Let’s play a game of One of These Things is not Like the Others.

• Country music singer George Jones;
• Country music singer John Anderson;
• Alabama Attorney General Troy King.

Of course, King has his own country music pursuits, but is that why Houston County bingo hall developer Ronnie Gilley gave the AG star billing at a party last year? The Birmingham News reports this morning that King was a guest at Gilley’s bash three months before King issued a crucial legal opinion declaring electronic bingo (quasi-slot machines) legal.

The AG’s press agent describes the party as a typical economic development event. (Isn’t there another department in charge of that?)

King has benefited from the kindness of others before, having been busted by the News last year for acceptingfood and access to a Turner Field skybox from Alabama Power. But King is a giving kind of person, too, arranging a job for an employee’s mother with Roy Johnson and the two-year college system, at the same time his office was investigating Johnson and the two-year college system for nepotism and political quid pro quos.

Last month a federal grand jury heard testimony about King and gambling issues, but no indictments have been returned or unsealed.