After mixed results in court battles to keep operating casino-style machines, California charitable bingo parlors are seeking financial relief in the Legislature and from tribal gambling funds.
But casino tribes protest reinstating a $5 million account originally created to compensate charities for the anticipated loss of bingo machines.
Charity groups argue that losing electronic bingo will cost them critical revenues for programs for schools, communities and the disabled.
Tribes argue the slot machine-style games violate their gambling exclusivity rights and thus threaten California's ability to collect millions of dollars in revenue-sharing payments from Indian casinos.
Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, drafted legislation to allow charities losing bingo machines to seek compensation until Oct. 31 from a fund tribes pay into to offset impacts of Indian gambling.
An earlier fund for the charities was offered until Jan. 31 under legislation – signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – that declared the electronic bingo games illegal.
But some charities pressed legal fights to keep the bingo games, passing up financial relief for removing them.
"They chose to roll the dice in the courts," said David Quintana, political director for the California Tribal Business Alliance. "The dice came back a way they didn't like. Now they want to go back to the Legislature and ask, 'About that mitigation?' Too bad, you've got to remove the machines."
Bingo parlors continue to operate despite a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling March 27 that declared the games clearly violate the new state law banning electronic bingo.
But U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez in Sacramento issued an injunction April 14 that stopped authorities from shutting down the games. He said the new law may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act because the disabled have difficulty playing bingo on paper cards.
Doug Bergman, president of United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Sacramento, said the group operates 140 bingo games to raise money to promote independence for people with developmental challenges. The machines are shared with the Society for the Blind.
"We thought keeping the machines operating far outweighed the risks of pulling the machines and losing the revenues," Bergman said.
Niello's bill – Assembly Bill 1036 – attempted to give charities an alternative to electronic bingo by allowing halls using paper games to link with up to 100 other establishments in a "remote caller bingo" network.
But Niello pulled his bill – AB 1036 – from an Assembly hearing Thursday, saying it lacked sufficient backing.
Bergman said charities hope to revive the legislation.
Call Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5539.
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