Thursday, January 08, 2004

State charges senior citizen bingo hall

MUNCIE - The Indiana Department of Revenue is trying to shut down the grandmother of charity bingo in Delaware County.

The state agency last year accused SeVille Senior Citizens Corp. of five violations of the Indiana Charity Gaming Act.

The two most serious allegations are "having 18 video gambling machines available for [bingo] patrons" and "misrepresenting" income from those 18 "illegal gambling machines" as "donations."

The agency proposes $11,750 in civil penalties and a 3-year suspension of SeVille's bingo license.

SeVille is overseen by Monna Gregory, who filed a written protest appealing the agency's action.

That triggered an administrative hearing scheduled for Jan. 28 during which Gregory can present evidence to dispute the agency's findings. She is represented by Muncie attorney Donald Dunnuck, who is also the attorney for the Delaware County commissioners.

"This is embarrassing my charity to death, and it's embarrassing me," Gregory said.

She began operating charity bingo games for seniors here in the 1980s. The state Legislature didn't legalize the operation of charity bingo halls until 1990. Authorities twice in the 1980s arrested and fined Gregory on charges of illegal gambling.

In an interview Wednesday at her bingo hall in White River Plaza, Gregory said she and her father - Russell Barton Sr., a retired autoworker who died in November - became involved in charity gaming around the time Basil Adams died. Also a retired autoworker, Adams had been president of Delaware County Council of Senior Citizens and of United Autoworkers Retirees Local 287.

"I love these people," Gregory said of the elderly members of SeVille. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for them."

Every other Friday, members of the organization gather to play cards and eat a catered meal. Gregory buys gifts for the events. Members also take trips to destinations such as dinner theaters and riverboat casinos.

SeVille's net proceeds last year from charity gaming were only $677, the organization reported to the Department of Revenue. SeVille's income from bingo and pull tabs last year exceeded $1.5 million. All but $677 of that was eaten up by payouts, bingo supplies, rent, advertising and other expenses.

Gregory said the other expenses included $12,000 for her annual bingo license and some $80,000 in state excise taxes on pull tab purchases.

"The state is getting the money, not my charity," Gregory said.

In addition to the video gambling allegations, the state accused Gregory of:

• failing to post a legible sign indicating that bingo operators and workers are not allowed to accept tips.

• not posting her charity gaming license, which was kept beneath a pile of papers in her office.

• not listing on a state form that Ruth Siefert was the attendant in the video gambling room and was in charge of selling pull tabs to patrons of that room.

But the video gambling charges were what warranted suspension of Gregory's license, the state revenue department said.

Operating illegal video gambling machines constitutes "conduct prejudicial to the public confidence in the department," the department alleges.

The department in 2002 suspended the bingo license of Eagles Lodge 231 here for 5 years because of illegal video gambling. The lodge also was fined $13,500. On appeal, the suspension was reduced to 1 year and the fine was cut to $10,000.

Contact news reporter Seth Slabaugh at 213-5834.

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