Bingo & Raffle Newsletter

Bingo & Raffle Newsletter, Colorado Secretary of State

Quarterly Reports Due April 30

If you held a 2023 license at any time during the 1st quarter 2023, you MUST submit your LE-21 Quarterly Report form by April 30, 2023. The report covers the period from January 1 through March 31, 2023. 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.


2023 Bingo-Raffle Licenses

If you plan to conduct charitable gaming activities in 2023, you can apply for your annual license at any time during 2023 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@coloradosos.gov with any questions.

Continued Online Acceptance

We are currently now a continued 94% of groups filing their documentation online. That is a 3% improvement over this time last year, and only leaves 45 total groups that are NOT currently filing electronically. We recognize and appreciate all the organization’s that have taken the time and opportunity to make this transition or continue to file online. For those still filing by paper, quarterly reminders will continue to be sent regarding how to create your online account, and you will receive this for each paper quarterly submission you continue to file. As always, fees for online filing of quarterlies are cheaper than those for paper filing, and your filing or renewal is not being held up by waiting for the mail to be delivered to our office. If you would like to start the process of going to online filing, please refer to your mailed reminder or contact our team to assist you. You are always welcome to give us a call or drop us a line – we are more than happy to aid 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.

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 licensing@coloradosos.gov.

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 2022. Reports are updated quarterly.

Updated and New Reporting Forms

Due to changes necessary as a result of the passage of HB22-1093 (passed in June, 2022 and effective April 1, 2023), and the Rules adopted on March 30, 2023, the lawbook, bingo-raffle website, online filings and forms have been adjusted. The daily forms where the new strip card bingo game needs to be recorded (the LE-32, LE-34, LE-36 and new LE-39) have been adjusted/added and are available on our website with updated instructions as to how to record these games.  Both the new/updated forms and their associated instructions can be found on the forms list page of our website. To reference the exact areas that were adjusted in the rules, these can be found here.

The LE-21 quarterly report form (both electronic and paper versions) has also been adjusted for the recording of this new type of bingo game, and where you will aggregate the information recorded on the daily forms referenced above. Please note that the LE-32, LE-34, LE-36 and LE-21 and associated instructions have all been amended and you will need to access the updated versions of these forms going forward.

In addition, the games manager training and forms tutorials will all be updated to include information regarding the new type of bingo game.

If there are questions about these forms or concerns, please contact our office directly at licensing@coloradosos.gov.


Annual Financial Comparison

The graph below shows a comparison of the Gross Amount Wagered for all charitable games for the last 4 years. This includes raffles, all bingo games, and pull tabs at bar/clubroom. The graph shows a continued positive comeback. The numbers obtained for this graph are from the Aggregate report linked below under "charitable gaming financial reports". The Aggregate report on the website shows the profit for games in 2021 and 2022 has remained steady.

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


E-Filing a Bingo-Raffle License Renewal

Please remember, if you wish to continue to conduct charitable games of chance in 2023, you will need to renew your Bingo-Raffle license for 2023 before starting or continuing any games into 2023. All 2022 Bingo-Raffle licenses expired December 31, 2022. 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 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.

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

We are committed to providing Games Manager Classes and licensee outreach and want to ensure anyone who attend the classes be safe.

  • During the Games Manager class masks will be encouraged if you have all required vaccines. If you have not been vaccinated please wear a mask while in the building.
  • If CDC guidance recommends your county wear masks indoors, we will be wearing masks indoors.
  • If a COVID variant is increasing in your area, the Games Manager Class may be postponed.
  • If you are exhibiting symptoms of COVID please do not attend the class. If you are having allergy symptoms it is recommended that a rapid, at home test be taken same day prior to attending class. If the result is positive please stay home and follow CDC guidance regarding quarantine.
  • If you are exhibiting COVID symptoms, the instructor may ask you to take the test online or schedule yourself for another class.


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.


What Does "Amend" Mean on the Quarterly Report Page?

After filing a quarterly report and the report being approved by our office, you will see Amend next to this and some prior quarterly reports. This does not mean the quarterly needs to be amended. This is simply stating the licensee has the ability to amend the reports with this wording next to it, if needed (such as the licensee sees that something in the report was reported incorrectly and needs to be changed).

Additionally, please remember, amending a prior quarter will lock out the ability to do other functionality, such as filing your next quarter report, filing a change, or being able to renew your license, until the amendment is submitted and approved.

Also, amending a prior quarter is not the same as filing the next quarter report. Amending a prior report does just that, it changes the filing, much like sending an amendment in paper format. If you incorrectly go in to “amend” a report and do not wish to actually file an amendment, you can go to the summary page for the quarterlies and click on “reset filing”. This will close the report with the original data and you can proceed with submitting the next quarterly, change or renewal.

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