Ozetta Hardy and Shirley Wallace want to get back the money they lost playing electronic machines at a bingo hall in Lowndes County.

The women filed a lawsuit last month against Whitehall Gaming Center LLC contending they and others who lost money at the center should be repaid.

The bingo hall voluntarily closed earlier this year amid the battles over whether electronic bingo is legal in Alabama.

Getting lost wagers back might seem futile. But it's actually addressed in state law, albeit in a 158-year-old state law.

A lawyer for Whitehall points out that bingo halls in Alabama had been operating under laws passed in much more modern times.

But the Lowndes County lawsuit is among at least three filed this year that cite the old, rarely used law and argue that bettors should be repaid. At least three other suits citing that law, among other claims, have been filed in the past three years. Two of the suits were withdrawn by the plaintiffs. One lawyer says he's about to file another suit based partly on the old law.

The law -- 8-1-150 -- says contracts founded upon gambling are void. "Any person who has paid any money or delivered any thing of value lost upon any game or wager may recover such money, thing, or its value by an action commenced within six months from the time of such payment or delivery," according to the law.

Few people were even aware the law was on the books, said Blaine Stevens, one of the lawyers who filed the Lowndes County lawsuit. "It's rather an obscure statute."

Stevens said the gist of their lawsuit is that the Whitehall Gaming Center never was a legal operation.

But Robert D. Segall, an attorney for Cornerstone Community Outreach Inc., which ran the center, said the operation was authorized by later laws, and his clients will defend against the lawsuit.

"We believe the constitutional amendment allowing bingo to be played in Lowndes County overrides the statute (8-1-150)," he said.

The pre-Civil War law was enacted long before the constitutional amendment was approved, Segall noted.

Several counties around the state approved constitutional amendments allowing bingo to be played. But lawyers for Gov. Bob Riley have argued in court that the constitutional amendments did not envision electronic bingo machines, which he contends are illegal slot machines.

Bingo hall and game company attorneys say the electronic bingo games are not slot machines. But if they were, the players could be equally at fault and risk having their winnings forfeited anyway.

More bingo coverage: See related stories in the Alabama Bingo Files.

Ted Mann, a lawyer involved in a couple of the lawsuits, argues operators of the games should be held accountable. "If people are going in thinking it's legal and it is not, then they are entitled to get their money back," he said.

The Lowndes County lawsuit and others filed against VictoryLand in Macon County, Greenetrack in Greene County, and one against a few Walker County bingo halls, all have sought class-action status. That means they want to sue on behalf of all patrons who lost money at the bingo machines.

A bingo player filed suit against two Walker County bingo halls in 2007 arguing the facilities were illegal and she was due her money back. She withdrew her suit for personal reasons.

Defendants in that case filed papers in court denying the games were illegal gambling and arguing that they were not liable for patrons' losses.

Since that suit was filed, a judge has ruled the halls were illegal and ordered them shut down.

The lawyer who filed the 2007 suit on behalf of a Walker County bingo player, Garve Ivey Jr., said he planned to file a new lawsuit in the next few weeks on behalf of other bingo hall patrons in Walker County.

"It's much more clearer now that Judge (Robert) Vance has declared it illegal," he said.

Ivey said the new lawsuit also will target gaming companies and try to get more money for charities that sponsored the games. "I'm interested in the millions of dollars that were shipped out to Oklahoma, Nevada and other places with no benefit to the people of Walker County," he said.

Many bingo-hall patrons voiced disappointment and anger at having their bingo halls shut down during the past year.

But Stevens said some former patrons are changing their minds. "When people find out that this was not a legal operation it changes their thinking about it," he said.

E-mail: kfaulk@bhamnews.com

