Quarterly Report Tutorial

It's a new year, and hopefully one that will emerge a better one. Here is a note for our licensees completing quarterly reports who may be having issues, or are new to filing reports, we have developed an updated 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.

Where We Are Regarding Profits

The 2021 numbers for bingo/raffle/pull tab activity are showing an encouraging rebound from 2020. They are not back to pre-COVID numbers, but they are on the way. We are estimating the 4th quarter numbers in the graph below. The Gross Amount Wagered graph includes both progressive and regular income wagered for all Charitable Games. These numbers may fluctuate, but as you can see, we are gaining back momentum to profitable earnings.

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

Reminder: Mandatory Online Filing of Manufactuer, Supplier and Agent Licenses

Since 2019, all Manufacturer, Supplier and Agent license applications have been required to be submitted electronically. There are training guides available on our website as follows:

• here for Manufacturers,
• here for Suppliers,
• here for Manufacturer Agent, and
• here for Supplier Agent

These licenses can be renewed any time after February 1 for the 2021 license year (Manufacturer and Supplier licensee filings must also have submitted their 1st quarter reports before renewals will become available). If you have any questions or concerns regarding accessing the system, please contact Shannon Bee at 303 894 2200 x 6406. New Manufacturer, Supplier and Agent applicants can also access the system for the initial submission of the application and creation of your online account here.

E-Filing a Bingo-Raffle License Renewal

Please remember, if you wish to continue to conduct charitable games of chance in 2022, you will need to renew your Bingo-Raffle license for 2022 before starting or continuing any games into 2022. All 2021 Bingo-Raffle licenses expired December 31, 2021. The Secretary of State's office encourages groups to file online. If renewing online, the licensee can 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 be 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.

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.

Refunding of Payment Policy

Our office has instituted timeline limits for refunding monies for services provided by our office for Bingo-Raffle submissions. To see this new policy, please go to our Fees schedule page to review. Going forward, this same policy will be on any payment page prior to your submitting a filing online which includes a payment requirement. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Investigator Tips

Each quarter, we include a few tips from our Bingo/Raffle Investigators. They gather a lot of information in the field with areas where licensees have compliance challenges. By sharing this information, we hope that licensees can better serve their customers.

A MESSAGE FROM THE INVESTIGATORS-TERMINATING BINGO:

When it is decided to terminate bingo, the licensee must notify the bingo hall if they are renting. If termination is decided by the bingo-raffle license, Rule 11.2.1 states… A licensee may terminate a rental agreement, they must give at least two weeks’ notice to the landlord.

Rule 3.2.13 states if a bingo-raffle license is offering a Progressive Jackpot they must award the jackpot prior to the end of their last occasion. This would include Bingo Progressive Jackpots, Pull Tab Progressive Jackpot, and Raffle Progressive Jackpot if being played at the bingo occasions.

When submitting your final quarterly report you must include the LE-21 Schedule A Distribution of proceeds, this will show that the proceeds are used for your organizations lawful purpose. If there are remaining funds you must continue to spend the money in your bingo-raffle bank account(s) for your lawful purpose and submit a Schedule A even if you already terminated operations. You cannot commingle bingo-raffle money with any other accounts including the organization’s general fund. Once all funds have been spent on their lawful purpose the licensee shall send our office a final bank statement showing the segregated account is zeroed out and closed. In addition, all records must be retained for 2 years following the calendar year in which bingo, pull tabs and raffles were conducted.

The licensee must maintain administrative records on forms prescribed or approved by the Secretary of State covering each occasion, bar and club room sales, and each raffle. The licensee must retain the records for a period of two years following the calendar year in which bingo, pull tabs or raffles were conducted.

If there are left over pull tabs that are unopened the licensee can ask the supplier to purchase them back. If they are opened you must keep them for 6 months after the end of the last quarter for which you submitted a report. They must then be destroyed in a manner that they will cannot be presented for payment. Bingo paper can also be sold back to the supplier or they must be destroyed two years after the quarter in which you submitted your final report.