Greene County Sheriff, Jonathan Benison, who is solely in charge of electronic bingo operations, under Constitutional Amendment 743, amended his bingo regulations, effective June 2nd, to provide the Greene County Hospital with 4% of the revenues paid by the four bingo operators to vendors for machines and/or softwear.
The Democrat contacted the Sheriff’s office to determine the amount of money this will generate for the hospital. A spokesperson for the Sheriff said this new regulation would generate $20,000 to $25,000 a month for support of the Greene County Hospital. This amount would meet a request that the Hospital has been making to the Sheriff for over two years to be included in the allocation of bingo funds.
In the amendment to the bingo rules, Sheriff Benison says that it is “standard practice in the industry to pay vendors (those who supply machines and/or softwear) a percentage of their net gross revenues; and further that all bingo operator and/or charities operating bingo in Greene County, Alabama shall henceforth deduct and pay to the Greene County Hospital an amount equal of 4% of the amounts paid to vendors.”
The amendment instructs the bingo operators to pay this 4% of the vendor’s amount, directly to the Greene County Hospital, at the same regular interval – weekly, monthly, yearly – that they pay to the vendors.
In his amendment, the Sheriff points out that “ the vendors provide a valued service but also that they reap the rewards of Constitutional Amendment 743, as provided through the efforts and protection of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department.“Luther Winn Jr., CEO of Greenetrack said this amendment would interfere with the contracts that he has in place with Greenetrack’s machine vendors. He informed the Democrat that he is not favorable to this amendment and will discuss its negative implication’s to his business with the Sheriff. The Democrat tried but was not able to reach other bingo operators and charities, for their opinions on the new amendment, prior to press time.
Winn said he was expanding the number of machines at Greenetrack to the 500 required by the Sheriff and suggested that it would have been better to fund support for the Greene County Hospital through a portion of the new fee revenues, from the additional machines, than from this 4% charge to the vendors.
Elmore Patterson, CEO of the Greene County Health System, which includes the hospital, residential care center, physicians clinic, home health and other services, said “I am pleased to see the Sheriff has included healthcare for Greene County citizens in his plans for allocating resources from bingo operations in Greene County, under Constitutional Amendment 743. These funds will help close the gap in providing care for low income people in Greene County, many of whom cannot afford to pay for quality health care that they need.”