Lawmakers have drafted a bill that would outlaw electronic bingo, and already it is being assailed by bingo-parlor owners.
Getting rid of electronic bingo would cut deeply into fund-raising by nonprofits, the owners say, and could cause the demise of many charities.
The Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted 8-6 Monday to sponsor the bill during this winter's legislative session.
The bill would crack down on bingo that's played by computer instead of the old-fashioned way, where balls with numbers are drawn.
Attorney General Pat Crank has said the state currently has no way of determining if such games are random or not. Recently he called for tighter restrictions and better oversight of bingo games in Wyoming.
The bill establishes how bingo proceeds are to be split between bingo operators and charitable organizations. It also calls for bingo operators to report regularly to the state and allows local jurisdictions to further regulate or prohibit bingo.
"This bill has been described as bingo as your mothers or your grandmothers knew it," said committee co-chairman Rep. Mike Baker, R-Thermopolis.
"This is bingo in the state as we remember it as children," he said. "The purpose was generally to support some charitable organization, and nobody was making a great deal of money on it."
But lawmakers have so far resisted taking the measure further by capping the cost of bingo cards at $2 apiece and winnings from any one game at $500.
Although most forms of gambling are illegal in Wyoming, lawmakers in the 1970s exempted several activities from the definition of gambling, including "raffles or bingo conducted, or pull-tabs sold, by charitable organizations where the tickets for the raffle or bingo are sold in this state."
Senior assistant attorney general Terry Armitage told committee members it has been up to lawmakers to decide if electronic bingo is a gambling device that is prohibited under state law or a modern convenience for bingo players and a natural evolution of the game.
But committee co-chairman Sen. Delaine Roberts, R-Etna, said little is known about bingo in Wyoming. "We don't know how much money leaves the state because of bingo," he said. "Charities are commendable ... but our main concern is where is the money going."
Bingo proponents said electronic bingo provides much-needed revenue for a variety of charities and organizations. They warned that prohibiting bingo could have dire consequences for the future of those organizations.
"If this bill passes and you shut down video bingo games, there will be charitable organizations closing their doors ... you can count on it," said Richard Emond, president of Riverton-based Western Entertainment, LLC.
Robert Crosby, who runs the Casper Fraternal order of Eagles bingo program, told lawmakers that his organization has been sponsoring electronic bingo for three years. Proceeds have benefited the Children's Heart Fund, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program and local hospices and hospitals.
"We put $60,000 from electronic bingo last year back into local charities," he said.
"But our player base is getting less and less on paper bingo... You're lucky to make a couple hundred bucks a week on session bingo," he said. "We'd hate to lose electronic bingo as a chance to generate some income for these charities."
Sen. Keith Goodenough, D-Casper, urged the committee to approach the bill more slowly.
"Let's start with bingo reporting," he said "Let's try and start slower and get a handle on what's going on first as an alternative to a complete regulatory overhaul."
