SHORTER, Alabama --- The attorney general's office and state troopers this morning raided the newly reopened VictoryLand casino in the latest development in the ongoing legal war over electronic bingo.

Attorney General Luther Strange said a search warrant was issued after investigators determined the gambling machines at VictoryLand were illegal under state law. A lawyer for Victoryland fired back that the attorney general was trampling on the rights of the legal business.

Officers seized several hundred gambling machines and an undisclosed amount of cash from VictoryLand, according to the attorney general's office.

"Today's actions are the culmination of an investigative process over the last several months," Strange said in a prepared statement.

“My office worked to try to resolve this matter with minimal controversy. Unfortunately, the VictoryLand casino was operating in open defiance of the rule of law and we have been left with no alternative but to treat this as we would any other law enforcement matter," Strange said.

State officials and casino operators have long disagreed over the legality of the slot machine look-alikes. VictoryLand, which was once the state's largest casino, shut down in 2010 during efforts to raid the casino. VictoryLand reopened in December.

VictoryLand lawyer Joe Espy called the way the search warrant was obtained "unprecedented in the history of our state."

The attorney general attempted to get a search warrant from a local judge but Macon County Circuit Judge Tom Young refused saying there was no probable cause," Espy said.

The judge's decision was upheld unanimously by the Court of Criminal Appeals but was apparently overruled by Alabama Supreme Court and ordered to issue the search warrant.

“This is a sad day in Alabama. Hundreds of people have lost their jobs as a result of the unprecedented action of the attorney general," Espy said.

"Everybody in this state is entitled to be treated fairly and today we've been treated unfairly, about as unfairly as you can be treated," Espy said.

Espy said Young wrote that he was only signing the search warrant because he was being forced.

Troopers showed up at the casino around 8 a.m. this morning. Employees and customers were asked to leave.

More than six tractor trailer trucks later came to the facility to cart off the casino's electronic bingo machines. Espy said VictoryLand had about 1,000 machines.

"They are taking every one of them," Espy said.

Espy said VictoryLand went to court this morning to try to stop the raid "and give us an opportunity to be heard." He said the judge set a hearing for mid-March.

The machines and the seized money will be held as evidence and will be subject to a forfeiture procedure in the Circuit Court of Macon County, according to a news release from the attorney general.

A trooper barricade blocked people from entering the casino.

Macon County officials stood outside the barricade as news of the raid spread and they had harsh criticisms.

“It’s unfair. It’s unfair to Macon County that we have to continue to be put out here and be abused. We are being abused,” Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, said

Warren said the casino is a major employer of jobs and tax revenue in the impoverished county

“It is the financial lifeline of this county,” Warren said.

Some state officials have argued the slot machine look-alikes were not what was intended by constitutional amendments allowing bingo for charity in some counties. Casino operators contend the machines let people play rapid-fire games of bingo and the spinning displays on the machines are just for entertainment.