Alabama Charitable Bingo Set by County Amendments

Alabama has no general charitable-gaming statute. Article IV, Section 65 of the state constitution bars the Legislature from authorizing any lottery or gift enterprise statewide, and cash-prize bingo has long been treated as a form of lottery. The only way a nonprofit can legally run bingo for money in Alabama is if voters in that specific county ratified a standalone constitutional amendment carving bingo out of the Section 65 ban, roughly 18 of Alabama's 67 counties have done so, each through its own separate amendment: Jefferson County (Amendment 386), Madison County (Amendment 387), Calhoun County (Amendment 508), St. Clair County (Amendment 542), Limestone County, and others. There is no single 'Alabama Bingo Act', each county's rules stand alone in the constitution.

Limestone County's version, now codified at Section 42-7.00 of the 2022 recompiled constitution, is representative of the structure. It legalizes nonprofit bingo 'subject to any resolution or ordinance by the county commission,' meaning the county still has to opt in with its own ordinance before any group can pull a permit. The amendment then locks in baseline guardrails the county commission cannot waive: players and operators must be at least 19, a nonprofit needs three years' presence in the county before it can be licensed, games must run on premises the nonprofit itself owns or leases (never rented on a percentage-of-take basis), the nonprofit can't hire an outside operator or pay consulting fees to run the game, and it can't lend its name to someone else's game. Prize caps aren't fixed in the constitutional text itself, the amendment leaves that to a separate local law the Legislature passes for that county, so the dollar limit differs county by county.

Because each amendment is separately worded, a rule that applies in Limestone County, the 19-year age floor, the three-year nonprofit residency requirement, is not automatically the rule next door; a county without its own ratified amendment has no lawful path to cash-prize bingo at all.

Operating bingo without qualifying under this amendment, allowing players under 19, licensing a nonprofit that hasn't existed three years in the county, running games off the nonprofit's own premises, basing rent on a percentage of receipts, paying an outside contractor or consultant to run the game, or letting another party use the nonprofit's name, voids the constitutional exemption. Section 42-7.00(b) lets the Legislature impose criminal penalties by local law; outside a qualifying county, running bingo for money reverts to ordinary illegal-gambling exposure under Alabama's general gambling statutes.