, it is low on our list,” Agee said. “The other crimes come first.”
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is in the process of destroying some bingo machines that have been confiscated in the past.
“It is all a misdemeanor…We just end up with a bunch of machines in what I call bingo jail,” said Agee. “We have more serious crimes that we need our detectives on.”
Agee said anyone or any organization that opens a bingo hall should understand they are at risk and are subject to municipal, county or state enforcement.