Bingo Clones Ruled Illegal

Three bingo games that were targets of a sheriff’s raid on the Sycuan Indian Bingo Palace east of El Cajon last August were declared illegal forms of gambling Wednesday by a San Diego Municipal Court judge.

Judge Nicholas Kasimatis, saying he was taking “a narrow, traditional view of bingo, approved by the voters and intended by the (state) Legislature,” ruled that “horserace bingo,” “bingo-jack,” and “do it yourself bingo” are more like keno and blackjack than bingo.

The ruling means that Donald Valverde, general manager of the Florida-based Pan American Management Company that runs bingo games on many Indian reservations throughout the country, will face two counts of running a lottery and illegal gambling.

A Sept. 24 trial date in Municipal Court for Valverde was set, but Sycuan attorney Howard Frank said Kasimatis’ decision calling the games illegal will be appealed to Superior Court, probably in three or four weeks.

Kasimatis said he made a narrow interpretation of the statutes defining bingo.

“It’s my view that when the voters said they wanted bingo, the bingo they played at churches is what they had in mind,” Kasimatis said. “Bingo in any other context, I think, is contrary to that statute.”

The judge then outlined his criteria for legal bingo games, saying preprinted cards must be used and that there must be a winner in every game and standard odds of winning that don’t change as the game progresses.

Casino-style gambling is prohibited under state criminal laws, but in 1974 a voter-approved state constitutional amendment legalized bingo, a popular church fund-raiser, under certain restrictions, like $250 maximum jackpots. The state Legislature enacted a civil statute the following year that outlined how those games were to be played.

Indian reservations, however, are bound only by federal and state criminal laws, not state civil laws like those governing bingo. Therefore, the only regulatory power that local authorities have is to insure that the reservation games conform to the state’s definition of bingo.

“There is a jungle arising out of the fact that the statutory definition of bingo is a very broad definition,” Kasimatis said. “Each view (of the legality of the Sycuan’s games) is correct; it gets down to what type of view you take of bingo, narrow or broad.”