Riley is Floundering in a Sea of Gamblers 

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is having a tough time of it. He has worked very hard to keep illegal slot machines out of his state and is getting very little support from his government. He has seen judges rule against him, even some going so far as issuing orders that would keep them from busting those establishments that offer the illegal slot machines. He put together a task force to combat the illegal slot machines and put top people on it. 

However, it would appear that he may not have chosen the right people to crack down on illegal slot machine gambling. On Wednesday David Barber stepped down as the head of Riley’s anti gambling task force saying that he had done nothing illegal but was aware of the appearance of impropriety. The tough part about this is that Barber was hand picked by Riley for just this job. 

But Barber was caught playing at a Mississippi tribal casino – which is not illegal – but not necessarily the thing that you want your enemies to see when you are fighting to get slot machines made illegal in your state. Barber not only played at the casino, he also won more than $2,300 in winnings from it – making it look even worse. 

The issue is not necessarily the fact that he was playing slot machines; it was that the campaign against them had made this a moral issue. If the lead of his anti slot machine group was playing them, then obviously he did not believe that there was anything wrong with the slot machines – which makes it all that much tougher for Riley to push his point.