I understand that in Indiana you can not have a "Pay" bingo night without getting licensed. I see PTO's host free bingo nights ...so
1. Is it allowed in Indiana if it is FREE and no one is charged?
2. Can you give away prizes that were donated or purchased by the PTO since you are not charging or does this fall back in to the "chance of winning" category?

Thanks

I'm all new to this too, but here in New Jersey (yes--think "The Sopranos") anyone involved with "games of chance" has to get a "gaming license" from the Legalized Games of Chance Commission, which is part of the State Treasury Department. A two year license is $50, and if you're something like a PTO they don't give you a hard time.

I thought I'd better add a note clarifying something I wrote awhile back. While the logical person would THINK the basic starting point for needing a license is if you are charging for bingo, it may not actually be that simple.

Believe it or not, in Texas, ANY bingo game outside very few exceptions require a license- and schools/PTOs are not one of the exceptions. And a licensed game cannot allow anyone to play for free. (If you read the statute, it sounds like they want to prevent a bingo operator from letting a friend or someone into a commercial game for free. However, since everyone needs a license, and if you have a license you can't let anyone play free, it's illegal to have a free game.)

So, technically, a PTO couldn't legally run a FREE game in Texas. I had remembered this - sort of - from when I initially did my research, but I didn't pay much attention since we charge. However, I double checked it today (twice) with the agency that oversees this in our state.

I know this is absurd. The point of bingo laws are to control gambling. If there's no money involved, no gambling - right? However, sad but true, our state laws are written this way.

As much as I try to follow the rules and do things the right way, it's highly unlikely I'd push for getting a license if we were running a free game.

And as a citizen, I'm outraged at the unneccessary costs the state would incur to license such a game. Yes, there's $25 fee, but that can't begin to cover the staff time, let alone the background checks. When we apply for a license, we usually list 20+ people. The state has to conduct a background check on each of them. Maybe there's a reason for this that I don't understand, but it really sounds like a good intent run amuck.

[ 01-27-2004, 12:11 AM: Message edited by: JHB ]

We are required to get a license by the state gaming commission in order to charge and this is a huge ball of tangled red tape and quite expensive. Our school would not let us use the building without the license or they would get in trouble!

We recently had our first ever Bingo night and are planning our next one for February. We charged 50¢ per card and the card was good for the entire evening. We were totally unprepared for the turnout we had, so we'll now charge $1 per card AND order more cards. We had 400 which sold out within 15 minutes of the door opening!
We solicited parents for ONE item from various categories--car wash, housecleaning, Xmas, family games,movies, snacks etc. Once we collected everything, we made gift baskets along those themes which became the prizes for a bingo. We also didn't anticipate the response we got on that either--we had nearly 75 baskets!! Next time, we'll solicit businesses for gift cards and limit the number of games to around 20-25 because it took us over 3 hours to give away all the baskets. We offered light snacks--nachos, popcorn and fruit snacks & drinks for purchase, coffee was free. All the feedback received was positive except for the shortage on the amount of cards we had. Families had a great time playing together and PTO made a enough money to pay for more cards plus.
It never occurred to us that we shouldn't charge to play--basically,the cost to play is the same as buying a chance in a raffle--with A LOT of winners. Some people bought 15 cards!
Feel free to email me if you'd like more info on how to do a successful evening. Can't wait to do our next one!!
oops forgot my email--- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

[ 12-18-2003, 06:43 AM: Message edited by: sherwoodpkmom ]

I am in a similar situation with a low budget to work with and am also searching for ideas to push extra events over the top -

How about funding prizes by using some of the hundreds of contacts that exist on this board for use in silent auctions?

Also, nearly every sam's club and wal-mart in the country will provide a $25 gift certificate upon request - that's a start.

If you use books for bingo prizes, Target and Pizza Hut would consider a donation request to be part of their reading philanthropy programs.

Take a minute to determine the goal of your event, then seek sponsors that share the same goals. Books, Reading and Literacy programs are the biggest concepts right now, but keep looking; companies sponsor just about anything these days!