Posted on Mon, Aug. 04, 2008

Editor's note: This story was published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec. 11, 2005.

David Lindeman called out "Flash," the pull-tab game he was selling for $1 a play as he walked under the harsh florescent lights of Jackpot Bingo. The hall off Winchester Road was quiet despite the steady patter of the bingo caller, the voices of parents selling pull-tabs and the occasional yelp from one of the 100 players, signaling bingo.

Two Sunday nights a month, Lindeman, a civil engineer, sells pull-tabs to raise money for Tates Creek High School baseball and softball teams."It gets downright boring sometimes," said Lindeman, whose two children play on the teams. "You walk around in circles and say the same thing, over and over again."

Seven days a week, sometimes until 3 a.m., parents and students run bingo games to pay for sports and band programs in the Fayette County public schools. The school district pays for head coaches and band directors, but almost every other expense has to be paid for by parents or through fund-raising.

Of all the fund-raisers, bingo brings in the most money -- a total of $6.8 million in the last five years. But bingo's earnings are decreasing.

Few parents like working bingo, but they say the teams need the money, even those who oppose the lottery or dislike the smoke that coats the air inside the halls.

"I've never smoked and I hate the environment there," said Ed Workman, president of the Tates Creek baseball booster club.

Some groups allow parents to buy their way out of working bingo, but Tates Creek baseball doesn't. Too many people would choose that option, and there wouldn't be enough volunteers to run the game, Workman said.

"It's either this or come up with a whole bunch of money for the kids," said Molly Kimbrell, parent of a Tates Creek baseball player. "It's expensive enough, just keeping them in cleats."

During intermission at Bluegrass Bingo one Tuesday night, the players lined up at the table where Michael Boggs had been selling King of the Mountain, a popular pull-tab game.

Pull-tabs work like a scratch-off lottery ticket, only with tabs. They offer instant winnings, a shot at a grand prize of up to $599 or, if it's a progressive game, $2,400.

Bingo brings players into the halls, but pull-tabs are where the money is, said Leah Cooper, an assistant director in the Office of Charitable Gaming.

On an average Tuesday night at Bluegrass Bingo, the Lafayette band boosters sell 9,000 to 10,000 pull-tabs at $1 each to around 80 players.

Last year, the Lafayette band sold $419,000 just in pull-tabs, according to the gaming office. Of that, $307,000 went back to players as winnings. The group also had to pay the cost of the games, rent at Bluegrass and other expenses. Between bingo, pull-tabs and a raffle, the band earned $60,000.

At Bluegrass, the players bought tickets from Boggs, who works for Alltel, in $5, $10 and $20 increments. They exchanged their instant winnings for combinations of cash and more pull-tabs, flipping open the tickets and turning in the winners as quickly as Boggs could count the money. One woman stashed a pull-tab in her bra.

"Isn't it amazing," said Boggs as the line of players briefly disappeared. "... It's the same people every night."

The players are superstitious. They bring good luck charms, such as carved wooden elephants and miniature trolls. They'll decide that certain pull-tab sellers are lucky and refuse to buy from anyone else.

When Ann Tejeda paid for a computerized bingo game, she asked for a computer by its number, 25. She'd won on that machine before, she explained later.

Tejeda, 75, plays bingo every chance she gets, even though she lives on a fixed income. Enough players survive on Social Security, retirement and disability to make the first of the month, when the checks arrive, the most profitable week for booster clubs.

"You can win like crazy for about a year, make beaucoodles of money," Tejeda said. "But what happens is you won't win for months. It eats into your pocketbook and your bank account."

This Tuesday, luck anointed Tejeda, and she won $292 on the $56 she spent on pull-tabs and bingo.

At home, she had a crock pot of brown beans that could last until her next Social Security check, just in case. But, with her winnings, the beans were forgotten. Instead, she'll be eating steak and pizza.

Extra credit

Every time Boggs works bingo, the Lafayette band boosters subtract $20 from the $1,200 he has to pay for his daughter to march. The practice is routine among Fayette County booster clubs, whether they offer a fixed amount for a night of bingo or a figure based on how much money is earned.

But it's not allowed, said Cooper.

No individual is supposed to benefit financially from working bingo. Booster clubs cannot use bingo as a way for members to work off what are essentially fees, Cooper said.

When gaming officials learn of the practice, they usually work with groups to change it. There is a potential for a fine of up to $1,000 for each offense.

Booster clubs and other charities may require members to work a certain number of hours in return for a fee reduction or waiver. Even then, the agency says, the members must have work options other than bingo and options other than fund-raising.

A booster club member who works six hours a month taking care of the baseball field or altering band uniforms should get the same credit as a member who works six hours of bingo, Cooper said.

Booster clubs also run into trouble when they allow other booster clubs, and sometimes other charities, to work for them, and then donate part of a night's proceeds to the group working.

In some cases, this redistribution helps alleviate funding inequities between girls' and boys' teams or different sports. But unless the booster club's IRS-stated mission includes supporting the other groups, bingo earnings must support the club running the game.

Usually, state officials work with groups to change the practice. But there is a potential for a fine, up to $1,000 for each offense.

Bingo players should be able to count on their money supporting the group that hosts the bingo game, said Frank Miller Jr., former executive director of Kentucky's gaming office. "Gaming licenses are not commodities that you can trade, even well-meaningly," Miller said.

The office is educating booster groups and other charities to change their practices when they discover that they are not following the rules, Cooper said. But, in general, the agency's investigators are busy with other problems, such as outright stealing.

Bingo is a cash game, and Kentucky charities handle about $600 million in cash a year.

"It's just so much money that there's always going to be that temptation during bingo games," Cooper said, "You know, one for me, one for the charity."

While no Fayette County booster club has had widespread problems that resulted in a full-blown investigation, booster clubs in other counties have. Four years ago, the gaming office shut down the Whitley County football boosters after they discovered that the couple running the game, Mike and Charlene White, were taking the profits.

In 2004, a Whitley County jury convicted the couple of stealing $90,000 in 15 months. The Whites were sentenced to 10 years in prison but were later granted shock probation.

Declining income

In Fayette County, bingo money has paid for band instruments and improved baseball fields. It has sent cheerleaders to national competitions and baseball teams to spring training.

But bingo isn't as lucrative as it used to be. In 1999, Fayette County booster clubs and other charities earned $2.6 million from bingo and other games of chance, according to the state gaming office. Last year, the groups earned $1.9 million, almost a third less.

Many groups blame the decline on the smoking ban that Fayette County instituted in April 2004. The bingo groups briefly complied with the ban, but the owners of Jackpot Bingo successfully challenged the ordinance in court and, for now, bingo players can smoke inside the halls. The case is under appeal.

However, the decreases began before the smoking ban and seem to correlate with an increase in money being spent on bingo in the surrounding counties and the ups and downs of the economy.

Two years ago, Henry Clay football boosters gave up their Friday night slot -- 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. -- at Jackpot Bingo. The competition from surrounding counties made the game less profitable, said Gerry Breen, who served as the group's treasurer.

"We weren't making enough money to make it worthwhile," he said.

The group first replaced bingo with a $250 player fee. This year, it increased its business sponsorship program.

Becky Bushong, the Henry Clay athletics director, predicts that other booster clubs will have to find other ways to raise money as well.

Bingo income will only continue to decrease, she predicted. "It's over."