Schwarzenegger Terminates Charity Bingo In California

Although this is not UK bingo news, it is still worth a mention. To preserve a monopoly on slot machines that is held by Indian Tribes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger aka "The Terminator" (now in more ways that one).

Has signed off a bill that will ban the use of electronic bingo machines, many of which are used by charities in their fund raising efforts. However it is not all bad news as they will still be able to run bingo at multiple sites by means of AV (audio visual) equipment.

The CEO of the United Cerebral Palsy of Sacramento says this bill has served the interest of powerful tribes at the expense of charities and many small community based charities will suffer.

This charity is going to have to make major cuts and they would lose as much as $42 000 every six months from their bingo hall that operates two days a week. You can't just find a replacement for $230,000 overnight," Bergman said. He said the charity would lose $42,000 every six months operating their bingo hall two days a week.

I don't know about you but I am happy that this is not a UK story, something like this would never happen here. Since when did the capitalist money grabbing of gaming operators take precedence over the welfare of community based charities.

It is not as if the government does enough to support these charities as it is, otherwise they wouldn't need to rely on bingo operations to supplement their funding.