L.A. Suspends Bingo Permit of Largest, Richest Game in Town

Los Angeles officials Wednesday ordered a 30-day shutdown of a West Valley bingo parlor that in the past has staged the city’s largest and most lucrative games. They accused the game’s operators of misspending money earmarked for charity.

The city Social Service Department suspended the bingo operating license of the charitable group called Identity, an action that delayed plans to open a new parlor this weekend in the Warner Center section of Woodland Hills.

Identity officials said they plan to challenge the suspension in court Friday.

Violations Alleged

The suspension was ordered by Robert Burns, director of the department’s bingo division. Burns charged that Identity leaders violated city and state laws that require the use of bingo revenues for charitable purposes and prohibit game workers from being paid.

Edith Ryan, the founder of Identity, characterized the alleged violations as minor. She complained that the shutdown will seriously hamper work planned by her group.

Identity helps finance activities and facilities for physically disabled youth, she said.

“A suspension will jeopardize innumerable programs that are under way,” Ryan said late Wednesday. “A suspension will put us back to square one in terms of work we’re doing.”

The suspension follows a 10-month investigation of Identity by city bingo officials. Last year bingo regulators moved to revoke the group’s license after charging Identity with 10 violations of state and city laws.

Permit Revocation Blocked

Identity lawyers went to court last month to block the revocation. Superior Court Judge Jack T. Ryburn dismissed eight of the charges as being technical in nature and described the city’s revocation move as excessively harsh.

Burns said his suspension order was based on the remaining two charges. Those complaints centered on a $20,000 loan made by Identity officials to the group’s accountant and on the way it bought supplies.

According to Burns, Ryan gave an unsecured $20,000 loan of charity money to her accountant. Burns charged that the loan was too speculative to be considered a legitimate investment and was a violation of a state law that requires that bingo receipts be used for charitable purposes only.

The purchasing complaint involved materials bought by Identity from a supply company that Burns asserted is co-owned and co-operated by the Identity game’s volunteer bingo caller. That violated a state law prohibiting game organizers from receiving profits from games, he said.

The city’s bingo ordinance requires that all provisions of the state bingo law be met.

Ryan said the loan to the accountant had been repaid and purchases from the game-caller’s family business were curtailed after she learned of the caller’s outside activities.

‘Going to Protest This’

“I’m not going to wait until the middle of April to open,” she said of the shutdown order. “We’re going to protest this.”

She charged that the suspension is part of a campaign of harassment the city has instituted against Identity on orders of West Valley City Councilwoman Joy Picus.

Ryan said city foot-dragging already had caused a four-month delay in issuance of an occupancy permit on the newly leased Identity headquarters and 878-seat bingo parlor at 6051 De Soto Ave.

As a result, her charity has lost about $100,000 in unnecessary rent payments as well as $500,000 in remodeling costs that otherwise could have been repaid over time, she said.

Picus and other city officials have denied the harassment charge.

Called a Front for Game

On Tuesday, however, Picus said she feels Identity is nothing more than a front organization for the bingo game.

“I don’t believe that anybody is being helped,” she told The Times. “And let me say I’m not the only one who harbors deep suspicions on what’s going on there.”