As a video bingo parlor prepares to open in Iberia Parish, another parish has banned the machines.

The Livingston Parish Council voted March 22 to outlaw video bingo.

Councilman Stan Cain, who proposed the ban, said video bingo was simply video poker under another name.

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Livingston Parish voters rejected video poker in 1996, as did voters in Iberia Parish.

“We think video bingo is the same as video poker,” Cain said. “It’s just a way to subvert the ideas of the people of the parish.”

The video bingo issue came to the Livingston Parish Council in February, when another councilman proposed taxing video bingo and dedicating the proceeds to animal control.

Cain said he opposed the measure, mainly for moral reasons.

“I just don’t think its a good thing for us to have,” he said. “It’s definitely not a good thing to base our income on.”

Video bingo machines have been in Iberia Parish for years at Village Bingo, where they serve as a supplement to traditional bingo games.

A local company has applied to open Bon Temps Bingo in the Torrido Village shopping center. The company wants to team with local non-profit groups to share in the proceeds, promising them revenues of more than $100,000 per year.

People who spoke against video poker when it was voted out locally said they see few differences in video bingo.

New Iberia lawyer Will Grubbs said, while he recognized the charitable aspect of traditional bingo games, he wasn’t sure about the electronic component.

“My personal opinion is that machines just isolate people,” he said. “It expands something that doesn’t need expanding anymore.”

Anti-gambling activist C.B. Forgotston of Hammond agreed with Cain’s assessment that video bingo is video poker under another name.

“I don’t see any difference between it and video poker, except that the Legislature provided a law to allow this to happen,” Forgotston, who campaigned against gambling statewide, said. “It was up to the Parish Council or City Council to vote it down if they didn’t want it.”

Proponents of video bingo argue the devices are a benefit to non-profit groups. State law requires that charities collect 45 percent of the proceeds from video bingo operations.

Cain said video bingo may cost residents in the long run, though.

“Supporters of it will tell you it brings in a lot of money to the parish, but how much does it cost the parish?” Cain said. “Some people get hooked on this and lose all their money.

“They start writing bad checks, and that gets turned over to the sheriff’s office, then we have to spend our tax dollars to prosecute them. And if it’s bad enough, they go to jail, and then we really have to spend tax dollars.”