City a winner with charitable bingo revenue

By SYDNEY IGLEHEART, Citizen Reporter
01/14/2005


The city of Pasadena will be allocated $15,471.53 from charitable bingo for the third quarter of 2004. These allocations were given to more than 150 local jurisdictions in the state of Texas. They totaled $5,598,544.35, which is 8.77 percent higher than the same period one year ago.

"Thanks to the leaders in these local jurisdictions that see the social and charitable value of bingo, long-time fans, as well as new charitable bingo players can enjoy themselves playing bingo all they want," said Billy Atkins, charitable bingo director of the Texas Lottery Commission.
Harris County, which received $120,455, was among the top five counties to receive the highest allocation.
The allocations are a result of prize fees collected by charitable bingo organizations from players winning bingo prizes in July, August and September of 2004. Cities and counties that imposed the gross receipt tax on local-option basis on or before Jan. 1, 1993, receive quarterly payments of up to 2.5 percent of the prizes won by Bingo players in their jurisdictions.
A 2.5 percent share of the prize fees also goes to the state, which is directed to a non-dedicated account in the General Revenue Fund.
There are 1,329 conductors of charitable bingo in Texas. Players won a total of $104,429,138 in prizes in the third quarter of 2004, with $74.9 million of that from regular prizes and $29.5 million from instant pull tabs.
For more information about charitable bingo in Texas, go the official Charitable Bingo Web site at www.txbingo.org.
©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2005