DATE: Wednesday, September 10, 1997         TAG: 9709100583

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   51 lines

FUND-RAISERS SOUND OFF ABOUT NEW, STRICTER BINGO REGULATIONS

Bingo's back.

The state's Charitable Gaming Commission held its only public hearing in the region at Old Dominion University on Tuesday night to hear comments on proposed changes governing charitable gambling operations.

By Oct. 1, about 600 bingo operators in Virginia will have to comply with stringent new regulations regarding how much of their proceeds goes to charity. And the amount will increase each fiscal year for the next three years.

Those increases in bingo organizations' ``use of proceeds'' worries Steven Doughtie, one of the 30 people who came to give their two cents.

``We spend every dime we have on the kids,'' said Doughtie, president of South Norfolk Boys Baseball in Chesapeake.

In South Hampton Roads, charitable gambling organizations collected almost $50 million in gross receipts in the 1996 fiscal year. After paying expenses and prize awards, the groups spent about $3.7 million of that money on their charitable purposes.

But with stronger state oversight, commission officials said, the average use of proceeds has risen from 2 percent of gross gambling receipts to more than 10 percent.

Many organizations bemoaned the audit fees they must pay to the state - now at 1 1/2 percent - and the state's refusal to let organizations deduct some expenses.

``Y'all call it an audit fee; I just call it a tax,'' said Doughtie, whose 450-player organization has been calling bingo numbers for the past 25 years.

Lisa Youngman of the American Red Cross, Tidewater Chapter, which pulls in more than $1 million in gross receipts, said her organization would love to increase its charitable funding from bingo. But competitive pressure from other games makes that almost impossible, she said.

South Norfolk's baseball organization pulled in $483,000 in gross receipts from bingo last year, Doughtie said. Still, with prize payouts, rent and other expenses, he said, it's a struggle to keep uniforms on the backs of players who sometimes don't even pay the $25 registration fee.

``Once we hit 10 percent,'' Doughtie said of the new use-of-proceeds requirement, ``we're shutting down.''

Tuesday night's heated debate over the new requirements came only days before the beginning of the trials of a former bingo manager, a bingo supplier and two associates, all for allegedly misappropriating up to $1 million in instant gaming tickets.

Jeffrey G. Moran of Baltimore, who was charged with embezzlement in connection with bingo supplies, is scheduled for trial starting Thursday in Chesapeake Circuit Court.

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