MONTGOMERY — Attorney General Troy King is leaving it to district attorneys to determine if bingo operations in their counties are legal in light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling on bingo.

King said he is sending a letter to the district attorneys of the 18 counties that now operate some form of bingo.

In it, he asks them to study the six-part test the Supreme Court said should be used to determine if bingo is being played legally.

After studying the ruling, he said the district attorneys should decide for themselves what legal action to take.

“As the chief law officers of your local jurisdictions, you hold the primary responsibility for ensuring compliance within your district for this and other laws,” King said in the letter.

King told the district attorneys his office would be available to offer advice and would support their decisions on how to enforce the ruling.

The court on Friday refused to stop Gov. Bob Riley’s task force against illegal gambling from conducting further raids against a large electronic bingo hall in White Hall in Lowndes County.

Bingo defined

King said the most significant part of the ruling was the definition of what is required to have a legal bingo game under Alabama law.

“The court issued a state­wide standard for what constitutes bingo,” King said.

Riley and King, once close allies, have taken different paths over gambling.

King has said electronic bingo machines are legal in some counties if operated properly.

Riley says they are really illegal slot machines that should be shut down.

King said Friday he would accept the Supreme Court’s definition of bingo.

But the attorney general said he believes the Legislature eventually will have to let the people vote in a state­wide referendum to determine if electronic bingo is legal.

The largest gambling hall in Alabama is at Victoryland in Macon County, with 6,000 electronic bingo machines and a 300-room luxury hotel opening next door.

The district attorney for Macon County, E. Paul Jones, said Tuesday that King should not expect him to immediately take action to stop the electronic bingo games at Victoryland.

Not a priority

“Nowhere does the court say that what’s taking place in Macon County is illegal,” Jones said.

Jones said the bingo games at Victoryland are being operated under a constitutional amendment that was approved by the Legislature and by voters in Macon County.

Jones said his office, which prosecutes cases in a four-county judicial circuit, had 3,000 to 3,500 felony cases, which include serious crimes like rape, murder, robbery and child sexual abuse.

“He (King) should prosecute if he determines it (electronic bingo) is illegal,” Jones said.

Task force

King has also sent a letter to Riley saying he is considering the governor’s invitation for his office to join the governor’s task force against gambling.

King asked Riley to give him information that will be used to determine future actions to be taken by the task force.

He said he would decide whether to join the task force after reviewing those materials.

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