City Delays Action on Tighter Bingo Rules

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday delayed imposing new regulations on groups running bingo games after a police captain complained that they had been “watered down” by Councilman Richard Alatorre.

Capt. James J. Docherty told the council that the regulations, as proposed by Alatorre, would do little to help police crack down on so-called “paper charities” that officials say have forced some small church-basement games out of business. Docherty said he was taken by surprise when he saw Alatorre’s recommendations.

Consultation Needed

Docherty asked for a postponement “to get our arguments together” against the regulations, which would restrict many aspects of bingo operations but would not impose some of the bookkeeping and other requirements sought by the Police Department. The council voted to delay a vote for two weeks.

Specifically, the Police Department wants the city to require bingo operators to document all sales on a cash register, to set aside a specific percentage of profits for charity and to guarantee that bingo income is not the primary source of revenue. There are 80 licensed bingo operators in the city, and they collected a total of $42 million last year.

“We still don’t have a paper trail that we can follow,” Docherty said of Alatorre’s ordinance. “It would be meaningless as far as we are concerned, as far as enforcement of the law, to prevent any kind of abuse by large corporations that want to get into the bingo business.”

Alatorre consented to the delay, but he lashed out at Docherty after the vote for “making the appearance” that the Police Department was kept in the dark about his proposal. Later, in an interview, Alatorre denied that the regulations had been “watered down,” and he said they had been discussed at public hearings.

“What they wanted is impractical,” Alatorre said. “I don’t think they understand bingo. Can you imagine 400 people having to wait until people went through the lines of a cash register to purchase pull tabs? . . . The Police Department had ample opportunity to make their pitch, and they didn’t prevail.”

Alatorre’s ordinance would limit bingo sessions to 350 people, allow a maximum of 40 games a night at each facility, require bingo supply vendors to get a city license and establish a bingo advisory board that would look into other restrictions and reforms.

Robert Burns, general manager of the Social Service Department, which regulates bingo operations in the city, supported the Alatorre ordinance, saying it would be “a significant improvement” over existing controls and would have “a chilling effect” on big-time gambling operations.