Florala city leaders announced Monday a developer is planning to build an electronic bingo facility in the city, bringing 1,500 jobs to the economically depressed area.

The Florala Historical Society has partnered with an unnamed electronic bingo developer from Gulf Shores to request a bingo permit from the Covington County Sheriff.

If signed, a temporary facility could be up and running in 45 days.

Florala's mayor says the permanent facility plans to have 2,500 machines, a full entertainment complex, restaurants, retail, and a hotel; employing 1,500 people at $10 to $13 an hour.

“It’s about economics and people that are out of jobs in the Florala area,” says Mayor Robert Williamson.

He says they expect to see $10 million dollars a year going to benefit education and non-profits.

“This is in addition to the enormous tax revenue, including $72,000 annually for our police department that it would generate for our city. The impact on our retail businesses and sales tax would be huge,” says Williamson.

But some residents say it's not worth it.

“A license to operate any kind of gambling situation is a license to steal. You just through out some great big numbers, who are you going to steal this money from?” asked resident Enos Childs.

“We’re a small town. With a facility like that coming in, they would be overrun by riff raff, drugs, prostitution and what have you,” says resident Guyn Childs.

While city leaders believe electronic bingo will be the answer to their economic woes, the district attorney maintains that in Covington County, their amendment only applies to paper bingo.

“We have several options we can employ. One is to file a civil suit to prevent the start of it. The second thing is we can wait till the structure's up and the first machine hits the ground and we can prosecute along those lines,” says Covington County District Attorney Greg Gambril.

“The attorney general has written a couple letters indicating the constitutional amendment allowed card bingo in Covington County. However it does not appear that he has considered or been asked to form an opinion on whether or not it would be legal for machines to facilitate that,” says Florala Attorney Wes Laird.

The sheriff can still deny the bingo permit possibly pushing the issue to court.

The project site is undetermined.

They're expecting the developer and Historical Society to make an announcement with more project specifics in the coming week.

You can find a list of what organizations are planned to benefit from proceeds and read the mayor's full statement in the document link at the top of the story.