Bingo & Raffle Newsletter

Quarterly Reports Due April 30

If you held a 2019 license at any time during the 1st quarter 2019, you MUST submit your LE-21 Quarterly Report form by April 30, 2019. The report covers the period from January 1 through March 31. Reports filed after this date will be assessed a $50 fine.

Please make sure you use our online system (note that the online quarterly is less expensive as fees are lower, than submitting with the paper form) or download and use the correct forms from our website . PLEASE NOTE: There have been updates to the daily forms. Please be sure and access these from the above link on our "forms" page to ensure you always have the latest version.

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.

2019 Bingo-Raffle Licenses

If you plan to conduct charitable gaming activities in 2019, you can apply for your annual license at any time during 2019 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 accepted) or e-mailed to the organizational e-mail address, if provided, on the paper form. To minimize unnecessary rejections, 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.

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. The next meeting is scheduled for:

When: TBD

Where: TBD

If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at public.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 2018. Reports are updated quarterly.

Postcard and Kudos!

Our office recently distributed a postcard to licensees who have yet to adopt online filing of their quarterly reports/license applications. This was sent the week of April 1st. Within the postcard was information concerning the following:

Enjoy a .5% discounted filing fee for all filings submitted online
Eliminate mail time – and the risk of being fined even though the “check’s in the mail”
- Once submitted to the queue online, and prior to the quarterly due date, you cannot be fined for late filing
Less data entry required of our staff equals more time supporting you in other meaningful ways
Online submission offers a preview feature to double and triple-check your submissions, providing a means to eliminate unnecessary rejects and re-submissions
With a single –organization-wide email address, you can eliminate having to revert to paper upon the departure of staff
- Use our online training manual to bring your newest team members up to speed.
- Keep filing online – and keep enjoying the benefits of it.

Our staff can assist your organization with creating this online account. Please call our office at 303 869 4910 to ask for assistance. We would be more than happy to assist you with this process.

Also, we have found that many groups (over 500!) have diligently continued to, or recently adopted online filing of quarterly reports and licenses. Our office would like to applaud your progressive and positive attitude in embracing our enhanced filing system. Our staff truly appreciates you and wants to keep you on the path of enjoying the benefits of online filing. If we can ever assist you with questions or concerns, never hesitate to contact us directly. Thank you for leading the way in this endeavor!

E-Filing a Bingo-Raffle License Renewal

Please remember, before conducting bingo-raffle activities in 2019, your organization must hold a current 2019 Bingo-Raffle license. Our office encourages groups to file online. If renewing online, the licensee needs to access their online account and use the “renew” link on their account’s summary page. Please do not create a new account as this will result in unnecessary rejections and re-submissions on your part, due to you already having an existing account.

When filing online, we currently only accept credit or debit cards. ACH or direct transfer of funds from your accounts is not available at this time. A personal card can 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 regarding this "loan"). You may also use a prepaid card, loaded with the appropriate amount to cover the payment.

E-Filing a Bingo-Raffle License Renewal

Charitable gaming – Net Profitability

For bingo and pull tab games the net profit percentage numbers for 2018 are consistent with prior years. The only difference is on the raffles which increased about 6% in 2018. The numbers do not reflect progressive games. A full breakdown of the comparison can be found on our website under charitable gaming financial reports.

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.

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

The dates/times/places of upcoming Games Manager training classes follow:

Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8:30 AM. Associated Veterans of Loveland, 305 N. Cleveland, Loveland, CO 80537.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 5:30 PM. FO Eagles 143, 1050 S. 21st St, Colorado Springs, CO 80904.

Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 8:00 AM. American Legion 22, 11081 Irma Dr, Northglenn, CO 80233.

Saturday, August 3, 2019 at 8:30 AM. BPO Elks 2541, 525 Main St, Louisville, CO 80027.

You can also sign up to host a Games Manager training course. Follow this link to provide us with a few details about you and your organization, and host a class soon.

The Games Manager mail-in certification exam is no longer available.

Investigator Tips

Each quarter, we include a few tips from our Bingo/Raffle Investigators. They gather a lot of information in the field on where licensees have trouble complying with the law. By sharing this information, we hope that licensees can better serve their customers.

A MESSAGE FROM THE INVESTIGATORS:

Section 24-21-622 (3)(a), C.R.S. states that all money collected or received from the games of bingo....shall be deposited in a special checking or savings account.... What this means is that the money collected from that occasion must be deposited into their bingo account. It does not mean that the starting cash, if it came from a safe held at the bingo hall, must be deposited along with that occasions receipts. As long as our office knows that money in the groups safe came from their bingo account properly by writing a check for the starting bank, and is replenished as needed by a check to draw money out of their segregated account, the organization can hold those funds in the safe as needed without depositing that money per occasion.

As an example:

A licensee writes a check to the GM, for the starting bank.
GM cashes check and places the cash in the safe at the hall.
At the start of the occasion, the GM takes that money out of the safe for the starting bank.
At the end of the occasion the receipts for sales of all games is deposited into their bingo account.
The startup money is placed back into the safe for the next occasion.
If the deposit cuts into the startup money, a check should be written to the GM to replenish the starting bank, held in the safe.

You can access all bingo/raffle laws using our Bingo-Raffles Law Handbook. Please feel free to contact our office with any questions.

Segregated Bingo-Raffle Bank Account Requirements

Bingo-Raffle Law requires each licensee to keep a segregated special account that contains proceeds obtained from games of chance activities (CRS 24-21-622(3)(a)), and which contains ONLY this money. No other funds obtained by the licensed group outside what is received as receipts from the playing of charitable games covered by the Bingo-Raffle License can be deposited or transferred into this account. Therefore, other funds received, such as donations to the organization, cannot be deposited into this account, either directly or indirectly.

Likewise, no funds can be transferred from the Bingo-Raffle account to any other fund or account of the licensee. Funds from the bingo-raffle account must be spent directly from that account to an outside payee specifically for the lawful purposes of the licensed organization.

Transferring of funds across accounts, either into or out of the bingo raffle account from another fund or account of the licensee, is a direct violation of the law, and will result in fines as described in Rule 15.4.2(h) of the Bingo-Raffle Rules.

Please consult with our office if you have any questions about the Bingo Raffle account and the use of funds from that account.

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