H-2125.1  _______________________________________________

 

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1446

          _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2001 Regular Session

 

By House Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by Representatives Wood, Clements, Conway, B. Chandler, Kenney, Lisk and Eickmeyer)

 

Read first time 02/27/2001.  Referred to Committee on .

Authorizing bona fide charitable and nonprofit organizations to conduct electronic bingo.


    AN ACT Relating to authorizing bona fide charitable and nonprofit organizations to conduct electronic bingo; and amending RCW 9.46.0205.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

    Sec. 1.  RCW 9.46.0205 and 1987 c 4 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) "Bingo," as used in this chapter, means a game conducted only in the county within which the organization is principally located in which prizes are awarded on the basis of designated numbers or symbols on a card conforming to numbers or symbols selected at random and in which no cards are sold except at the time and place of said game, when said game is conducted by a bona fide charitable or nonprofit organization which does not conduct or allow its premises to be used for conducting bingo on more than three occasions per week and which does not conduct bingo in any location which is used for conducting bingo on more than three occasions per week, or if an agricultural fair authorized under chapters 15.76 and 36.37 RCW, which does not conduct bingo on more than twelve consecutive days in any calendar year, and except in the case of any agricultural fair as authorized under chapters 15.76 and 36.37 RCW, no person other than a bona fide member or an employee of said organization takes any part in the management or operation of said game, and no person who takes any part in the management or operation of said game takes any part in the management or operation of any game conducted by any other organization or any other branch of the same organization, unless approved by the commission, and no part of the proceeds thereof inure to the benefit of any person other than the organization conducting said game.  For the purposes of this section, the organization shall be deemed to be principally located in the county within which it has its primary business office.  If the organization has no business office, the organization shall be deemed to be located in the county of principal residence of its chief executive officer:  PROVIDED, That any organization which is conducting any licensed and established bingo game in any locale as of January 1, 1981, shall be exempt from the requirement that such game be conducted in the county in which the organization is principally located.

    (2) "Bingo" includes games conducted through an approved system of linked electronic bingo terminals located at one or more licensed bingo locations with the numbers or symbols selected at a single licensed location as of January 1, 2001, for all terminals on the system.  The commission shall adopt rules for the testing, regulation, approval, and licensing of bingo games conducted through any system of linked electronic bingo terminals.  Licensees are limited to no more than fifty linked bingo terminals per location.  Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, bona fide charitable or nonprofit organizations may allow their premises to be used five days per week to conduct bingo games using linked electronic bingo terminals.

    It is the intent of the legislature in authorizing systems of linked electronic bingo terminals that games played on such systems shall only include bingo games with electronic facsimiles of bingo displayed on the screen and with all players on the system competing against each other to match the numbers or symbols drawn in the game.  Nothing in this section authorizes any form of slot machine or any other type of electronic gaming device wherein a player competes directly against the device.

 


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