NATIONAL 

INDIAN 

j.f GAMING 

" COMMISSION 

AUG - 9 1999 

Bertram E. Hirsch, Esq. 

81-33 258th Street 

Floral Park, NY 1 1004 

Dear Mr. Hirsch: 

This letter responds to your request for a game classification opinion of National Indian 

Bingo on behalf of your client, Parker Gaming, Inc. Based on the written information provided 

by Parker Gaming and your oral representations to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the 

NIGC has concluded that National Indian Bingo is a Class III game. 

National Indian Bingo is a game that utilizes machines that dispense bingo cards, record 

the time and location where the bingo card was purchase, record the pattern of the card, and 

transmit that information to a central computer. These machines would be located at several 

Indian gaming facilities and would be linked to a central computer which will be located on Indian 

Ill -1'' 

lands. The bingo game will be played once a week. A player must buy the bingo card at an 

Indian gaming facility one hour prior to the weekly bingo draw. Each player must fill out a form 

providing his or her name and telephone number. Each bingo card sold will be also designate the 

Indian gaming facility where the bingo card is sold as the designated agent (proxy) of the player 

regardless of whether the player intends to be present for the game. 

National Indian Bingo will conduct a live bingo game once a week at one of the Indian 

gaming facility. As the balls are drawn by a bingo blower, the central computer will relay that 

information to another type of machine, the digital reader board, which will display the prize 

amount, the progressive prize amount, and the numbers that are drawn. Digital reader boards will 

also be located at the Indian gaming facilities that are participating in the game. 

The central computer will stop the game when a bingo card wins and will identi@ the 

location where the bingo card was sold. The player has up to 30 days to claim the prize. The 

player may verify whether he or she won by calling a toll-fiee number. National Bingo or the 

gaming facility would also try to locate the winner. If the player fails to claim the prize within 30 

days, the prize amount would be added to the progressive prize amount. 

National Indian Bingo does not meet the statutory criteria for "the game of chance 

commonly known as bingo," and is therefore a Class I11 game. First, the Indian Gaming 

Regulatory Act (IGRA, 25 U.S.C. $2701, et seq. (1988), describes the play of bingo as a game in 

1441 L STREET, N.W. 9TH FLOOR WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005 TEL.: 202-632-7003 FAX: 202-632-7066 
uru* which the card holders are covering the numbers during the draw of the numbers.' In contrast to 

this statutory process, National Indian Bingo allows winners to be absent during the draw and to 

cover the numbers retroactively. Second, IGRA contemplates that each game will have a inner.^ 

Because the game is stopped by a machine if it appears that a card in play has won, a National 

Indian Bingo game may end without a winner. It is reasonably foreseeable that the purchaser of a 

winning card could fail to return to a game site within the thirty day period to cover the card and 

claim the prize, and, in that situation, the game would not be won. 

The difference between the play of bingo as described in IGRA and the play of National 

Indian Bingo are not simply cosmetic. The player in a National Indian Bingo game who purchases 

a ticket, then returns to the gaming site to collect winnings, does not experience the real time 

player interaction which characterizes bingo. Such an individual is, in fact, playing a game which 

resembles a Class I11 lottery (purchasing a chance, then cashing in the winning ticket) far more 

than it resembles "the game commonly known as bingo." 

If you have any questions concerning this letter, please call Mai Dinh at 202-632-7003. 

General Counsel 

I". . .the holder of the card covers such numbers or designation when objects. ..are drawn.. ." 

25 U. S.C. 5 2703(7)(A)(i)(II), emphasis added. 

2"...the game is won by the first person ..." 25 U.S.C. § 2703(a)(i)(III).