Quarterly Reports Due October 31

If you held a 2021 license at any time during the 3rd quarter 2021, you MUST submit your LE-21 Quarterly Report form by October 31, 2021. The report covers the period from July 1 through September 30. Reports filed after this date will be assessed a $50 late filing fee.

Filing quarterly reports using our online system is cheaper than filing paper forms. If needed, all paper forms can still be found on our website, including all daily forms.

Please make sure to provide copies of daily forms for progressive bingo (LE-34a), progressive pull tabs (LE-31a), and progressive raffles (LE-34c) with your submission. 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 or Denise Lamberth at denise.lamberth@coloradosos.gov.

2021 Bingo-Raffle Licenses

If you still plan to conduct charitable gaming activities in 2021, you can apply for your annual license at any time during the remainder of 2021 via the online or paper application form (please allow 7-10 working days processing time). This applies to both new licenses and renewals. Licenses can be printed directly from the summary page if you apply online (once your filing is reviewed and approved). If mailing your application, your license number will be e-mailed if this is provided on the form, once it has been received and processed. To minimize unnecessary delays, please review your application before submitting. Sign into your account if you wish to apply online or visit our forms page to download the paper license application. New applicants can start the process from here. Please contact Program Manager Shannon Bee by email at shannon.bee@sos.state.co.us with any questions.

Online Filers-Almost There!

For those organizations that have yet to transition, or give online filing a shot, we believe you’ll find the new easy-to-use, interactive tutorial just the ticket to save you time, money and frustration (as described in the NEW-Quarterly Report Tutorial article above). Of those still waiting to transition, please remember that the fees for online filing of quarterlies are cheaper than those for paper filing and your filing is not being held up by waiting for the mail to be delivered to our office. We are now at around 89% of licensees filing online. Let’s try to get to 90% and beyond! As always, our team stands ready If you need any assistance with online filing. Just give us a call or drop us a line – we are more than happy to assist you in taking advantage of this filing method.

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 is scheduled for:

When: TBD-check our website for updates

Where: Zoom

Specifics regarding any meeting and how to attend can be found here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at public.licensing@sos.state.co.us.

We would also like to remind current members of the Board that there is a statutory requirement that they complete yearly Board training. This training is available here under Bingo-Raffle Advisory Board training.

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 through 2nd quarter 2021. Reports are updated quarterly.

NEW-Quarterly Report Tutorial

Here is some good news! For our licensees completing quarterly reports who may be having issues, or are new to filing reports, we have developed a new tutorial. We have always had the “instructions” for completing the quarterly report, but now have a more interactive tool which may be helpful. This tutorial is not required, is completely free, and is there to aid in giving further instruction to licensees as needed, so please feel free to go take a look!

To access the tutorial, you can go to the Bingo-Raffle home page, and next to the “quarterly report” link under e-file, you will also see “tutorial” (or you can link to it directly here). This is not going to allow you to actually fill out the quarterly, it is strictly an instruction manual to aid with any questions you may have and act as another way to answer routine questions on filling out the quarterly. Please feel free to contact our office at 303 894 2200 if you have questions.

A Look at Profits

The gross profit to the amounts wagered over the last 4 years has remained consistent. Even with the dip in gross amounts wagered in 2020, profit remained steady. In the graph below, we estimate the 2021 gross amount wagered will increase and the profit will consistently grow as well.

Complete numbers can be found on bingo and raffles home page under the charitable gaming financial reports.

Renewing of Bingo-Raffle Licenses

Starting November 1, current Bingo-Raffle licensees can renew their licenses for 2022, as long as your 3rd quarter 2021 quarterly report has been filed. The Secretary of State's office encourages groups to file online. If renewing online, the licensee needs to access their online account and use the “renew” link on their account’s summary page. Please do not create a new account as these filings will need to be rejected and resubmitted through your already existing account.

When filing online, the system will only accept credit or debit cards; we do not have ACH or the ability to directly transfer funds from your accounts. The card, however, does not have to be linked directly to the bingo-raffle account. A personal card could be used (we do not retain any card information once the submission is made to our office), and then reimbursed from the bingo-raffle account (we will need adequate descriptions on the schedule A that the reimbursement was for a “loan” to repay the person using their personal card for this payment). Also, the group has the option of obtaining a prepaid card where it can be loaded with the appropriate amount to cover the payment.

Rule Updates Starting November 1

The new updates to the Bingo-Raffle rules will be effective starting 11/01/2021. These updates include:

• update rules concerning closing a bingo game,
• opening a new pull tab deal during progressive bingo,
• suspending progressive pull tab operations
• authorizing prepackaged games for playing progressive raffles

To view the entirety of these changes and view the new language, please go to our website at: https://coloradosos.gov/pubs/rule_making/hearings/2021/BingoRulesHearing20210824.html

Additionally, here are a couple of reminders regarding progressive raffles that have not changed, and which you can reference in the current rules and on the Planning a Progressive Raffle fact Sheet referenced below:

• A raffle is not considered progressive if you report it over two or three quarters. It is a raffle where the pot (cash payout) increases at every game.
• If the pot of a Playing Card Progressive Raffle could potentially exceed $1,000 before a Must Go, the raffle rules regarding special printed tickets must be done, which includes:

1. A special ticket must be printed and submitted to our office prior to beginning sales.
2. Every time you start a new “progressive game” you must submit a new ticket and rules.
3. The start date must be included on each ticket for that progression.

• Provide an LE-34c with your quarterly if you have a payout.
• A members only game cannot include Auxiliary or family, only members of the licensed organization.

Please make sure you submit the printed progressive ticket and the rules and postings to our office, every time you start a new progressive. The Planning a Progressive Raffle fact sheet on our website provides additional information. If you have further questions always feel free to call our office.

Games Manager Training

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

Sign up for the online eLearning course on our website.

All live classes have currently been cancelled due to COVID 19. Please go to the this link for further updates on live classes.

Renewing Hall Licenses

All licensed bingo halls can renew their licenses beginning November 1,2021. These must be filed via the online system as we no longer accept paper renewals for halls. If you had a licensed Bingo-Raffle hall in 2021, please be sure to access your prior account by logging in here. Do not create a new landlord license application if you are renewing from the previous year. Please contact our office with any questions or concerns.