Senate Bill No. 338
(By Senator Deem)
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[Introduced March 14, 1997; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article twenty,
chapter forty-seven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
charitable bingo; and exempting senior citizens from the
requirement that operators of bingo games and related
concessions be active members of the organization for two
years.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article twenty, chapter forty-seven of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. CHARITABLE BINGO.
§47-20-11. Operator of bingo games and related concessions.
Except as provided in sections thirteen and twenty-two of this
article, only persons, as defined in section two of this article, who are residents of this state and who are active members of the
licensee organization or its authorized auxiliary organization
and who have been active members in good standing of the licensee
organization or its authorized auxiliary for at least two years
prior to the date of filing of the application for a charitable
bingo license or the most recent filing of an application for
renewal of the license may participate in any manner in the
conduct of any bingo game or operate any concession in
conjunction with a bingo occasion: Provided, That persons, age
sixty-two and older, may operate the bingo games and related
concession without having been an active member for two years,
the only requirement being that they be a member or associate
member of the licensee organization or its authorized auxiliary:
Provided, however, That notwithstanding anything contained in
this article to the contrary, no individual under the age of
eighteen years may directly or indirectly participate in the
conduct of a bingo game except for junior firefighters, in
accordance with the provisions of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt senior citizens
from the requirement that operators of bingo games and related
concessions must be members of the organization for at least two
years before they can participate in operating the games or
concessions.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that
would be added.