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Bingo & Raffle Newsletter

Quarterly Reports Due July 31

If you held a 2016 license at any time during the second quarter (April, May, June), you MUST submit your LE-21 Quarterly Report form by July 31. The report covers the period from April 1 through June 30, 2016. 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 at any time 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. Licenses will be e-mailed to the organizational e-mail address provided on the application unless one is not provided or the organization specifically requests the hard copy be mailed. Please review your application before submitting to be sure your current organization e-mail is correct. 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.

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 next meeting has yet to be scheduled. Please check our website for updates.

When: TBD

Where: TBD

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

How to Become a Board Member

Interested in being on the Board? There are positions available (currently a Landlord licensee representative and Veterans organization representative). If you are interested, 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, 2014, 2015 and 1st quarter 2016. We will update the reports on a quarterly basis.

A Note on Rental Agreements

Here is a little reminder to the licensees and the licensed bingo halls to keep your rental agreements current with our office. If you are filling in for a night at your bingo hall, make sure there is a rental agreement filed for that occasion. If you are changing the days and /or times of your occasions, file a rental agreement. Failure to file a rental agreement in a timely manner is a 3 violation, punishable by a $20 fine, unless the specific violation is repeated, then the fine becomes $50.

Extra kudos go to the licensees that file a rental agreement on an annual basis, to ensure they are compliant with the law.

Board Only Organizations

Some organizations that would potentially qualify for a bingo-raffle license, meaning they are Colorado non-profit organizations that have existed for five or more years, and are one of the seven allowable types defined in CRS 12-9-102, but do not meet the final requirement of having an active membership for that entire five year period. This means that membership was never defined in the formation documentation (Articles, Bylaws, Constitution, etc), or states that the organization shall not have membership. In these instances, the non-profit can ONLY apply with the part of the organization that does contain membership, which would be the Board of Directors (or equivalent). Within Rule 2.1.3 this is further defined: “Board-only organizations without members. An organization that does not have members but is managed by a board of directors or trustees may apply for a bingo-raffle license but only in the name of the board of directors. Only board members may participate in the operation of charitable gaming.”

This means that if the organization wishes to license this way, ONLY those individuals that meet the qualifications for being an current member of the Board will be able to assist in charitable gaming activities (selling raffle tickets, drawing for prizes, being games manager, selling bingo cards, etc).

If you have questions regarding your organization and applying for a license, we encourage you to contact or office directly at 303 869 4910.

Selling Raffle Tickets Online

If you plan to sell raffle tickets via the web, there are a few things you need to keep in mind to ensure you stay in compliance with the law:

First of all, make sure you let our office know that you will be selling raffle tickets online. We will request that you submit screenshots of the sales platform to ensure that they are compliant.
Make sure funds from the sale go directly into your bingo-raffle account. Like all charitable gaming proceeds, the credit processing cannot be done through your general account and then transferred into your bingo-raffle account.
Ask yourself: will you be sending tickets via the web or just doing hard tickets? If you do tickets via the web, you will need an internal data system which will capture all the information required on a hard ticket, as well as being sure no ticket numbers are duplicated.

Web-enabled raffles can be a bit difficult, so we encourage you to communicate with our office early and often as you develop your plans. Please contact Shannon Bee (shannon.bee@coloradosos.gov) with any questions.

Quarterly Data Points: Annual Profits

Comparing the first quarters (Q1) 2016 to 2015 we see a decrease in the gross amount wagered on bingo activities (bingo, progressive bingo and pull-tabs at bingo). A similar decrease was seen in Q1 2015 vs 2014 in pull-tabs at bar. As the graph shows the pull-tab at bar numbers are on their way back up.

Raffle numbers which include progressive raffles and regular raffles continue to show an increase in gross amounts wagered. In Q1‘16 vs Q1’15, we see the amount wagered on raffles continues to increase, which could be attributed to more online raffles. Our office approved 13 online raffles in Q1’16. Two of those raffles were house raffles which together took in a gross revenue of over $3.1 million dollars.

The current number of licensees is down about 8% from Q1’15. We currently have 1,066. Licenses are issued throughout the year and we typically see the number increase to a typical number of around 1,200 licensees by Q4.

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 es, visit our Games Manager Training page and follow the instructions to sign up for a scheduled .

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

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 5:00 PM. BPO Elks 1336,321 Ash St, Sterling, CO 80751

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 5:00 PM. American Legion 25, 209 E Front St, Florence, CO 81226

Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 8:00 AM. LA CASA/Confederacion Lodge, 34451 Hwy 12, Trinidad, CO 81082

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 training soon.

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

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.

AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE INVESTIGATORS:

Please stop purchasing supplies from unlicensed bingo suppliers. We have seen a few cases this year where licensees have purchased bingo paper, pull tabs, and other bingo equipment from suppliers who are not licensed to conduct business in Colorado. This is a 1 violation, punishable by a $100 fine to the licensee who makes the purchase. This is taught in the Games Manager training es, both in person and online. There should be no excuse for making purchases from unlicensed suppliers. When you locate a bingo supplier, please ask for their Colorado Supplier or Manufacturer license number. If they tell you they don’t have one, or they don’t need one, back away from the transaction until they are properly licensed.

You can access all bingo/raffle laws using our Bingo-Raffles Law Handbook (PDF).

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