Wyoming Constitution; Article 1, Section 17...The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless, when in the case of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

 

 

February 2, 2005

 

 

            As the end of the week approaches, the legislature is coming up on one of its big deadlines. If a bill has not made it out of its first committee by Friday, then it is a goner for this Session. This is where a committee chairperson has the power!

 

            The issue of bingo has been a hot one this year, so let’s have a chat about that. Naturally a little history is in order.

 

            In the early 70’s the legislature a bingo exemption was added to the existing law prohibiting gambling, the idea was to give charities a legal way to raise money for their activities. The law that was passed was very vague in many areas however.

 

            So society moved on, but the law stayed the same. In the mid 1990’s an effort was made to update the bingo exemption, but that bill went nowhere. In the meantime the ability of traditional bingo to raise money for charities had decreased, but electronic bingo had become the money producer. 

 

            Electronic bingo became the money producer that charities depended on for funding many good activities; all around the state citizens are receiving services based on this flow of money.

 

            In recent months there has been several court cases related to the issue of electronic bingo, and the electronic bingo-ers have been the losers. However there has not been a ruling by the State Supreme Court on the issue, only by a District Court, so there is still an element of uncertainty in the legal arena.

 

            Now comes the legislature with two bills relating to bingo, one to outlaw electronic bingo for sure and the other to regulate and allow electronic bingo to proceed for a year while changes are pondered.

 

            At this point, the idea of allowing electronic bingo to continue has gone down the tubes, the bill to do that was sponsored by Representative Pat Childers and died in the House Travel Committee.

 

            The bill to outlaw electronic bingo is proceeding; it has passed the House and is in the Senate Committee, you can track its progress and see the votes by going here…

 

 http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2005/digest/HB0062.htm

 

            If it passes and becomes a law, the many beneficiaries of electronic bingo money are out of luck for sure. If it fails, the issue will still be up in the air and the electronic bingo folks will seek a ruling from the State Supreme Court.

 

            And so it goes………….

 

Keith