By CARRIE STAMBAUGH — The Independent
Ashland — Kentucky Department of Charitable Gaming officials will stop in Ashland next month during a state-wide tour to present its proposals to modernize charitable gaming operations and answer questions about the issue.
The DCG plans to introduce legislation to the 2010 General Assembly to change current statutes in order to allow the agency to become the central point for contracting, purchasing and tracking the sale of all bingo games.
Last month, the DCG began seeking bids from manufacturers and distributors to provide gaming materials at a reduced cost as well as proposals from software manufacturers to develop reporting procedures from the charities to the agency.
The proposals are contingent upon passage of the 2010 legislation.
“The reforms will be the first major reform of the way Kentucky regulates and oversees charitable gaming since the original laws were adopted in 1994,” said DCG Commissioner Henry G. Lackey in written remarks distributed by the agency last month.
“By putting these new procedures into place, the charities will be relieved of the current burden they are under to manually account for and report their supplies, rental costs, as well as pay-outs for each session. This modernization of charitable gaming could mean an actual increase in the net proceeds that many charities receive by simply having more accurate records,” Lackey said.
The Ashland meeting will take place Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Boyd County Fair Bingo Hall, 1760 Addington Road. The meeting is the third to last in a state-wide series beginning today.
Meetings are scheduled to take place this week in Cresent Hills, Winchester, Louisville and Owensboro. Meetings next week are scheduled in Paducah, Franklin, and Louisville.
The following week meetings will take place in Henderson, Ashland, Corbin, and Prestonsburg.
Under the proposal, the DCG would use a bar code inventory system that will allow the agency to monitor in real-time the receipts, pay-outs and inventory of each licensed charity. The system would track inventory from manufacturers though distributors to the organizations.
The cost of implementing the new system will be funded through the sale of bingo supplies to licensed charities, according to DCG officials.
“By allowing us to become the central point of purchasing and disbursement, Kentucky charities can more accurately reflect their net receipts without having to be under enormous pressure to get manual reports to DCG,” said Lackey.
“Making these changes will greatly enhance the comfort level of Kentucky charities that for years have had to worry about filing timely and accurate paperwork, paying fines for unintended record keeping violations and wondering if their inventory was accurate and up-to-date,” Lackey said.
In his remarks, Lackey tried to squash claims by opponents of the legislation that such reforms will limit the variety of popular pull tab games available to charities.
“It is important to understand that this proposal will in no way limit the number of pull tab games available to charities. What we are talking about here is better accountability by every one associated with charitable gaming,” said Lackey.
However, opponents of the legislation argue that is untrue and that charities will lose their ability to shop for the best deals among distributors if the legislation passes. They also claim that charity revenues will actually plummet under the plan citing. a 1990 study of states with and without open market models.
There are 655 charities licensed to conduct bingo and sell pull tabs in Kentucky. The charities reported gross receipts approaching $500 million in 2006.
CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.
