MONTGOMERY — The attempted raid of a new bingo hall by Gov. Bob Riley’s antigambling task force near Dothan last week sets the stage for a bingo battle royale in the 2010 legislative session that begins Tuesday.

The bingo fight escalated when a local judge temporarily stopped the planned raid of the Country Crossing in Houston County. Riley, who believes electronic bingo machines are illegal slot machines, went to the Alabama Supreme Court seeking to reinstate the search warrant that expires today.

Riley’s position on bingo machines was bolstered last year by a Supreme Court definition of legal bingo that sent operators scrambling to reconfigure their machines to comply.

Although so-called charity bingo has been in Alabama for years under local constitutional amendments, it became big business with the advent of electronic machines that resemble slots at Victoryland in Macon County and Greenetrack in Greene County. The Country Crossing bingo, dining and entertainment venue is worth $87 million.

It has 1,700 machines. Greenetrack morphed from a greyhound dog racing track to a bingo hall that provides jobs to west Alabama. And Milton McGregor’s Victoryland with 6,000 machines opened a posh hotel and concert venue late last year. More is planned.