In California a bill has passed through legislation that would allow larger charities to offer bingo games online. This bill is expected to look over by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger very soon and if signed it would go into effect. The California Charity Bingo Association is not in favor of the bill and would like to see the governor veto the bill.

It was late last week that the State Bill 1369 was passed through the Senate in Sacramento. Since then the Association has been protesting the bill. They believe that if the bill is passed it would trigger a clause in the Indian Tribal gaming compact that would allow aboriginal-run casinos to use the Internet for gambling. They believe this would allow the tribes to use other games including blackjack, slots and poker, over the internet.

It is the Associations belief that this would weaken the California Lottery as well as smaller charities. A statement from the Association read: “State Bill 1369 is a gut and amend bill headed for the Governor's desk that would devastate hundreds of local charities while allowing California's tribal casinos to expand their gambling operations onto the Internet, essentially amounting to the greatest expansion of legal gambling in California's history.”

The Association also stated that the competition created from the bill’s passing would also weaken the California Lottery as the State Bill 1369 outlaws the electronic charity bingo machines that many small charities use to earn money. Remote Caller Bingo would be substituted for the electronic bingo machines, and while that could be a good move by creating larger jackpots, it is also a bad move would be that the technology would be unavailable for the smaller charities.


- 2008-09-22