Gaming Issues Discussed at League Leaders Day
Those who attended the annual TLW League Leaders Day in Oshkosh recently heard presentations from the Division of Alcohol Beverages and Department of Administration Division of Gaming that would be of interest to all members. Their focus was video gaming enforcement and raffles.
Many who follow the video gaming issue in Wisconsin know that state law leaves enforcement up to state regulators—not local law enforcement—when establishments have five or fewer games. Recently, the City of Appleton and a few surrounding communities have been asking tavern owners to list video games on the amusement device application license, and answer whether those games are used for gambling. One community required owners to answer whether those games are likely to be used for gambling at any point during the coming year.
This question is not only unnecessary, since local governments are not in charge of enforcement of the machines, but it also puts Class B tavern owners is a tough spot. Answer “yes” and owners incriminate themselves. Answer “no” and local governments can accuse owners of falsifying their application and potentially use it to withhold a license renewal of any amusement devices or possibly even the Class B license itself.
At the League Leaders meeting, an official from the Division of Alcohol Beverages—who is actually tasked with enforcing video gaming laws—said they are urging local governments not to license video games or ask that they be listed on any application forms, since it’s not their jurisdiction. Though their guidance is not a requirement and municipalities can still legally ask the question, their suggestion is one that municipalities should take seriously. And many will. This would take a lot of pressure off of tavern owners who are caught between a rock and a hard place by municipal leaders asking needlessly invasive questions. The Tavern League of Wisconsin also supports legislation that would stop municipalities from asking tavern owners to incriminate themselves over this issue.
The reason some municipalities are asking the gaming question is because bad actors are out there trying to obtain Class B licenses just so they can have video games. They’re not really interested in being a part of the alcohol retail industry, so they’re exploiting a loophole. This puts municipalities in a difficult position, but there are other ways to deal with this problem. That includes doing their homework on the front end of the process by making sure new applicants are actually focused on being a retail alcohol establishment.
Division of Gaming and Department of Justice officials were also on hand to discuss charitable raffles. They explained that charitable raffles are the only legal raffles in the state, and a license is needed to conduct them.
Individuals and for profit businesses cannot hold a charitable raffle license. Those are reserved for in state charitable nonprofit organizations that have been in existence for at least a year. For bingo, that requirement is three years.
In addition, the stated purpose of the organization on the raffle license application must be consistent with the purpose of the raffle. If the purpose listed on the license application is to assist local veterans, for example, a raffle to help the local animal shelter would be a technical violation. So charitable license applicants are better to use broader language when stating a purpose, such as “assisting the community and local organizations” or “community service.”
Local tavern owners who want to participate in a charitable raffle are urged to either partner up with a local non profit organization (Lions Club or American Legion are examples) or work with your local tavern league to obtain a license for the local league foundation, if you don’t have one already. If the local league needs to establish a foundation, it must wait one year after the foundation is established before it can apply for the charitable gaming license. But, once obtained, this route usually offers the most flexibility for members.
More information, including a copy of the slide presentation that was shown at the League Leaders meeting, can be found in the current issue of On Premise magazine. Once again, we at the Tavern League are grateful to the state officials who took the time to share some very valuable information to our members. In fact, Division of Alcohol Beverage officials will also be on hand at the TLW convention in Wisconsin Dells for a breakout session to discuss gaming enforcement and other issues.
See you there!