 | This is our local cache copy of http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/gaming/2004/feb/24/516407728.html |
| We are providing this link as a courtesy to our users, we are not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content. |
|
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
Previous: Nevada sports book operator files plan for reorganization 24 Feb. 10:58:18 Next: Racing subsidy hike defeated 24 Feb. 09:05:44 Printable text version | Mail this to a friend Today: February 24, 2004 at 9:27:26 PST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH -- A residential center for people convicted of drunken driving or drug charges conducts cash-prize bingo games, a practice being criticized by county officials and gambling experts.
Judges can send nonviolent criminals to alternative facilities, such as the ARC House on Pittsburgh's North Side, instead of the Allegheny County Jail.
Although gambling violates ARC House rules, Director Charles E. Cain said the facility holds bingo games every other week and sponsors other games of chance, such as raffles. The organization collects profits of about $1,000 a month from bingo games.
The ARC House, like other nonprofit and religious groups, obtained a license from the Allegheny County treasurer's office to conduct the games. Cain and ARC House attorney William E. Stockey both maintained that bingo wasn't actually gambling in the traditional sense.
"It is a form of gambling approved by the state and most religious groups across Pennsylvania," Stockey told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Greg Grogan, the deputy warden of the county jail, said he planned to speak with the leaders of ARC House about the gambling, which he said is inappropriate.
It's wise that ARC House prohibits gambling because its common to see recovering addicts and alcoholics switch to gambling, said Heiko Ganzer, the clinical director of Last Wager, a treatment program on Long Island, N.Y.
It's disappointing that ARC House officials didn't acknowledge that bingo is gambling, said Heather Chapman, the director of research and program development for the Brecksville Gambling Treatment program at the Cleveland VA Medical Center.
"Buying something in order to win something is gambling," Chapman said.
Previous: Nevada sports book operator files plan for reorganization 24 Feb. 10:58:18 Next: Racing subsidy hike defeated 24 Feb. 09:05:44 Printable text version | Mail this to a friend Las Vegas SUN main page
Read our policy on privacy and cookies. Advertise on Vegas.com. All contents © 1996 - 2004 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. Nevada's Largest Website |
||||||||
