DATE: Wednesday, November 19, 1997 TAG: 9711190528SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER LENGTH: 318 lines
Workers say many operators
in Hampton Roads illegally pay ``volunteers'' and run scams.
A man who worked bingo across Hampton Roads for a dozen years says he andothers illegally earned thousands of dollars a year at games designed to raisemoney for charities.
The man, who is from Portsmouth and spoke only on the condition that he notbe named, estimated that he earned between $25,000 and $30,000 in some ofthose years. He offered a glimpse of the dark underbelly of bingo - smokyrooms where workers sometimes give winning tickets to favorite players andtrade bingo supplies for a cut of the winnings. In these rooms, players traderent and grocery money - even sell their food stamps - for more money tocontinue playing, he said.
Players desperate for a winning edge in a game have offered the bingoworker money, gifts and sexual favors. The worker said he has been followedhome and threatened by players angry that they had spent their rent money ormade a mistake and lost out on a $1,000 prize. In this world, he said,cheating is part of the game.
The bingo worker - who is young and says he was popular with players - saidhe knows a variety of methods
to cheat bingo players and even helped carry out some of them. He describedseveral ways to cheat:
In instant games:
Sell instant tickets without reporting to state regulators.
Open winning instant bingo cards in advance so they can later be handed topre-selected players who would share their winnings with workers.
Hold cards up to the light and read through the thin cardboard to pick outthe winners. Those winners can be handed out to specific people.
Find winning cards, often located in a particular section of the box, andsell those to friends or house players.
In regular games:
Give free bingo supplies, which typically cost players $20 to $30 a night,to friends and relatives in exchange for a share of any winnings.
Hiding money to pay workers:
Issue checks to bingo workers through a dummy cleaning company, then billthe charitable organization for ``cleaning expenses.''
Dispose of winning tickets on instant bingo so that there will be nowinner. The money collected for that game then can be used to pay workers.
The Portsmouth man said he is coming forward now to talk about cheatingbecause he has seen parents spending money on bingo instead of buying theirchildren basic necessities.
``Many times we bingo workers would collect money because we knew the kidsweren't going to have a Christmas or Thanksgiving, and Mom would be back thenext day playing bingo,'' he said.
Edward J. Fuhr, chairman of the Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission, saidTuesday that although most games are run legally, he suspects that payment ofworkers and cheating are more prevalent than people realize.
``I think there are a disturbing number of games in Virginia that have acriminal element preying on them,'' he said. ``We have a fairly sizable numberof games in Virginia that are taking in up to millions of dollars and are notgiving a penny back to charity. That's just ridiculous.''
The first hint of widespread illegal practices in bingo in Hampton Roadscame in September during the trial of George West, former bingo manager at theDeep Creek Baseball Association in Chesapeake.
``All your commercial halls are getting paid,'' West testified before hewas convicted of running an illegal gambling operation and winning by cheatingas part of a scheme to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from thebaseball organization.
He also was acquitted on seven counts of embezzlement and one count ofconspiracy to commit embezzlement. West is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
West testified that he made purchases of instant tickets off the books withcash and then used that money to pay workers. Except for those payments, allthe money from the tickets was turned over to Deep Creek, he testified.
He denied that he ever gave bingo player Rogelio Legarda, who brieflyworked as the league's accountant, any winning numbers in advance. Legarda,57, has since pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cheating at gamblingfor receiving advance knowledge of winning instant bingo tickets. A judgeordered Legarda to pay a $10,000 fine and banned him from playing bingo forthree years.
At West's trial, seven people testified that they were paid to work bingoat Deep Creek Baseball bingo, a practice forbidden by state law. Westtestified that he used money from the sale of instant game tickets to coversalaries for the workers, which cost about $54,000 between February 1996 andFebruary 1997.
The West trial did not put a chill on the Portsmouth man's offers: He saidhe was contacted not long after the trial with an offer of a bingo job paying$100 a session. He turned it down.
However, he said, the trial spurred him to come forward because West waspunished for activity that has been widespread.
``The finger is being pointed in one direction when I think it should bepointed in several,'' he said. ``I'd like to see bingo workers (legally) paid,or no one paid and all the money go to charity.''
The extent of illegal payments is unclear. Plenty of games are clean, asFuhr of the gaming commission pointed out. But where payments have occurred,the practice has gone on unchecked for years, according to testimony at West'strial and interviews with bingo workers.
Charitable gambling, including bingo, instant bingo tickets and raffles, isbig business in Hampton Roads, generating annual sales of about $215 millionstatewide, according to officials at the Virginia Charitable GamingCommission.
In South Hampton Roads, charitable gambling organizations collected about$50 million in gross revenues for the 1996 fiscal year. After paying expensesand prizes, the groups - including Elk lodges, PTAs, church groups, bands andother nonprofits - spent about $3.7 million of that money for charitablepurposes.
In recent weeks, The Virginian-Pilot has interviewed five people who arefamiliar with the operation of bingo. All echo West's charge about thepractice of paying workers. They say payment has been widespread in somesessions of bingo in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
Gaming commission officials, who uncovered abuses at Deep Creek Baseball,are investigating several organizations statewide for paying volunteers towork at bingo games. Fewer than five are targeted but commission membersdeclined to provide details.
It is illegal for charitable organizations to pay workers, a practice thatdiverts money from charitable works. Ever since charity bingo was legalizedstatewide in 1973, no part of the games' gross receipts could directly orindirectly benefit any member or employee of the charitable organization.
Gaming commission regulations cover everything from the amount of prizesgiven out, to the permits required for the games. Specific violations ofcharitable gaming law are misdemeanors. Illegal activity in charitable gamingcan result in felony charges, including embezzlement, conspiracy to embezzle,and conducting an illegal gambling operation.
Bingo workers are reluctant to be identified. Accepting pay is amisdemeanor, punishable by a fine or jail time or both. They also could facecivil lawsuits and punitive action from the Internal Revenue Service forfailing to report the income.
Yet some came forward with their stories because they feel the widespreadpractice is a serious problem.
Amy Ferrell, 26, of Suffolk, worked two games each week for Deep CreekBaseball for about a year. She received about $50 a session. Ferrell, whotestified at West's trial that she personally handed money to several workers,said area games couldn't run without paid workers.
``They're all getting paid,'' she said. ``Who has 10 hours free in theirweek to separate from their family for just volunteer work, especially iftheir kids are not involved in it? We can't get people to volunteer to cleanup our streets or to fight crime in the neighborhoods. Why would theyvolunteer to help a baseball organization?''
Such payment is common knowledge in bingo circles, Ferrell said.
``All the big ones are paying their workers,'' she said. ``Every bingoworker knows who gets paid.''
But many caution against painting all bingo games with the same broadbrush. Not all workers are paid.
``There are plenty of organizations that do rely strictly on volunteers whodon't get any compensation,'' said Tony Calogrides of Norfolk, who has playedbingo for about a dozen years but never worked the games. ``It's a terrificway to make money for the charities. Bingo is a wonderful game.''
The Portsmouth man, who knew the schemes to cheat at bingo, said he warnedpeople to steer clear of particular games.
``I told my friends and family not to play, because I knew they weren'tgoing to win,'' he said.
Although bingo is regulated by the gaming commission, game organizers havesimple strategies to escape their watchful eye, the worker said. Once helearned the tricks of the trade, he taught others how to foil regulators, hesaid.
In the dozen years he has worked at bingo in Hampton Roads, the Portsmouthman has held a variety of jobs in the bingo games.
Usually his payment came in cash.
But for several months, payments came in the form of checks drawn on aphony cleaning company. The charitable organization was then billed $500 amonth for the bogus cleaning service, he said. The money was used to payworkers.
Early in the worker's bingo career, his only compensation was a turkey atThanksgiving or a $25 gift certificate at Christmas. But as soon as he knewthe ropes, a job offer for pay came through. He took a job working the floor,selling special games for $30 or $35 a session.
At one point during the early 1990s, the bingo worker's main income camefrom working sessions six days a week, with only an odd job to supplement thatincome. The bingo jobs netted between $25,000 and $30,000 in some of thoseyears, the worker estimated, income not reported on tax returns. Hislegitimate job earned about $500 to $700 a month - not enough to live on, hesaid.
Those salary estimates don't count the tips from bingo winners or cash fromfriends and family members who shared their winnings. In some cases they weregiven their bingo packs - the supplies needed for the game - for free.
It was expected that each worker could bring a player as a guest who wouldplay on the worker's behalf, the worker said. In some cases as many as fivepeople played and shared their winnings with the worker in any given session.
He taught game workers how to distort attendance at their games, byunderreporting sales of bingo supplies to each player at the door. Thatpractice could be used to mislead regulators about how much to expect inrevenue, and the hidden revenue could be used to pay workers.
The worker took time off between bingo jobs because the work was tedious,but he was lured back by the prospect of quick money.
``Everybody knows the kind of money that can be made,'' the worker said.``The greed from the money they make makes everyone do stupid things.''
He has watched the destructive influence of bingo. He saw players -desperate to feed their bingo habit - willing to sell their bodies behind thehall or their food stamps out front, or to cash in their welfare or SocialSecurity checks, or to beg for money.
``I've seen little old ladies come in and spend their entire SocialSecurity check in one night on bingo,'' the worker said. ``You knew theycouldn't afford it.''
The worker was troubled by taking money from people, recalling a woman wholost $30,000 in instant tickets over about eight months at two area bingohalls.
Occasionally the workers would let the woman win a game, knowing that she'dturn around and give the money right back by playing and losing.
``If I were to confront her right now, I'd feel bad because she knows thetruth,'' the worker said. ``It always irritated me to be cheating thepeople.''
As far as his culpability, the bingo worker knows his behavior is hard tojustify.
``It eats away at you,'' the worker said. ``But the money's too good tostop.''
Working bingo is no easy job, said Ferrell, who worked games for Deep Creekyouth baseball. It's not the kind of work people would repeatedly volunteer todo.
``You see these people selling, sweating, putting up with superstitiouscustomers,'' she said. ``I don't know too many people who would do that forfree. . . . You add up all the people, all the halls - that's hundreds ofworkers, that's thousands of hours for supposedly volunteer work. It doesn'tadd up. You can't get it for free.''
Ferrell made it clear that she does know some bingo sessions at large hallsthat do not pay workers.
Like some other bingo workers, Ferrell favors payment of workers. A typicalfive-hour shift requires a lot of walking and responsibility, and being heldaccountable for large sums of money, she said.
``I don't think we were morally wrong for being paid,'' she said. ``I don'tfeel we should have worked unpaid, only because it was hard work and itbenefited the children.''
Without paid workers, the bingo games would have fallen apart, Ferrellpredicted.
``There would have been nothing in their account because they wouldn't havehad the volunteers,'' she said. ``They'd have to go back to selling doughnutsand cookies, and I don't think they could sell enough of them to make$100,000.''
Calogrides, the longtime bingo player who has never worked bingo, said thathe'd like to see legalization of payment of workers. He thinks the currentsystem encourages game operators to make illegal payments to get reliableworkers.
``I'd rather see some minimum compensation to ensure you have good folksworking and a good caller,'' he said. ``I don't want them making big bucks. Iwould like to see most of the money go to the prizes and the charities.''
Ferrell and others recently learned that one group that paid its workerswill soon discontinue that practice and use only volunteers.
In some cases, pay has declined from $50 to $30 for a five-hour shift, sheand others have been told, because of recent scrutiny surrounding the DeepCreek case.
George West and others say there are several ways to conceal the payment ofworkers when authorities start watching closely. One involves increasingrental fees and using the revenue to pay workers.
In fall 1996, West said, rental fees at one hall increased from $1,300 to$1,700 per session. West and others suspect that the money was used to paysome workers.
If those games had pulled out, the hall owner would have lost $3,400 inrental fees a week, West said.
Christine Stephens, who worked at Deep Creek Baseball Association fromOctober 1995 to November 1996, said she was paid $50 a session for thefive-hour shifts she worked on Mondays and Thursdays. She said she has friendsworking at other bingo games who are being paid.
Stephens, who lives in Chesapeake, said she was willing to testify atGeorge West's trial because she didn't want West to take the fall for money hepaid her - especially since West was a successful fund-raiser for the baseballgroup.
Stephens ticked off the names of games at several busy bingo halls, wherepayment of workers has been standard practice.
``I know for a fact that every single worker at all these bingo halls isgetting paid,'' she said. ``Every single one who says they aren't is lying.''ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
George West was convicted in September of running an illegal
gambling operation.
Graphic
Some of the scams
In instant games:
Sell instant tickets without reporting to state regulators.
Open winning instant bingo cards in advance so they can be handed
to pre-selected players.
Hold cards up to the light to pick out the winners.
Find winning cards, often located in a particular section of the
box, to sell to friends or house players.
In regular games:
Give free bingo supplies, which typically cost players $20 to $30
a night, to friends and relatives.
Hiding money to pay workers:
Issue checks to bingo workers through a dummy cleaning company,
then bill the charitable organization for ``cleaning expenses.''
Dispose of winning tickets on instant bingo so that there will be
no winner. The money for that game can be used to pay workers.
Graphic
BINGO JOBS
A session of bingo for hundreds of players requires work from
many people. The typical jobs:
Callers are responsible for calling out the letter-number
combinations that pop up on balls so that players can mark their
game cards.
Workers handle the special game sales, walk the floors hawking
them during regular games, collect money, and verify cards when
players say, ``Bingo.''
Paymasters are responsible for distributing winnings to the bingo
game winners.
At a separate table, another group of workers sells instant
tickets before and after regular games, collects money, and pays
winners.
Graphic
PLAYING BINGO
Bingo - The traditional game of chance in which combinations of
letters and numbers are called out and recorded by players on a
card.
Quickie blowout - A game in which the caller reads the numbers
in quick succession.
Decision bingo - Participants pay 50 cents per game plus a
quarter for every three numbers called until someone gets bingo.
Instant bingo or ``pull-tabs'' - A game similar to the
lottery's popular scratch 'n' win games. They typically are sold for
$1 apiece, and each box of tickets contains a pre-determined number
of winners.
The prizes: The maximum prize for a regular bingo game is $100.
Organizers are allowed to offer one game per day with a $1,000
jackpot, and can also have one winner-take-all game that can reach
$1,000. The maximum prize for instant bingo is $500.
Source: For prize information, Virginia Charitable Gaming
Commission KEYWORDS: BINGO FRAUD
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