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The face of online bingo is changing in many places around the world. The old days of playing Bingo in the church basement on pieces of paper with plastic chips as markers is passing. High-tech Bingo is arriving and causing problems in some places, especially in Indian online casinos.
Some Indian Casinos are offering Bingo played on video terminals. Indian casinos with Class II licenses can offer Bingo games, but not slot machines. Other tribal uk casinos, with Class III licenses, are using the video Bingo games to supplement their slot revenues. Slot machines are tightly regulated by the gaming commissions. The video Bingo machines are not subject to the same regulation.
These video Bingo games are being questioned by some state gaming commissions and the U.S. Department of Justice since the player activates the machine by depositing money and pushing a button, which is similar to slot play. Some video Bingo machines are vary similar to slots and are marketed as slots. The tribal casinos position is that an individual playing a video bingo machine has to have a least one other player on the network, in order for there to be a game. The video bingo player is playing against another player. The slot machine player is playing against the machine. It doesn’t make any difference weather it’s a uk casino or uk bingo.
The issue is under consideration at the present time. There are proposed changes in the machines and the rules, however, the bottom line is that Bingo will continue to become more high-tech as does everything else in this computer age.
Bingo is classified as Class II gaming and Indian tribes are allowed to operate Class II gaming in states that allow charitable or other groups to also do so. That makes the Rocket Bingo machines legal at many tribal-controlled casinos across the nation.
If the state of Montana and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes fail to reach agreement on a new gaming compact for the Flathead Indian Reservation in the coming days, all traditional keno and poker machines with their usual $800 maximum payouts - including those operated by the tribes, which occasionally pay almost twice as much - will have to be unplugged come midnight on Nov. 30, and be moved off the reservation by Dec. 15. |
