Comments on Recent Changes to Charitable Gaming Laws

I am Ken Eggers with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and I represent Posts 1503

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Promulgation of Charitable Regulations by the

Department of Virginia. The 69-page document is comprehensive and covers charitable gaming open

to the public (bingo) and gaming open to only members and occasional guests of the organization in

the social quarters. Current rules for proceeds expenditures of charitable gaming the that are open to

the public (bingo) are already in effect and followed. Compliance is monitored through quarterly and

annual reporting with periodic inspections and audits. The VFWs in Virginia have strived to comply with

the Virginia Charitable gaming Regulations and will continue to do so. However, the proposed changes

in the regulations will have severe negative impact on the VFWs. Some are so severe that they will

likely result in curtailment of mission requirements and possibility closure of the Post. I offer the

following comments and concerns.

The inclusion of the Social Quarter’s gaming into the reporting requirements will have significant

impact on all concerned. However, the specific impacts will vary depending on the operations of the

Post or Lodge.

The Social Quarters of qualified posts have been exempt from the rules governing the use of proceeds

as defined by the Virginia code for more than 20 years. Many of the Posts depend on the proceeds

from gaming in the social quarters to supplement Post operations and provide support and benefit to

the members that fall within the stated mission of the organization.

A primary mission of the VFW is to help all veterans and their families and to foster camaraderie

among our veterans. The IRS Guidelines 3079 states one of the purposes of a veteran’s organization is

to provide the following “To provide social and recreational activities for its members.” The social

quarters are a crucial tool for the VFW to assist in accomplishing the mission.

The new requirement that is being proposed is going to require major changes in the way business is

conducted. In fact, it may cause some Posts to discontinue or curtail activities.

Specifically, the definition on page 4

“Reasonable and proper business expenses” means the same term as defined on 18.2-340.16 of the

Code of Virginia, except that salaries and wages of employees whose primary responsibility is to

provide services for the principal benefit of an organization’s members shall not qualify as a business

expense.

The current regulations are geared to volunteer labor. This is the practice for bingo that is open to the

public, however, almost all social quarters are staffed with paid employees and serve only members

and qualified guests. To obtain and maintain a Virginia Charitable gaming permit, the activity must

maintain its nonprofit (501 c) status. The federal code recognizes several activities that a 501 (c) (19)

must provide and one of those is “Providing social and recreational activities for their members.” The

use of proceeds from charitable gaming are critical for execution of this mission.

A large Post filed the 3rd quarter report for non-electronic gaming before the October 23, 2022

instructions were provided. Under the results previously required they would have qualified for a

13.275% use of proceeds.

Using the October 23, 2022 instructions which include the Social Quarters Receipts the revised report

for the same post reflects the UOP of 10.234%.

This post was able to meet the 10%. However, if prepared using the proposed regulations that exclude

the use of building and utility expenses from the UOP, the result is the percentage falling to 2.5%. It

will be difficult in not impossible for this Post to comply with the UOP requirements being proposed.

The building and its operation are critical to being able to participate in charitable gaming.

The new requirement mandates an on-site manager and workers at all times; this is a requirement that

cannot be filled with volunteers and will require paid employees due to the sheer hours required. They

must supervise operating the gaming in the social quarters through accounting, bank deposits,

cleaning, maintenance, security, and paying winners.

Code of Virginia 18.2-340.16 Definitions paragraph 14 page 3/4states”Reasonable and proper business

expenses” means business expenses actually incurred by a qualified organization in the conduct of

charitable gaming and not otherwise allowed under this article or under Department regulations on

real estate and personal property tax payments, travel expenses ,payments of utilities and trash

collection services legal and accounting fees, cost of business, fixtures and office equipment and cost

of acquisition, maintenance , repair, or construction of an organizations real property. For the purpose

of this definition salaries and wages of employees whose primary responsibility is to provide services

for the principal benefit of an organization’s members may qualify as a business expense, if so,

determined by the Department.

Request

Request the Gaming Commission allow the salaries and wages of the employees to be charged as

expense to the gaming accounts. With the portion directly attributable to gaming be charged to UOP.

On page 5 Paragraph D of the proposed regulations in accordance with 18.2-340.19 A 1 of the Code of

Virginia, as a condition of receiving a charitable gaming permit or authorization to conduct electronic

gaming, an organization shall use a minimum percentage of its charitable gaming receipts for lawful

religious, charitable, community, or educational purposes for which the organization is specifically

chartered or organized as follows:

1.For all charitable gaming other than electronic gaming, the minimum percentage shall be 10% of its

gross receipts.

2. For electronic gaming, the minimum percentage shall be 40% of its electronic adjust gross receipts.

The proposed code deleted use of building expense as a UOP.The current code allows it. The operation

and maintenance of the facility is required to be able to operate charitable gaming. The failure to allow

these costs (as have been allowed in the past) will likely result in a significant number of organizations

to fail to meet the minimum percentages and thereby losing their gaming permits.

Request

Request the Commission to restore the language that is in the current 18.2-340.19 A.1.and include it

the proposed 18.2-340.19 A 1 to allow property expenses to be used as UOP.

On page 5 of the proposed Regulations Paragraph D the proposed guidelines for Use of Proceeds

require that 40% of adjusted gross receipts be expended as UOP. As the legislation was being

formed there was considerable discussion on whether to use gross or net receipts in this

determination for electronic pull tabs. At the root of the discussion was that electronic pull tabs

generated such large numbers it would be difficult to meet the 10% of gross receipts for UOP, so it

was settled on using adjusted gross receipts. However, we believe 40% of Adjusted Gross Receipts

is excessive and be hard if not impossible for most organizations to achieve. The issue is further

aggravated by not being able to charge the direct salary costs and inability to use the funds to

support membership activities that foster camaraderie among the membership as our charter

requires. Currently the guidelines require donations to outside charities while ignoring the fact we

are the same type of charity and constantly helping ANY individual veterans and/or their families in

need, not just our membership. Current UOP guidelines do not allow the use of funds promoting

membership activities such as membership appreciation events. We believe that these activities

are crucial to fulfilling the stated mission of the VFW

Request

Request the Commission adjust the electronic UOP of 40% down to 10% of Adjusted Gross Receipts

to allow the organizations to support the charitable gaming operations and have sufficient funds to

operate the posts as our charter requires and allow use of funds to support membership functions.

Other Concerns

The instructions for the new accounting and reporting requirements were issued on October 23,

2022 and were to be implemented after fact to actually starting on July 1, 2022. As previously

discussed, the Posts had not been required to use and track expenditures as required by the

current instruction. In most cases the Post did not have separate bank accounts for paper pull tabs

in the social quarters separate from the electronic pull tabs in the social quarters. The Post were

using funds for purposes not allowed under charitable gaming guidelines.

Request

Request the Department establish a grace period to allow Posts time to align their accounting

practices and adjust their business practices to comply with the gaming regulations without

penalty.

On page 21 paragraph A 2, the proposed regulations require that a reconciliation form be

completed and signed within 48 hours by the game manager. The concern is that in the social

quarters where paper pull tabs and jar tickets are often not sold in complete boxes or bags that

resulting daily inventory of the unsold tickets would overly burdensome.

Request

Request the Commission revisit this requirement for the social quarters and adopt more

reasonable reconciliation requirement.

Current guidelines require that disbursements from gaming accounts be made by check. However,

many legitimate purchases and donations can be made and documented by credit card.

Request

Request the Commission allow VFW Posts to obtain a credit card only for use with the gaming

account.

Question

When filing the quarterly report what is the acceptable method of reporting fees paid by the

manufacturer? Does the organization wait for a 102 voucher from the manufacturer to accompany

the report or does the manufacture report directly?

Conclusion

We request the Commission to consider the following requests:

- Allow the wages and salaries directly related to gaming activities be charged to UOP with

the remainder being charged to business expenses.

- Restore the language that allows direct real property expenses to be charged to UOP with

remainder charged to business expense.

- Revisit the 40% UOP requirement for electronic pull tabs and adjust the requirement to a

lower figure of 10%.

- Allow the use of gaming funds to support membership functions such as appreciation

dinners.

- Establish a grace period to allow the VFWs to update their business processes and reporting

requirements to comply with the new guidelines.

- Revisit the daily reconciliation procedures and adopt procedures that are less cumbersome.

- Allow the use of credit cards for authorized expenditures and donations.

The State of Virginia VFW will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, that’s 100 years of helping

veterans and their families as well as being pillars of our communities, we need to continue this

mission into the next 100 years and the proposed regulations put that in jeopardy, posts will close or

drop gaming all together.

Thank you for allowing me to address our concerns and provide input to make this a win/win for all

involved.