DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9707010248

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   90 lines

BINGO HALLS CAN OPEN DOORS TO ALL AGES AGAIN

Kids can't buy a lottery ticket or bet on the horses.

But starting today they can try their luck at another form of gambling: bingo.

New state regulations that take effect today make charity gambling legal at any age. Children as young as age 11 can volunteer in bingo halls all across Virginia.

State Charitable Gaming Commission Chairman Edward J. Fuhr is none too pleased.

``I believe fairly strongly that children should not be gambling in Virginia,'' Fuhr said. ``Bingo is, in many respects, a form of gambling.''

Once there was a patchwork of local laws governing traditional bingo, instant bingo ticket sales and raffles, and children often played.

When the state Charitable Gaming Commission started its oversight of bingo one year ago, it banished children under 18 from bingo halls. The regulatory pendulum swung back during the last session of the General Assembly, when legislators passed a law allowing children in bingo halls, in effect overriding the commission.

Children must be accompanied by their parents or guardians and must produce a picture identification card to volunteer at the hall, according to new regulations.

The reputation of bingo has been damaged by criminal indictments handed down in June against a former bingo manager of a Deep Creek youth baseball league and three others for an alleged embezzlement scheme. Some local operators and players said loosening the age restrictions will only damage the game's image further.

Janis Dryer, president of the Animal Assistance League in Chesapeake said she would question the parent who brought a 10- or 11-year-old to her bingo game at Independence Hall Bingo in Virginia Beach.

``I mean, I've seen kids sleeping in the car while their mom plays bingo, .

Local charitable groups will have the option of setting their own age restrictions. During the last General Assembly session, bingo groups lobbied to allow children back into their games, citing the need for families to be together.

The state commission made a good decision when it allowed younger children to work in bingo halls, according to the president of a Virginia Beach nonprofit service organization for disadvantaged youth.

``I think it's a good ruling and helpful to a lot of organizations. Getting volunteers is always tough,'' said Roscoe Brown, president of Youth Services Corp. Youth Services' twice-a-week bingo game has been played at Portsmouth Tower Auditorium since November, but Brown said the organization is undecided about permitting minors to play.

Charitable bingo, instant bingo tickets and raffles generate annual sales of about $215 million statewide. Organizations in South Hampton Roads collected almost $50 million in gross revenues from gambling in fiscal 1996, with about $3.7 million going to charity during the same period.

Some of the other streamlined regulations - which are effective today but may be revised through December - include a reduction in audit fees paid to the state by bingo operations and a requirement that organizations publish how much of their bingo take is used for charitable purposes.

Children traveling on North George Washington Highway aren't welcome to gamble at Colonial Downs off-track betting parlor.

But the doors at Brentwood Hall, just down the street, are wide open to teen-agers such as Connie Dale's 16-year-old daughter, Jennifer Bennett. Dale, 41, of Portsmouth, plays every Monday morning at Brentwood in the game run by Deep Creek Baseball Association.

``She was my bingo buddy,'' she said of her daughter, who regularly played with her mother two summers ago, when it was legal. ``I think it's an individual decision for parents about whether to bring their kids.''

Dale gambles in Brentwood's hangar-like building, where a layer of rising smoke has yellowed the ceiling tiles. As hundreds of eyes watch one of a dozen TV screens for the next numbered ball, the crowd's silence is broken by the whir from the smoke filters above or the occasional cry of a volunteer hawking special games.

Dale's tablemate at Monday's game, Shirley Rigdon of Virginia Beach, thinks it's no place for children.

``This week, they start the kids, don't they?'' Rigdon said to her sister and sister-in-law. ``Whoever made that up should be shot.''

Opinion was equally divided among players gathered outside.

``Those kids are going to do what they want to do, so let them inside,'' Chesapeake resident Helen Sinclair said.

But another player, Karen Wynn of Norfolk, said she was appalled.

``They've got to draw the line: child, adult, child, adult,'' Wynn said, her hands chopping the air. ``It's bad enough that I gamble.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THE CHANGES

Charity gambling is legal at any age, but children must be with

parents or guardians.

Children as young as age 11 can volunteer in bingo halls, but

they must have a picture ID.

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