By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

This week, my normal, boring Pelham City Council meeting was turned on its head as citizens piled in the council chambers to defend their favorite local bars from having their business licenses revoked.

The businesses’ crime? Hosting bingo games.

Yes. You heard me.

As the Pelham attorney explained to the crowd, bingo fits Alabama’s definition of a lottery. It is a game that requires no skill and rewards luck to award a prize of some monetary value which constitutes a lottery in Alabama. And as a lottery, bingo is illegal in Shelby County.

Apparently, some locations can apply for special dispensation to host bingo games, but to do so, a new state-wide amendment must be approved and added to Alabama’s monstrously long Constitution.

Shelby County is not one of those places, so several businesses in Pelham were recently notified that they were in violation of state law. The two businesses in question at the council meeting on Oct. 21, Pub 261 and Lil Bits Tavern, both ceased all bingo games upon notification of the game’s illegal status.

The community showed up in full force with more than a dozen regulars taking the stand to defend their favorite bars. They beseeched the Pelham City Council to not close these businesses over an inane reason.

The council unanimously allowed both businesses to keep their licenses to the delight of the audience, but sparked outrage in the community again upon announcing that two more business licenses would be review at the next council meeting for Beer Hog and Blues, Bourbon and Brews.

As a Pelham resident myself, I have to say that there are layers to this ridiculousness that are truly baffling.

Temporarily putting aside the insanity of bingo—bingo of all things!—being illegal, I think it’s silly that the community is outraged by the second hearings.

First, the city of Pelham was notified that these businesses were breaking the law, so they gave the community the opportunity to speak on how these businesses should be punished. Would you rather they have shut the businesses down? Would you rather the community get no input on these matters?

Second, if all four businesses were playing bingo, then all four should have the same public hearings to review their business licenses. The council couldn’t review all four on the same night because two businesses alone filled every seat in the council chambers, leaving people standing against every spare inch of wall space.

If Pelham had revoked those business licenses, I would be outraged with you, but they didn’t.

The real, true outrage of the situation is completely the fact that bingo—bingo!—is illegal in the first place.

The fact that bingo is technically a lottery tells me that the state’s definition of lotteries needs to be reviewed. But why are lotteries even illegal in the first place?

In my home state of Tennessee, the state lottery funds the Tennessee Hope Scholarship for college students. I personally know several people that were recipients of the Hope Scholarship and it saddens me that Alabamians don’t have access to the same opportunity.

Ultimately, the Pelham bingo debacle is a symptom of a larger issue in Alabama, and misplaced outrage will not help the situation. If you think it’s ridiculous that these businesses are under fire, send your thoughts to those in Montgomery who can fix the real problem.