June 24,2005 

Mr. Scott Walker, Esq. 

Senior Consultant 

Electronic Game Card Inc. 

3800 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 850 

Las Vegas, NV 89109 

Re: Electronic Game Cards, classification opinion 

Dear Mr. Walker: 

This is in response to your request for an opinion classifying Electronic Game Cards 

Inc.'s electronic game cards ("the cards"), which you would like to offer in Indian casinos 

as a Class I1 pull tabs game under the name, 'Tribal Numbers.' My staff and I have 

reviewed two versions of the cards, together with explanatory technical information and 

the arguments you provided in letters, discussions, and e-mails. The first version you 

provided us ("Version 1") was a credit-card-sized, single-use electronic pull tab. The 

second version ("Version 2) adds a scratch off pull tab card to the back of the electronic 

card. I conclude that the Version 1 is Class I11 because it is an electronic facsimile of a 

game of chance. Version 2, however, is Class 11. The game is in the scratch off card, and 

the electronic display - an alternate means of play - is a technologic aid. 

The cards - features common to both versions 

The cards are presented as a pull tabs game. As traditionally played, pull tabs uses twoply paper cards. The player removes paper flaps or "tabs" from the top layer, thus 

revealing printed symbols arranged in winning or losing combinations. The electronic 

game cards, as their name implies, essentially allow the player to do this electronically. 

Each card is approximately the size of a credit card and is made of plastic. Each is a slim 

case containing a 40mm-wide liquid crystal diode for the display of game results, a circuit 

board, a microprocessor, game software, and a battery with upwards of nine months of 

shelf life. The game softwaire and the game results are written to the microprocessor at 

manufacture. Thus, like paper pull tabs, the cards contain predetermined winning and 

losing games. Like paper piull tabs, the cards will be sold to an operator in a deal 

containing a specified number of cards, discreet prize levels, and a predetermined 

number of winning cards at each prize level. Thus, like paper pull tabs, a deal of the 

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 1441 L St. NW, Suite 9100, Washington. DC 20005 Tel: 202.632.7003 Fax: 202.632.7066 WWW.NIGC.GOV 

REGIONAL OFFICE!; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; Phoenix. AZ; St. Paul. MN;Tulsa, OK 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 2 

cards has a prescribed, callculated house edge - the percentage of sales kept by the 

Irrr' operator after it pays all prizes. 

Each card, moreover, is made to be tamper proof. Opening the case destroys the card, 

and the microprocessor, sealed within the case, is not rewritable. Similarly, the cards can 

be made with unique serial numbers and bar codes for the purposes of inventory, 

accounting, and verification of game results. 

The cards - features added in Version 2 

Version 2 adds a 32 mm by 48 mm (approx. I" by 1 '/2") scratch-off pull tab to the back of 

the electronic card. The scratch off card has a vinyl cover that can be removed with the 

edge of a coin or fingernail to reveal results below. 

Pull Tabs as played on the cards - Version 1 (electronic only) 

Players purchase the cards from designated retail outlets in the casino at a price Tied by 

the operator. In Version 1, ;is shown to us, each card contains eighty plays.' Each play 

requires the patron to press the 'Play' button on the card twice. The first press displays 

the number of plays remaining on the card. The second causes the LCD to display a 

'scroll' effect, which is followed by the appearance of three numbers from 1 to 7 on the 

LCD, one at a time in each of three small windows. 

Each card has printed on th.e front of it a table of winning combinations and 

corresponding point values. Should numbers appear in the windows in a winning 

combination, the LCD will flash 'Win' for three seconds, together with the number of 

points awarded for that comibination. The card will then display the player's cumulative 

point total. Should the numbers appear in a losing combination, the card will display 

only the player's cumulative point total. The cumulative total is sigruficant because it is 

upon this, and not the results of the eighty individual plays, that the prizes are based.' A 

paper insert provided with the card provides a paytable of points and prizes, along with 

complete instructions on how to play. 

While the number combination for each play is transient - it cannot be recalled after the 

player starts the next play - :the cumulative point total is not. The card tracks the player's 

cumulative points through all eighty plays. When all plays are exhausted, pressing 'Play' 

further only displays the cumulative point total. 

' We understand that there is no necessity to having eighty plays and that Electronic Game Card may in 

the future offer cards with more or fewer plays, depending on customer demand. Provided that all other 

features remain the same, this opin~ion will apply to the cards so modified. 

We understand that as a matter of attractiveness to the patron, rather than of any mathematical or 

'W legal necessity, there are no zero point cards. Each card will be redeemable for some prize, even if it is a 

prize less than the cost of the card. 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 3 

Players redeem the cards only at designated locations in the casino. An electronic code in 

w the card or a bar code on the card back allows the operator to verify the cumulative total, 

and therefore the player's prize, when a card is presented for redemption. The code or 

bar code makes it unnecessary for the patron to run through all, or even any, of the 

eighty plays on the card before redeeming it. Whenever redeemed, the player is paid for 

the entire value of the card. 

Pull tabs, Version 1, cont'd. - random number generation 

Though the results of the eighty plays are pre-programmed, the software in each card 

nevertheless contains a random number generator, which we understand to have two 

functions. One is to display the pre-determined results in a random order so as to 

maintain player interest. Specifically, each card will display at least one win in the first 

eight plays, at least one win in the last eight plays, and no more than thirteen consecutive 

losing plays. All other results are randomly distributed. 

The RNG's other function is to fill in non-essential numbers for display. For example, if 

two 7s is a winning combination, the RNG will fill in the display of the third number by 

picking a random number lfrom 1 to 6. Similarly, if the cards have losing combinations 

with three non-repeating numbers, the RNG will select three different numbers from 1 to 

7 in order to display the losing result. This function we understand to be a matter of 

programming efficiency. 

Pull Tabs as played on the cards - Version 2 (combined cards) 

Version 2 of the cards can be played either as above or, simply, by scratching off the 

covering of the pull tab. This reveals a series of eighty point values and their cumulative 

total, specifically the cumulative point value of the card that entitles the player to a 

prize.3 Playing the electronic card will reveal the same eighty results and cumulative 

point value. 

Legal analysis 

IGRA divides the world of Indian gaming into three classes. Class I, which is not at issue 

here, encompasses "social games" played "solely for prizes of minimal value or 

traditional forms of Indian gaming engaged in by individuals as a part of, or in 

connection with, tribal ceremonies or celebrations." 25 U.S.C. $2703(6). Class I1 

encompasses, in relevant part: 

- 3 The eighty point values are printed in 6 point type, and the cumulative total in 8 point. Though 6 

point type may present some with reading ~l~culty, we raise no objection. Type of that size has been 

found sufficient in other regulatory contexts. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, mandates a 

'W minimum type size of 6 points for text in over the counter drug labeling. 2 1 C.F.R 5 201.66(d)(2). 

Moreover, as stated above, it is only the cumulative total, printed in larger type, that is significant. 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 4 

the game of chance commonly known as bingo (whether or not electronic, 

computer, or other technologic aids are used in connection therewith) -- 

. . . including (if played in the same location) pull-tabs, lotto, punch 

boards, tip jars, instant bingo, and other games similar to bingo.. . . 

25 U.S.C. § 2703(7)(A)(i). Class I11 is a catchall category and includes "all forms of 

gaming that are not Class I gaming or Class I1 gaming." 25 U.S.C. $2703(8). 

Class I11 also includes any lbanking card game and any electronic or 

electromechanical facsimile of any game of chance. 25 U.S.C. 2703(7)(B)(i)-(ii); 

25 C.F.R. $502.4@). 

Viewed against this background, classification of the cards presents two separate 

questions. First, are the cards, in both versions, pull tabs or some other, similar game? If 

the latter, the cards do not fall within the definition of Class I1 and are Class 111. Second, 

if the cards do play pull tabs, are they, in the two versions, technologic aids to the play of 

pull tabs or electronic facsimiles of it? If the former, the cards are Class 11. If the latter, 

they are Class 111. 

Pull tabs 

Neither IGRA nor the Commission's regulations define pull tabs. The game is, however, 

well known. It is, as alluded to above, a game of chance traditionally played with twoTkrJ play paper cards. Cabazon ~%nd ofMission Indians v. National Indian Gaming 

Comm h, 14 F.3d 633,635 (D.C. Cir. 1994). Players purchase these cards from the 

operator, which sells them from a set known as the 'deal,' and a typical deal contains up 

to 100,000 cards. When the players remove the top layer or "tab" of a card, the bottom 

layer reveals a pattern of synlbols indicating whether the player has won a prize. A typical 

card will have three tabs, each an opportunity to win, and a pre-determined number of 

winning cards is randomly spaced within the deal. Seneca-Cayuga Tde of OWahoma v. 

National Indian Gaming Commh., 327 F.3d 1019, 1024 (lo* Cir. 2003). 

In traditional pull tabs, bingo hall clerks sell the cards from retail counters or mobile 

carts. Clerks also redeem winning cards for cash prizes. Diamond Game Enterp. Inc. v: 

Reno, 230 F.3d. 365, 367 (D.C. Cir. 2000). More recently, operators have sold pull tabs 

from dispensing machines that read the card results through a bar code printed on the 

card back and display those results on video monitors. Some displays mimic the play of 

slot machines by displaying spinning reels. Id. at 367-368. Other innovations put a large 

number of pull tab games on a card sold for a single price. The card can then be read by 

the patron in the traditional fashion or by inserting it into an electronic reader. Id. at 370. 

Given this history and these variations, the cards, in both versions shown to us, play pull 

tabs. In both versions, the cards, like both traditional pull tabs and recent innovations, 

are sold for a fixed price from a deal containing a finite number of pre-designated 

winners, have multiple plays or opportunities to win, and can be redeemed for prizes if 

w 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 5 

predesignated winning results are revealed. That prizes are awarded for points 

'Cu*/ accumulated over eighty plays, rather than for each individual play on the card, is 

immaterial. In this, the cards are similar in their play to both to pull tab dispensing 

machines and to electronic card readers that read multiple games on a card. In each 

case, players are effectively playing, and are paid for, the value of the card as a whole. 

That Version 2 includes a scratch off pull tab with a vinyl, rather than a paper, covering 

is likewise immaterial. See, letter to Native American Indian Enterprises, Inc., May 23, 

1994. 

Terhologic Aids or Electronic Facsimiles 

The question of classification thus reduces to whether the two versions of the cards are 

technologic aids to the game of pull tabs or are electronic facsimiles of that game of 

chance. Ina relevant part, the Commission's regulations define a technologic aid as 

equipment that 

(1) assists a player or the playing of a game; [and] 

(2) is not an electronic or electromechanical facsimile.. .. 

25 C.F.R $ 502.7(a). Versioin 1, and the electronic component of the Version 2, easily 

satisfjl the first requirement. One can easily imagine, for example, the cards making pull 

tabs easier to play for a patron with limited dexterity in his or her fingers. The question 

..-J thus becomes whether the cards are electronic facsimiles. 

The Commission's regulations define facsimile, in relevant part, as "a game played in an 

electronic or electromechanical format that replicates a game of chance by incorporating 

all of the characteristics of the game ...." 25 C.F.R. 3 502.8. In Sycuan Band ofMission 

Indians v. Roache, 54 F.3d 535 (9* Cir 1994), the Ninth Circuit was faced with the 

question whether the "Autotab Model 101 electronic pull tab dispenser" was a Class I11 

facsimile or a Class I1 aid. Icl. at 541-543. The Autotab was a wholly-electronic 

implementation of pull tabs. Patrons played at a video terminal which displayed a video 

representation of a pull tab a.nd electronically revealed concealed numbers. There was an 

electronic deal containing a finite number of pull tabs, with pre-determined winning and 

losing tabs, stored in a centrail computer and passed to the video terminal for play. Ibid 

The Ninth Circuit had no difficulty finding the Autotab to be an electronic facsimile: 

"the pull tab machines in issue here are not, in our view, readily distinguishable" from 

paper pull tabs. Id. at 543. The machines, in other words, retained all of the fundamental 

characteristics of the paper version of the game - "a pre-determined and known number 

of winning tickets from a finite pool of tickets with known prizes; when all tickets have 

been played, all the prizes will have been awarded." Id at 541. 

Similarly, in Cabazon Band, above, the D.C. Circuit found another wholly electronic 

version of pull tabs to be a Class I11 facsimile. This game, like the Autotab, had a 

"& 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 6 

computer that "randomly selects a card for the gambler, pulls the tab at the gambler's 

1-J direction, and displays the result on [a video] screen. The computer version . . . has a 

fixed number of winning cards in each deal." Id. at 635. This, the D.C. Circuit found, 

exactly replicated paper pull tabs and was thus a Class I11 facsimile. Id. at 636. 

Here too, the cards exactly replicate paper pull tabs. There is a finite deal; there is a predetermined number of winning and losing electronic cards; there are pre-determined 

results for each card that are electronically stored and electronically revealed. In short, 

the cards are electronic facsimiles because the pull tab game exists only electronically. 

It is true that unlike the networked systems in Sycuan Bandand Cabazon Band, the 

cards must be purchased and redeemed at a retail station. Even so, all characteristics of 

the game of pull tabs are el'ectronic. Purchase and redemption, in other words, are not 

essential characteristics of tlhe game. One could, for example, play the same pull tabs 

game for free in a promotion or tournament. Further, the Autotab system did not redeem 

the electronic pull tabs for the player. The system provided a voucher that the player had 

to cash in at a retail station. Sycuan Band, 54 F.3d at 541. This did not stop the Ninth 

Circuit from holding that Autotab is a Class I11 facsimile. So too here. I conclude that 

Version 1 of the cards is an electronic facsimile under 25 C.F.R. $502.8 and does not 

satisfy the elements of a technologic aid in 25 C.F.R fj 502.7(a). Version 1 is therefore 

Class 111 under 25 U.S.C. $ 2703(8). 

w Version 2 of the cards, howe:ver, is Class 11. The reasons are best illustrated by Diamond 

Game Enterprises K Reno, 1230 F.3d 365 (D.C. Cir. 2000). The machine at issue there 

was the Lucky Tab I1 pull tabs dispenser. When activated, the machine cut a paper pull 

tab from a roll of some 7,500 cards and dropped it a tray for the player. As it was 

traveling, the machine read ;a bar code on the back of the card and displayed the winning 

or losing result on a video screen using the spinning reels of a slot machine. Regardless of 

the display, the player still had to redeem winning cards from a clerk. Id at 367-368. 

The D.C. Circuit specifically rejected the Government's argument that the machine was 

a Class 111 facsimile: 

The game is in the paper rolls, not . . . in a computer.. . . For players using 

the Lucky Tab 11, the machine functions as an aid--it "helps or supports," 

or "assists" the paper game of pull-tabs. Without the paper rolls, the 

machine has no gaming function at all. It is, in essence, little more than a 

high-tech dealer. Viewed this way, the game played with the Lucky Tab I1 

is not a facsimile of palper pull-tabs, it is paper pull-tabs. 

Id at 370. Accord, Seneca-Cayuga, above, 327 F.3d at 1042-1043 (finding the Magical 

Irish pull tab dispenser, a substantively identical machine, to be Class I1 for these same 

reasons). (Emphasis in the ori,@nal.) 
Walker, Electronic Game Cards, p. 7 

Version 2 of the cards is no different. With the addition of the scratch off pull tab, the 

* I-''game no longer exists only electronically, as with Version 1. The game now exists in a 

tangible medium. The player has the option to play pull tabs through the tangible, 

scratch off card or through: the electronic card. Since the result is identical whichever way 

the patron chooses to play, the electronic card is an entertaining display that is not 

necessary to the play of the game and that the player can ignore if he or she so chooses. 

As in Diamond Game, the game is in the tangible pull tab. 

Accordingly, I conclude that Version 2 of the cards is not an electronic facsimile. It satisfies 

all three elements of technologic aid under 25 U.S.C. 5 502.7(a). It is therefore Class 11, 

provided that it is played in the same location as bingo. 25 U.S.C. $2703(7)(A)(i)(III). 

If you have any questions or require anything further, please contact Michael Gross, Staff 

Attorney, at 202-632-7003. 

Sincerely, 

Penny J. Coleman 

Acting General Counsel