Arkansas began allowing 70 organizations to legally offer charitable bingo games and raffles on Tuesday, and the Saline County Moose Family Center on U.S. 67 was the first group in the county to take advantage of the new law.
A packed house of between 100 to 150 gamers included visitors from Arkadelphia, Hot Springs, Malvern, Little Rock and Pine Bluff. They bought their cards, and ink blots and impatiently waited to yell, “BINGO!”
The Moose Lodge is usually for members only, but during bingo nights, which are planned for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, anyone 18 and older can enter and play the games.
Many of the visitors at the first Tuesday bingo games said they drove such long distances because the organizations in their area would not begin the bingo games and raffles until later in the week.
Wendell Dawson, administrator of the Saline County Moose Lodge, said that he is glad to see so many people and that this will help raise donations to the many causes the lodge supports.
“I think it is great to be able to help the needy and the charitable organizations in the area,” Dawson said. “It will also help our own organizations [in projects] such as raising children with a need at the Mooseheart Child City & School in Aurora, Ill., and the Moosehaven Retirement Community in Orange Park, Fla.”
After years of rejecting expanded gambling, a state constitutional amendment to allow established charitable organizations to conduct bingo and raffles was approved last year by 69 percent of those voting. The 85th General Assembly approved laws concerning the licensing, regulation and taxation of bingo and raffles.
Voters originally voted against charitable bingo laws that also allowed for casinos and lotteries. Last year, casinos and lotteries were left off the ballot. Under the rules for the games groups can apply for an annual license to operate bingo or raffles or they can apply for a temporary license to conduct one raffle or bingo game per year. Also under the new gaming rules, Arkansas state government will take in revenue from the sale of bingo equipment to cover the cost of regulation and the charities will keep all their proceeds after paying the winners.
Although the legalization of the bingo games and raffle officially went into effect Tuesday, it is reported that many organizations across Arkansas began gaming much earlier. Cracking down on those groups for starting early, however, would achieve little and drain resources, state officials said.
“We had a hodgepodge in this state,” Gov. Mike Beebe said. “Some prosecutors looked the other way and some prosecutors prosecuted … they shouldn’t have been doing it in one county one way and not doing it in another.”
Beebe also said that, although gambling is already in the state, with the Oaklawn Park horse track in Hot Springs and Southland Park greyhound track in West Memphis, he doubts that it will lead to larger operations such as casinos.
“I think the people have pretty well expressed their interest that they don’t want casinos,” Beebe said in reference to rejections of casinos by voters in 1996 and 2000.
Arkansans now can participate in legalized bingo games and raffles and a percentage of the profits go to causes, such as the one that allows Heather Hensley, 16, who used to attend Bryant schools, but through the help of the Saline County Moose Lodge, will be in the 11th grade at the Mooseheart Child City & School in Aurora, Ill.
“All the time they spend here [at the Saline County Moose Lodge] does make a difference,” Hensley said. “The school [in Aurora] is very uniform … I am a lot more patient now. I am doing a lot better now and I am even playing in three sports — I never did any before and I have learned how to act around people now … they have had a very positive influence on a lot of people’s lives.”
Dawson said the Saline County Moose Lodge expects to be able to raise more donations for charities that take care of disadvantaged children and seniors through the new bingo games and raffles. He said he hopes to help more people like Hensley.
Two other organizations in Saline County that will have legalized bingo games and raffles are the Saline County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2256, which will host games at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays and at 1 p.m. on Saturdays, and Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, which has not yet determined days and/or times, but said it will hold games once a month.
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