Tomorrow house bill 154 goes before a house committee for a hearing in Montgomery and country crossing employees and supporters plan on showing up to rally support.

This bill will basically put private electronic bingo casinos on the same playing field as Indian operations.

The group ALCAP- Alabama Citizens Action Program- released a statement earlier today saying its members also plan to show up.

Tomorrow's hearing is expected to draw a very passionate crowd on both sides of the issue.

Alabama representative Marcel Black is proposing a bill that would re-define bingo under the same guidelines as the federal law in effect now. It would allow private businesses to operate under the same rules as Indian operations.

Governor Bob Riley is against it.

"This bill is essentially a way to give amnesty to illegal casinos in Alabama. What has happened over the last several years is these casinos have crept into Alabama, broken our laws and now they want amnesty. Now they want us to change the law to make it legal for them to operate" says Todd Stacy, Governor Bob Riley’s Press Secretary.

House bill 154 may be the first bingo bill up at bat but it isn't expected to be the last.

The Houston County Commission would just like to see some piece of legislation passed this session.

"We do think that the citizens of this state need to be able to make a decision on this issue that obviously has some decisiveness. We feel like we are legal and others do not. Let's let the citizens decide if they want this" said Mark Culver Chairman, Houston County Commission.

Meanwhile David Barber is still the head of the governor's task force on illegal gaming until a new leader is appointed.

Barber announced last week he will step down since he recently won more than two thousand dollars at a Mississippi casino.

Houston county district attorney Doug Valeska asked the task force to hold off on raiding country crossing however the team is reportedly still working to get a search warrant.

"When the governor formed the task force a little more than a year ago, he did so by executive order and it was by a statute in state law that allows a special prosecutor to be appointed and enforce laws in Alabama with state jurisdiction and none of that has changed" said Stacy.

But despite everything, country crossing will remain open and organizers say last weekend's grand opening was a success.

"We are very happy about that. They weekend went off without any problems after the fact that those things worked themselves out. We had 15 to 20 thousand people a night. 20 acts played for 3 days and we had a lot of national publicity come out of that" said Doug Rainer, Communications Director of Ronnie Gilley Properties.

This is of course a public hearing so anyone can go to Montgomery whether you are for or against house bill 154.

Buses are expected to leave country crossing at 10:30 am but there are only two buses so if you want to hitch a ride with them show up early otherwise you will have to drive on your own.

We'll have live reports from Montgomery tomorrow on news 4 at 5 and 6.