Licensed charitable organizations are responsible for the conduct and management of bingo events. While only a licensee’s members, employees or volunteers may carry out certain duties, other duties may be carried out by an Operator registered under the Gaming Control Act, 1992.
9.6.1 (A) Tasks the licensee must perform
- Licensees must designate a minimum of three bona fide members, who are at least 18 years of age, to supervise the bingo event. The licensee must submit the names of the designated members to the licensing authority.
- The licensee’s members must supervise the sale of bingo paper.
- The licensee is responsible for bingo advertising and promotion, but it may conduct these activities through the HCA and/or in cooperation with the Operator. The Operator of the bingo hall is subject to certain restrictions in this area. For a complete description of the types of advertising and promotion that may be carried out by a licensee or an Operator, see “9.7.1. Bingo advertising and promotion”.
- The licensee is responsible for the following financial functions:
» supervising the handling of all revenues generated from its own licensed events;
» paying expenses, including hall rental, advertising and reimbursement for bona fide member expenses; and
» setting up and maintaining the lottery trust account(s), including depositing all incoming monies.
- The licensee is responsible for creating an official record of the game by recording the numbers called. The numbers may be recorded by electronic verifying equipment, videotaping or handwriting.
- The licensee must resolve any conflicts by referring to the official record.
9.6.1 (B) Tasks that may be carried out by the Operator
- The Operator of the bingo hall may prepare a draft game schedule, suggested prize allocation and suggested bingo paper prices for review and final approval by the licensee.
- Bingo hall employees may check and validate a patron’s bingo paper once “bingo” has been called. However, the licensee’s designated person in charge is responsible for making the decision to recognize a winner, including in the case of a dispute, as outlined in Section 9.6.1 (a)(6).
- The Operator may place bingo paper orders, store bingo paper and monitor inventory.
- In addition, the licensee may delegate the following responsibilities to the Operator:
» selling bingo paper and tracking sales;
» cash counting and reconciliation; and
» responding to customer complaints.
9.6.2. STAFFING BINGO EVENTS
Each licensee is responsible for deciding how to staff its bingo events, as long as the minimum of three (3) bona fide members of the licensed organization are present to conduct and manage the event.
1. In addition to three (3) bona fide members, licensees may staff their events with any combination of:
- bona fide members and full-time employees of the charitable organization:
- The organization’s full-time employees may volunteer to assist at bingo events, provided that their primary duty is not providing gaming services.
- employees of the bingo hall:
- The organization may negotiate with the Operator to provide registered staff for certain services such as calling the game or selling break open tickets.
- runners employed by the bingo hall:
- The licensee may choose to negotiate with the Operator to provide all the runners. In this case, the licensee and the Operator may share the staffing costs for the runners as permitted by the terms and conditions.
- volunteers, who may be members of the licensees in the HCA or family, friends or volunteers from other member organizations, who receive no reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses.
2. If the Operator of the bingo hall provides all the runners as in 1(c) above, the licensee and the Operator share the entire staffing costs. When the staffing costs are shared:
- The HCA and the Operator must sign a Memorandum of Understanding, approved by the licensing authority.
- The Operator must set up a proper payroll for the employees, with the appropriate source deductions.
- The licensee’s share of the staffing costs, paid to the Operator:
- is subject to HST;
- must be paid from the maximum amount allowed for reimbursement of bona fide member expenses, which is, including HST, three (3) per cent of the Regular Bingo prize board for the event; and
- must be paid separately from the rent.
- The licensee may reimburse only the three designated members-in-charge for bona fide member expenses. The reimbursement:
- must not be cost-shared with the Operator;
- must be taken from net proceeds.
For an example of how to calculate the amounts to be distributed to the Operator of the bingo hall and the licensee when the cost of runners is shared, please refer to Figure 1.
- The licensee may reimburse bona fide members and staff of the licensee for bona fide member expenses related to a bingo event. These bona fide member expenses may include items such as meals, transportation and babysitting expenses. The organization may reimburse a member for up to $10 without receipts, for reasonable and necessary expenses, provided the organization maintains a record of the amounts paid out, including an acknowledgement signed by the bona fide members for the amounts received. For expenses above $10, up to a maximum of $20, the bona fide member must provide receipts for the full amount. The reimbursement cannot exceed $20 per person, and the total of the reimbursements for all bona fide members cannot exceed three (3) per cent of the event prize board. (See “3.5.2 Bona fide members” for further information.)
- The licensee must pay any staff reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses from the lottery trust account and must report it as an expense on the lottery event report.
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Fig. 1: Sharing the Cost of Runners Between the Hall and the Licensee Scenario
$7.00 x 4 = $28.00 $28.00 x 3 = $84.00
$7.00 x 0.10 = $0.70 0.70 x 4 = $2.80 2.80 x 3 hours = $8.40
Total Costs of the Bingo Event |
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Gross Receipts |
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$5,000 |
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Less(-) Prizes |
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(4,000) |
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Gross Profit |
$1,000 |
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Licence Fee |
$120 |
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Actual staffing costs (84.00 + 8.40) |
92.40 |
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HST (92.40 x 0.13) |
12.01 |
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Advertising (2% of prize board) |
80.00 |
(304.41) |
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Less total costs |
$304.41 |
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Net Profit before hall expenses |
$695.59 |
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Hall Operator’s Amount (695.00 x 40%) |
$278.24 |
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+HST on Hall Rental |
36.17 |
(314.41) |
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Less total Hall costs |
$314.41 |
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Net Profit/Licensee’s amount |
$381.18 |
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Less out-of-pocket expenses for designated members in charge |
($30.00) |
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Net Licensee amount |
$351.18 |
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9.6.3. DISTRIBUTION OF GROSS RECEIPTS FROM BINGO EVENTS
The terms and conditions for bingo licences describe how a licensee must distribute the gross receipts from bingo events. The licensee must calculate the distribution of the gross receipts from the bingo events based upon whether or not it uses the services of a registered Operator of a bingo hall and, if so, which services are provided.
In order to calculate the amount to be paid to the Operator (the hall rent), the licensee must first deduct from the gross receipts the other eligible costs incurred in the conduct and management of the bingo event. These expenses may include the prizes, licence fee, bona fide member expenses, advertising and promotion, hand-held personal bingo verifiers and the cost of transportation as approved by the licensing authority. The amount calculated by deducting these expenses from the gross receipts is referred to as the “Base Amount.” The licensee must then use this “Base Amount” to calculate the hall rent payable to the Operator of the bingo hall for goods and services provided to the licensee for the bingo event, as outlined in 9.6.3(a) to (c).
Calculating the base amount
Less(-) (Prizes + licence fee + reimbursements* + advertising and promotional costs + authorized transportation + hand-held personal bingo verifiers)
Equals (=) Base Amount
*Refers to out-of-pocket expenses or staffing costs of runners shared with the hall
Any remaining expenses (including, but not limited to: bingo paper, security, storage, equipment, costs related to the building and employee wages) must be paid by the Operator of the bingo hall.
If the Operator or its employees makes an error that results in a cash shortage, this shortage must be deducted from the amount paid to the Operator.
9.6.3 (A) When the Operator supplies both the runners and the bingo caller
The licensee must keep a minimum of 60 per cent of the Base Amount and pay the Operator either a maximum of 40 per cent of the Base Amount, or up to 15 per cent of the gross receipts, whichever is less.
9.6.3 (B) Where the Operator supplies only the runners or only the bingo caller
The licensee must keep a minimum of 60 per cent of the Base Amount and pay the Operator either a maximum of 40 per cent of the Base Amount or 14 per cent of the gross receipts, whichever is less.
9.6.3 (C) When the Operator supplies all the runners on a cost-sharing basis with the licensee
When the licensee and the Operator of the bingo hall share the cost of the runners, the licensee’s share of the staffing costs is paid from the amount allowed for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, which is a maximum of three (3) per cent of the Regular Bingo prize board for that event.
The licensee must keep a minimum of 60 per cent of the Base Amount and pay the Operator either a maximum of 40 per cent of the Base Amount or 14 per cent of the gross receipts, whichever is less.
9.6.3 (D) When the licensee does not use the services of an Operator
Total expenses are capped at 15 per cent of gross receipts, not including the HST. The terms and conditions outline the allowable expenses.
9.6.3 (E) Super Jackpot disbursements
In Super Jackpot calculations, only the prizes, licence fees and advertising and promotion costs are deducted from the gross receipts:
Gross Receipts – (Prizes + Licence Fee + Advertising and Promotion Costs) = Base Amount.
The HCA must keep a minimum of 60 per cent of the Base Amount and pay the Operator a maximum of 40 per cent of the Base Amount, up to a maximum of 15 per cent of the gross receipts, whichever is less.
For an example of how to calculate the monthly Super Jackpot disbursements to a Hall Charities Association’s member groups, please refer to the example in “9.4.1(d)(2)”.
9.6.3 (F) Disbursements for all other bingo events licensed by the Registrar
For all other bingo events licensed by the Registrar and conducted in registered charitable gaming sites, licensees must use the “Base Amount” to calculate the hall rental payable to the Operator, as outlined in Section 9.6.3(a) to (c).
9.6.4. HANDLING AMERICAN CURRENCY
At bingo events where American currency is accepted, the total gross receipts are affected by the value of the American dollar. All administrative expenses must be paid in Canadian funds, and the amount of adjusted gross receipts must be calculated taking into account the value of the American currency converted into Canadian dollars.