Rick Alm wrote this in the Kansas City Star Monday-
Bingo blues
Missouri’s bingo industry is sliding deeper into the abyss.
The
newly released annual report of the Missouri Gaming Commission shows
the number of licensed bingo-sponsor organizations statewide slipped to
384 in the 2008 fiscal year that ended June 30. A year ago, the number
was 404.
The steady erosion also has nibbled away at the number
of licensed bingo hall providers statewide, now 114 and down from 120 a
year ago.
Bingo’s decline has been precipitous. Licensing of
nonprofit organizations that raise money for myriad charitable and
civic causes hit a high of 979 in 1993. The first riverboat casinos
opened in Missouri in 1994, and it has been downhill for bingo ever
since.
The Gaming Commission took over regulation of bingo in
1994. Since then, it reported, the modestly taxed games have generated
an estimated $50 million for public education.
