The ordinance, which does not affect the four instant bingo operations now in Hamilton, will take effect in mid-August. Noella Caprella, executive director of Kitty Comfort Corner, a nonprofit cat shelter that operates a legal instant bingo on High Street, said the ordinance is badly needed. They were here one day and gone tomorrow. You didn't even know what charity the money was supposed to go to. Pull-tag bingo games have become popular.
People buy the tickets and then find out if they won any money by pulling off the tabs.
We've seen this become a new and largely unregulated form of gambling in Ohio. Ohio gambling laws exempt bingo, but require all proceeds not used for expenses to go to a charity that has been established for at least two years. Workers must be volunteers. Skimming profits from instant bingo has resulted in criminal charges recently in the Tristate. He and three other defendants were sentenced to probation for defrauding the bingo operation at the Kneseth Israel Congregation in Roselawn.