Opinion ID: 6986352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: “The Game is Won by the First Person”

Text: As stated, IGRA defines bingo as, inter alia, a game “(III) in which the game is won by the first person covering a previously designated arrangement of numbers on such cards.” 25 U.S.C. § 2703(7)(A)(i); see also 25 C.F.R. § 502.3. The Government contends the “continuous-win” feature (or “interim win”, as Multimedia puts it) of CornerMania does not comply with IGRA’s third requirement, 7 because (i) CornerMania can result in multiple payouts before the straight-line game ends; and (ii) each CornerMania payout does not depend on the number of other players receiving CornerMania prize money but rather on the number of corners covered on each draw and on the number of balls drawn since the game began. For these two reasons, maintains the Government, MegaMania is not “won by the first person covering a previously designated arrangement of numbers or designations on such cards,” 25 U.S.C. § 2703(7)(A)(i)(III). 8 The question before us, though, is whether MegaMania, not one of its constituent components, satisfies IGRA’s statutory criteria for class II gaming. Thus, MegaMania as a whole is “the game” to which § 2703(7)(A)(i)(III) pertains. Turning to the question of whether Me-gaMania satisfies § 2703(7)(A)(i)(III), as an initial matter, there is no reason that the “previously designated arrangement” to which the statute refers must be a straight line. Indeed, the statutory description just quoted quite clearly permits any pattern to yield a prize, as long as the pattern is “previously designated”. Moreover, even if we were to resort for this purpose to the inquiry into “essential” bingo we have already rejected, we would not rule otherwise. As an affidavit submitted to the district court by an FBI racketeering investigator attests, “[i]n the game commonly known as bingo .... [ejxamples of pre-designated winning patterns include the traditional straight line, four corners, letters X or L, or covering the full card.” As for the ultimate question of whether MegaMania is “won” by the first person covering a previously designated arrangement, assuming that in a given game of MegaMania players win several rounds of CornerMania before the straight-line game ends, it would appear that each such player has “won” by “covering a previously designated arrangement.” The first focus of this issue is nothing less than the meaning of the word “win”: Can someone “win” a game even though the other players may also “win”? That is, does “win” necessarily mean “beat”? The answer, according to Webster’s II Neiv College Dictionary, is that “win” can mean “beat” but need not: That dictionary’s first definition of “win” is “ ‘[t]o achieve victory over others in a competition or contest,’ ” Webster’s II New College Dictionary 1264 (1995), while the second is “ ‘[t]o receive [money] as a prize or a reward for performance.’” Id.; see also 20 Oxford English Dictionary 361 (2d ed.1989) (giving as one definition, “[t]o gain by effort or competition, as a prize or reward, or in gaming or betting, as a wager, etc.”). So, for example, in an instant lottery game, everyone whose scratch card entitles them to ten dollars “wins” a prize, with no effect on how many others may win or in what amount. Because “winning” does not necessarily entail vanquishing one’s opponents, the meaning of “win” in the statute is at worst ambiguous. In light of that ambiguity, we look for indications that Congress intended to preclude the award of multiple prizes in a single game of bingo. The record in this case establishes that, in addition to the usual straight-line prize, some traditional live bingo games also make interim payouts to players who cover the corners of their cards; we presume those players believe that they have “won” prizes, even though the game has not ended and others may “win” as much or more. Additionally, as already stated, IGRA explicitly designates instant bingo as a class II game if it is played “in the same location” as a bingo game. 25 U.S.C. § 2703(7)(A)(i). That Congress would permit this variant of bingo, yielding interim prizes while the main game is ongoing, indicates it did not intend to forbid interim prizes like those CornerMania awards during a game of MegaMania. In light of the foregoing considerations, it is telling that IGRA does not state the game has to end when the first person wins anything. Had Congress intended to proscribe interim prizes, the statute could have been drafted to say that “the game ends” instead of “the game is won,” or could have included an express restriction that only one prize be given during the game. 9 The sum of the matter is that the IGRA requirement that a “bingo” game be “won” by the “first player” covering a pre-desig-nated pattern does not mean the game must end when one player does so, so that everyone else wins nothing. We conclude, therefore, that MegaMania is “won by the first person covering a previously designated arrangement of numbers ... on [-his or her] cards,” 25 U.S.C. § 2703(7) (A) (i) (I II), within the meaning of IGRA.