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Bingo & Raffle Newsletter

Quarterly Reports Due January 31

If you hold a 2014 license, you MUST submit your LE-21 Quarterly Report form by January 31. The report covers the period for October through December. Reports filed after this date will be assessed a $50 late filing fine.

Please make sure you download and use the correct forms from our website.

In addition, please make sure to provide copies of daily forms for progressive bingo (LE-34a/LE-34b), progressive pull tabs (LE-31a), and progressive raffles (LE-34c). The progressive bingo forms should be updated after each bingo occasion and the pull tab and raffle forms should be updated regularly.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact Lisa Marty at lisa.marty@coloradosos.gov.

Quarterly Bank Forms

Starting in the first quarter of 2015, we will require all licensees to submit segregated bank information (Form LE-21a) with each quarterly report.

Please note that the bank form contains beginning and ending balances for the quarter. The form must be complete and must be submitted with each report filed.

License Renewals

Remember, you can renew your license for 2015 starting on November 1, 2014. In order to be eligible to renew you must have filed all reports up to the third quarter of 2014, if applicable.

We have already received hundreds of renewal applications--make sure to get yours in if you plan to play bingo, raffle, or pull tabs in the new year! Please remember, applications take 7-10 business days to process, so make sure you plan ahead.

You can contact us at public.licensing@coloradosos.gov with any questions.

Alcohol as a Prize: Just Say No

Recently, our office has noticed an increase in licensees planning to give alcohol as a prize in games of chance, especially as raffle prizes. Please remember, the Bingo and Raffles Law prohibits licensees from offering alcoholic beverages of any kind (CRS 12-9-107(4)).

Giving alcoholic beverages as prizes is a Class 2 violation, which carries a fine of $75 per occurrence (Rule 15.3.2(d)). If you have any questions about prizes, do not hesitate to contact our office directly so we can assist you before any violations occur.

Bingo/Raffle Advisory Board

The Colorado Bingo-Raffle Advisory Board provides guidance to the Secretary of State's office in its regulation of the charitable gaming sector. All members of the public are encouraged to attend and contribute to this important dialogue. The Advisory Board will hold its first meeting of the year in January.

When: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 10:00am

Where: 1700 Broadway, Denver, CO 80290, Blue Spruce Room (Second Floor)

Come join the meeting to share your thoughts on bingo and raffle activities in our state.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write us an email at public.licensing@coloradosos.gov.

Bingo/Raffle Financial Reports

Our office is committed to using our state-wide reach to provide timely and accurate data to the bingo/raffle community. We use the information you provide on quarterly reports to publish two informative datasets on our website.

Aggregate revenue report: this report contains a "roll-up" of total revenue, expense, and profit data for charitable gaming in the state.

Revenue by licensee: this report contains similar information broken down by individual bingo/raffle licensees. We began publishing this report in response to a request from our Bingo/Raffle Advisory Board.

Our website currently contains reports for calendar year 2013 and for the first three quarters of 2014. We will update the reports on a quarterly basis.

A Letter from the Secretary

Dear Bingo-Raffle Community Members:

As I conclude my term as Colorado Secretary of State, I want to express my appreciation for your hard work and dedication to improving our nonprofit and charitable communities.

As I traveled the state, I heard from passionate individuals about how we can better support our nonprofits and civic associations through bingo and raffle games. To better gauge our opportunities, we developed a market study to identify areas for improvement. That study led to the development of the Bingo Toolkit and identified a roadmap for legislative changes. We successfully implemented these action items through cooperation with the nonprofit community and I hope to see the benefits of these actions in the years to come.

Leaving office I can proudly say that this program is in a better position than when I arrived and I hope you agree. Thank you for your help and for volunteering to be part of this important work supporting Colorado’s charities. I hope you will continue to advocate and improve our nonprofit gaming community.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Scott Gessler

Colorado Secretary of State

New Feature: Investigator Tips

Starting this quarter, we will include a few tips in each newsletter from our long-time Bingo/Raffle Investigator, Darleen Herrera. Darleen gathers a lot of information in the field on where licensees have trouble complying with the law, and this is one strategy for using that information to help you. We'll include rule and statute citations with these tips so you can do more research if you'd like.

You can access all bingo/raffle laws using our Bingo-Raffles Law Handbook. Here are your first few tips:

Speaking of the handbook, make sure you always have a copy available at all of your charitable gaming events. In addition to being a great resource, it's also required by law. (Rule 2.4.1)
If you have volunteers that are consuming food while volunteering don’t forget to report it on line 3.13 of your Quarterly Report. (C.R.S. 12-9-107 (6), Rule 1.15.2)
If you are a caller or floor worker in a bingo game, you are responsible for seeking out signaled bingos before the next number is called. (Rule 3.1.5 (a))

Feel free to contact Darleen with questions at darleen.herrera@coloradosos.gov.

One More Reminder: Bingo Management Toolkit

As we start a new year, we wanted to remind you one more time about the release of a new, free resource for our bingo/raffle customers: the Bingo Toolkit.

The Bingo Toolkit is a collection of tips and best practices from some of Colorado’s leading charitable gaming managers. Inside you’ll find ways to motivate volunteers, market your occasions, bring more excitement and variety to your gaming events, keep regular players happy, and attract new players.

If you’re just beginning to run a charitable gaming operation, this guide will help you get off to a strong start. These best practices were taken from extensive research on what successful games managers are doing to run profitable games. Then we put it together in an easy-to-use reference guide.

If you’ve been at this for a while and are looking for a few ideas to give your charitable games a boost, then you’ve come to the right place. That said, not every idea in this toolkit will be right for you. Feel free to pick and choose what seems most relevant and useful to your organization.

The toolkit is free for all members of the public. To access the toolkit in PDF format, or to order free paper copies, visit our website. See below for a glance at the toolkit layout. Enjoy, and best wishes for great success in your efforts to raise money for your organization!

Quarterly Data Points: Annual Profits

The graph below shows that spending on charitable games for 2014 is on track with numbers from previous years. While fourth quarter revenues are typically lower than earlier quarters’, house and calendar wagering at the end of the year should help annual numbers remain consistent.

Profits have also remained remarkably consistent from last year: the figure below shows just a 0.1 percent decrease in total net profit year-over-year. Bingo revenue is up significantly from mid-year levels, when it showed a 17 percent drop from 2013. This is a nice increase in revenue for bingo at a time when we often see less activity. Profit figures for raffles are down a few percentage points from mid-year, as are pull tabs at bar and progressive bingo. Even with these decreases, the overall amount wagered on charitable games remains consistent.

Games Manager Training

Remember, your organization must have at least one certified Games Manager in order to run charitable games, and we recommend licensees maintain more than one. We continue to offer in-person and online Games Manager training courses.

For in-person classes, visit our Games Manager Training page and follow the instructions to sign up for a scheduled class.

You can also sign up to host a Games Manager training course. Follow this link to provide us with a few details about you and your organization, and host a class soon.

Please note that the Games Manager mail-in certification exam is no longer available.

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