California charities can't offer electronic bingo games

Thursday, October 2, 2008  

Charities and churches won't be able to offer electronic bingo games under a bill signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday.

Large churches will be allowed to offer bigger paper bingo games. But small charities said they will be forced out of business due to competition from tribal casinos.

"I just don't see any way we can compete without the machines," Marty Manges, who manages a charity operation for a public high school. "The Legislature and the Governor's Office pretty much killed charity bingo in the state of California."

The bill saw heavy lobbying action in the final weeks of the legislative session. A small group of tribes, the California Tribal Business Alliance, pushed the bill, saying the use of the machines at non-Indian faclities violated state law.

Get the Story:
Ban on electronic bingo machines will cripple fundraising, charities say (The Sacramento Bee 10/2)
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State pulls the plug on non-Indian bingo machines (The San Diego Union-Tribune 10/2)