NASHVILLE – Two decades after corruption in Tennessee’s bingo parlor operations led to the Operation Rocky Top undercover investigation of state government, lawmakers are considering allowing the games to resume.
Leaders of veterans organizations testified at a special state Senate committee hearing last week and urged that they again be allowed to operate bingo parlors to fund their nonprofit groups, The Commercial Appeal newspaper reports.
“Bingo provided a large amount of discretionary funds for the American Legion. It paid for scholarships and other things,” Mike Hammer, finance officer for the American Legion of Tennessee, told the committee Tuesday. “The bottom line is, when you remove the discretionary funds from the American Legion or any service organization, their ability to help their community drops.”
During the 1980s, roughly 300 bingo halls were running in Tennessee. Although the games ostensibly were for charity, many instead were run by professional gambling operators with no connection to the charitable organizations in whose names they were licensed. Thousands of dollars, all of it cash, flowed through the largest operations during each bingo night.
More than 50 people were convicted – including a legislator, a judge and other public officials – after a five-year probe by the FBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service. Prosecutors also found money-skimming, payoffs, extortion and the sale of charitable group charters.
The state had no gambling until voters in 2002 amended the constitution to create the Tennessee Lottery. The same amendment allows lawmakers to approve an annual list of one-time events that run games of chance, like the rubber duck race in Knoxville, to raise money for charities.
This year the top Republican in the state Senate, Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville, introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that would lift the once-a-year restriction and widen the number of charities that could stage gambling fundraisers.
Hammer was joined in testifying for Ramsey’s proposal by top Tennessee officials of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, AmVets and Vietnam Veterans of America. They said they need to resume regular bingo games to pay for the operating expenses of their halls, their aid to veterans and community service work.
“When you came in with the new rules, you shot us in the foot. You’ve got us so limited on what funds we can go get to keep the organizations running, we’re having a tough time,” said Ralph Land, government affairs director of the Vietnam Veterans’ state organization.
But one senator recalled the widespread corruption of the bingo halls.
“I go back to the day when we had bingo and there were all these bingo parlors operating with tax-exempt certificates. We saw corruption happen over time. We saw people going to jail. We saw state officials get in trouble. We even had a suicide over it,” said Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, the committee’s chairman.
Ronnie Davis, Tennessee quartermaster of VFW, agreed.
“There really was a lot of corruption,” Davis said. “In my 26 years – I was here back then, too – I don’t remember any of our veterans organizations coming under fire for illegal activity.”
The veterans agreed to work on a regulatory plan, and the legislative committee continues until the General Assembly convenes in January.A constitutional amendment would have to be put to voters, in 2014 at the earliest.
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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com