Thank you sooo much JHB!! You have saved me a lot of time and energy! Bless You! I love the support that is shared on this web site! [img]tongue.gif[/img]
The Texas Lottery Commission governs these types of activities in Texas. Information is available on their website (www.lottery.state.tx.us
) under "Charitable Bingo". They also have a list of authorized suppliers. The fee is $25 to get a license. As I said, the paperwork is fairly intense the first time around, but subsequent years aren't too bad.
Hey JHB, where do you go to get the paperwork for the state of Texas?? Does it cost anything? Where did you get the disposable paper cards? so many questions? :confused:
We also have bingo once a year at our Spring event. It's one of several activities, but very popular. You definitely need to check your state laws on this one. In our state (Texas), it's regulated as gambling. Basically the only exceptions for us are something like 1)family members playing in their home 2) a teacher inside a classroom, or 3) a retirement home. Beyond that, if you play bingo (and any any money is raised by admission or selling cards), you have to have a license. There's a special category for Charitable Bingo. The paperwork was fairly intense the first year, but the renewal wasn't too bad. Your state may be different, but do check into it.
We use the disposable paper cards (crayons as markers), show the master number card on an overhead transparency, and give away donated prizes. It's popular and easy to run. It's not intended to be a huge fundraiser for us. I think it brings in $500-$700.
Our Bingo Night was a Family Fun event. We did not do it as a fundraiser. We did have several merchants (Walmart, Bestbuy, ToysRUs) give us money and prizes to award that night. You can ask your local large and small merchants for prizes such as oil change, haircuts, free dinner, etc. We had a local restaurant give us use of their helium machine for balloons. Most of them donate--remind them its a tax writeoff, since you are nonprofit. Just give them a copy of your form.
We had a great turnout! It was alot of fun.
Hope that helps,
Lisa @ Tx
we usually make around $2000 from bingo between the bakesale, the raffle tickets and the bingo cards and marker things. People like coming to this event because it's fun. It's the one event that everyone wants to have every year. [img]smile.gif[/img] (and are willing to chair) maggie
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