Yesterday, Alabama Senator Del Marsh faced the beginning of legal action against him, with the lawsuit accusing him of requiring bribes and receiving money from the Poarch Band of Creek Indians over a gambling bill.
Three organizations, OIC Dream Greene County, Age With Dignity Inc. and Dream County Inc., filed a lawsuit against Senator Del Marsh, accusing him of taking part in what they described as a “pay-to-play” scheme associated with the piece of gambling legislation that he had proposed. In their lawsuit filed in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, the plaintiffs claim he personally received thousands of dollars from the abovementioned Indian tribe to sponsor the gambling bill under which a lottery and several casinos in Alabama are set to be established.
In a phone interview on March 8th, Del Marsh rejected the claims he faced in the legal action against him, calling them “a flat lie”. The Alabama Senator explained he never asked anyone for money in return for a vote. The director of governmental affairs and public relations for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Robert McGhee, also denied the allegations, saying the claims were not true and called the accusations “nonsense”.
Plaitiffs Claim the Proposed Gambling Bill Would Create Gambling Monopoly in the State
Apart from the abovesaid, the lawsuit also claims that Senate Bill 214, which is being sponsored by Senator Del Marsh, is to create an illegal monopoly over gambling in the state of Alabama. As previously reported by CasinoGamesPro, the piece of legislation would establish a lottery and would allow five casino-style games to be offered in a total of five locations across the state, with four of them already existing.
The legal representative of the plaintiffs, attorney Thomas Gallion, said that he had been hired by three charity organizations in Greene County that were being funded generated by the operation of legal gaming facilities. Mr. Gallion and the plaintiffs now claim that the money they are supposed to receive would be blocked by the proposed Senate Bill 214, which would provide only a few operators with a monopoly over gambling in the state of Alabama, and the Poarch Creek Indians would be one of the parties that would benefit from this monopoly.
According to the three plaintiffs’ attorney, the proposed bill would restrain trade and would essentially create an illegal monopoly over gambling in Alabama.
The lawsuit was filed mere hours before the scheduled meeting of the Alabama Senate that is expected to take up the proposed piece of legislation on March 9th.
Senator Del Marsh said Alabama lawmakers were to proceed with the gaming legislation and explained he had been working in collaboration with House and Senate members in order to make sure the bill would make both local voters and the Governor’s staff feel comfortable. According to him, it was high time for the state’s legislature to address the issue associated with gambling expansion in Alabama that would allow the state to reap all the benefits related to such a move.
