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Bingo & Raffle Newsletter

Quarterly Reports Due January 31

If you hold a 2015 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, or use the online system.

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.

2016 Bingo-Raffle Licenses

If you plan to conduct charitable gaming activities in 2016, you can apply for your annual license at any time (please allow 7-10 working days processing time for our office to issue a license). This goes for new licenses and renewals. Please visit our forms page to download the license application and contact Program Manager Shannon Bee by email at shannon.bee@coloradosos.gov with any questions.

Why I Cannot File My Next Quarter Report

We have had several licensees call into the office stating they could not file their quarterly report as it was not showing as “available”. You cannot file your next quarter report if the previous quarter is still open. If your prior filing shows “reject”, you will need to resubmit the filing with the corrected information. We will need to approve this correction BEFORE your next quarter report will become available. If your filing has been rejected and resubmitted, your organization will receive a verification from our office, if and when the filing is approved. This will notify you that the next report is now available. Please be diligent and be sure your report has been approved by our office to mitigate timing issues and avoid possible late filings, which may cause fines to be instituted against your organization.

Please also be aware, as long as the rejected filing remains open, even if you file the next quarter by paper, our office will not be able to enter the paper report until the prior quarter has been re-filed and accepted electronically. If the rejected filing has not been accepted by the deadline of the next due quarterly, the organization will still receive a fine for a late filing as our office cannot override the rejected status of your prior filing.

Bingo/Raffle Advisory Board

The Colorado Bingo-Raffle Advisory Board makes recommendations 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 original January 13 meeting was postponed. The January 13 Advisory Board meeting is currently rescheduled for February.

When: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 1:00 PM.

Where: Secretary of State's office, Blue Spruce Room, 1700 Broadway, Denver.

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.

Interested in being on the Board? There are potential positions available. Please review on our website.

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 years 2013 and 2014 and for the first, second and third quarters of 2015. We will update the reports on a quarterly basis.

Filing Your Quarterly Report Online!

The bingo-raffle program accepts (but does not require) electronic filing of quarterly reports for both bingo-raffle licensees and manufacturer and supplier licensees. These licensees can submit and pay for quarterly report filings online.

You can access the system and set up your account from our “Forms” page at https://coloradosos.gov/pubs/bingo_raffles/bingoForms.html. Please remember, the payment MUST be done via credit/debit card or prepaid account, but ANY credit card could be used (e.g. personal, prepaid card, debit, or a card of the organization), and the information is not stored in any way within our system after the transaction on the quarterly you are filing is completed.

Bingo-raffle licensees will find quarterly filing instructions on our website at https://coloradosos.gov/pubs/bingo_raffles/instructions/QRe-file.pdf.

If you have already created your online account, you just need to access your file. Your 4th quarter 2015 report should be available for filing and will be prefilled with some of the prior information from your 3rd quarter 2015 electronic filing, which will help save you time.

PLEASE NOTE: If you begin a filing online but never submit it electronically because you decide to file the quarterly on paper, you must log back into your online account and choose the option to “reset the form and start over.” Once a quarterly is begun online, our office no longer has the ability to input data into that filing. Once you have submitted the paper filing and reset the online filing, you must contact us to inform us of this change. If you complete and submit your filing online and it is rejected, you must continue to fix and resubmit your filing online until it is approved. You cannot reset an already submitted online filing.

Investigator Tips

Each quarter, we include a few tips from our Bingo/Raffle Investigators. They gather 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 are licensee that plays pull tabs, please remember that all daily forms for pull tabs, the LE-31, LE-33, LE31a (if you play a progressive pull tab game), and the LE-37, (if you play a last sale pull tab) are required to be filled out. The information that you gather on these daily forms are transferrable to your Quarterly Reports. The forms must be filled out correctly, and in the manner prescribed by our office. If you have any questions about the proper way to fill out these forms, please contact us at public.investigation@coloradosos.gov.

These forms are not forms that are filed with our office, unless we ask for them directly, or are required with the quarterly report. These forms, and all other daily forms for bingo, must be retained for a period of two years following the calendar year in which the game was conducted. And finally, you must have these daily records available on your premises for the current quarter and the quarter immediately preceding. If we come by for an inspection, those reports should be readily available to our agents.

You can access all bingo/raffle laws using our Bingo-Raffles Law Handbook. Here are this quarter's tips:

Quarterly Data Points: Annual Profits

The gross amount wagered at the end of the 3rd quarter 2015 is consistent with the previous year end numbers. The 4th quarter usually shows a good profit and this year there are numerous 4th quarter raffles that will be adding to the 2015 numbers.

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.

Here are the dates/times/places of upcoming scheduled Games Manager training classes:

Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 8:30 AM. Assumption Catholic Church, 2361 E 78th Ave, Denver, CO 80229.

Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 8:30 AM. VFW 4031, 1550 Main Ave, Durango, CO 81301

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.

The Games Manager mail-in certification exam is no longer available.

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