Last Minute Bingo Machine Ban Rushed Through Legislature Could Do Lasting Harm
SACRAMENTO, Sept. 5, 2008 - One of many bills pushed through the California legislature at the last minute is SB 1369, a hurried gut-and-amend that was one of numerous bills that kept the unresolved state budget crisis simmering on the back burner.
SB 1369 is now headed for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk. Backed by Sen. Jim Battin (R-Palm Desert) and Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), SB 1369, the bill that trumped the budget in importance, started out as a measure on school lunches but was gutted and amended at the last minute. Ostensibly, it offers to give larger California charities the ability to conduct Remote Caller Bingo, essentially Bingo games simultaneously conducted throughout the state online. At the same time, it bans smaller charities ability to continue raising funds through electronic Bingo machines.
As the bill twisted and turned through the Capitol, the process became so rushed that an amendment to appease charities with a limited amount of grant money was found to be in violation of the state constitution. After a quick-fix, SB 1369 passed through the Senate and is now awaiting submission to the governor.
Many of the charities that will be hurt by SB 1369 are based in Sacramento and serve Northern California. These charities have relied on the machines for years to raise vital funding for a variety of causes. This includes rehabilitation programs for children with disabilities and amputee veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But they extend to funding high school bands, youth swimming clubs and services for blind people and for helping homeless teens avoid a life on the streets. Without funds from electronic Bingo machines, many of these groups will have to sharply curtail their services and some may have to close their doors.
But smaller, community-based charities throughout California could suffer because SB 1369 prevents any fundraising expansion to electronic Bingo machines and freezes them into depending on old fashioned paper-and-dauber games, increasingly irrelevant in their appeal to players - a process Remote Caller Bingo will accelerate if passed by Schwarzenegger.
“The extreme concern of legislative supporters of SB 1369 was eliminating the perceived threat of these charity operations to established gaming operations. This concern was so extreme that legislators didn’t take the time to consider long-term consequences and rushed this bill through the Assembly and Senate in late August,” said Ravi Mehta, of the California Charity Bingo Association. “We are now urging the Governor to take a closer look at SB 1369 and realize that in their haste, legislative sponsors left loopholes that could have disastrous and far-reaching consequences not just for small charities, but for all Californians for a long time.” For more information on the California Charity Bingo Association, visit www.savecharitybingo.org. For news media interviews, contact Chris Holben at (916) 446-9900, or at cholben@rs-e.com.
