The following are the classes of bingo licenses:

(1) CLASS AA: An organization operating a bingo game offering prizes with a minimum payout of fifty thousand dollars a session shall obtain a Class AA bingo license at a cost of four thousand dollars. The prizes offered at any one session may not exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The holder of a Class AA license may not conduct more than one bingo session a month.

(2) CLASS B: An organization operating a bingo game offering prizes, which do not exceed eight thousand dollars a session, shall obtain a Class B bingo license at a cost of one thousand dollars. The holder of a Class B license may not conduct more than five bingo sessions a week.

(3) CLASS C: An organization operating a bingo game and offering prizes of twenty dollars or less a game during a single session shall obtain a Class C bingo license at no cost. However, the organization may offer a prize in cash or merchandise of no more than one hundred fifty dollars for six jackpot games a session. The department, in its discretion, may allow certain Class C licenses to use hard bingo cards instead of the paper cards required by this article.

To qualify to play on hard cards, a bingo game conducted by a Class C license must meet the following criteria:

(a) be operated solely by volunteers;

(b) the person managing, conducting, or operating the bingo game must not be paid or otherwise be compensated and must be a designated member of the organization;

(c) remuneration, including wages or other compensation, must not be made to any individual or corporation;

(d) all equipment used to operate a game of bingo, including chairs, tables, and other equipment, must be owned by the charity;

(e) the organization may lease the building directly from the owner of the building or own the building in which the game of bingo is played. The organization may not lease or sublease the building from a person who is not the owner;

(f) the only expenses allowed to be paid from the proceeds of the game are utility bills, prizes, purchases of cards, payments for the lease of a building, purchases of equipment required to operate a game of bingo, and the charitable purposes of the organization;

(g) one hundred percent of the net proceeds from the operation of the game must be used for charitable purposes.

(4) CLASS D: A person, organization, or corporation desiring to conduct a bingo game at a fair as defined in Section 12-21-3920 and who offers prizes for each game of no more than fifty dollars in merchandise shall obtain only a temporary Class D bingo license at a cost of one hundred dollars for not more than ten days or two hundred dollars for more than ten days. The department, in its discretion, may allow certain Class D licensees to use hard bingo cards in lieu of the paper cards required by this article.

(5) CLASS E: An organization which has a game of bingo and operates exclusively by bona fide members who are residents of this State and who do so on a strictly volunteer basis and whose gross bingo proceeds do not exceed forty thousand dollars a calendar quarter, and where prizes do not exceed four thousand dollars a session shall obtain a Class E license from the department at a cost of five hundred dollars. If the gross bingo proceeds for any calendar quarter exceed thirty thousand dollars, the person or organization within ten days is required to obtain a Class B license from the department and comply with all requirements of a Class B license. The holder of a Class E license may not conduct more than one bingo session a week.

(6) CLASS F: An organization which has a game of bingo and operates exclusively by bona fide members who are residents of this State and who do so on a strictly volunteer basis and whose gross proceeds do not exceed forty thousand dollars a calendar quarter, and where prizes do not exceed four thousand dollars a session and where bingo proceeds are only used to pay the organization's utility bills, to pay charges for bingo paper, and for the charitable purpose of the organization, shall obtain a Class F license from the department at the cost of one hundred dollars. The holder of a Class F license may not conduct more than one bingo session a week.

HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 449, Section 1; 1998 Act No. 285, Section 4A; 1998 Act No. 334, Section 3; 1998 Act No. 340, Section 4; 1998 Act No. 387, Section 6; 2002 Act No. 334, Section 16F, eff October 1, 2002.