The State of Virginia is writing new gaming laws that will drastically hamper our efforts in helping our communities or even being able to keep the doors of our organizations open.

 

Lawmakers want to make it mandatory for each Fraternal Order to donate 40% of our net gross take-in to charity which would make it harder for us to pay our employees and other expenses.

 

This increased tax will forever be harmful to our ability to provide donations to Veterans, First Responders, and all other community charities.

 

1. Please remove the exception to salaries and wages to match the definition as defined in Code 18.2-340.16. In order to maintain gaming, our organization needs to be able to pay the employees who maintain and manage our club.

 

2. The requirement of the proposed 40% use of proceeds would greatly impact the financial stability of our organization and could cause us to become insolvent. A 15 to 20% rate would be much less of an impact on operations.

 

3. In 11VAC20-20-70 Bank account section D - modify this section from the second business day requirement to a weekly requirement. Our club is operated mostly by volunteers and the expectation for the Treasurer to make deposits essentially every other day is not feasible.

 

4. In 11VAC20-20-40, section B, the addition $200.00 fee specifically for electronic is redundant as we already pay a $200.00 general gaming fee. Please remove this fee from the guidance.