State probes Brigadiers bingo

The Post-Standard ^ | December 08, 2003 | By Frank Brieaddy

[lockjaw02]

State probes Brigadiers bingo License is on the line at hearing next month before Racing and Wagering Board.

The state Racing and Wagering Board has accused the Syracuse Brigadiers of breaking rules in its bingo operations and improperly using bingo earnings. The Brigadiers dispute the accusation. Proof of the accusation could put Brigadiers bingo out of business.

At the heart of the matter is the contention that the Brigadiers operate commercial bingo under the guise of supporting a drum and bugle corps rather than a nonprofit musical group using bingo to raise money. In a 28-item show-cause order, the Racing and Wagering Board contends Brigadiers bingo was set up improperly, pays people to run games that should be operated by volunteers and spends bingo earnings on expenses not allowed by state law.

The matter was scheduled for a hearing today in Albany, but the state Racing and Wagering Board agreed Wednesday to postpone the hearing until at least mid-January.

The Brigadiers have been ordered to show why the state shouldn't revoke its license for at least a year. The show-cause order states that because of the way the group operates, the Brigadiers are not a nonprofit allowed to conduct bingo and other games of chance under the state's general municipal law.

The Brigadiers counter that they have been in constant contact with the Racing and Wagering Board in an attempt to comply with regulations that are often difficult to decipher.

"Did we do something wrong? Yes. But we've tried to clean things up," said Joe Geswaldo, Brigadiers' spokesman and chief financial officer, a paid employee.

Stacy Clifford, speaking for the Racing and Wagering Board in Albany, said the state agency could not comment on the enforcement action because it is a pending legal matter.

The Brigadiers - including their subsidiaries the Brigadiers Alumni Club and Brigadier Booster Club - handle about $6.2 million a year in income from bingo and pull-tab wagers before prize money is distributed. Pull tabs, sometimes called bell jars, are individual-sale, small-stakes gambling products allowed by the state for use by nonprofits.

The revenue after prize money, license fees and gaming expenses is about $1.4 million.

The Brigadiers have used their bingo earnings for a corps performance budget of $879,854 this year. The rest goes to running the bingo hall.

The drum and bugle corps has 160 members; the Boosters Club has about 300 members; and the Alumni Club numbers 40.

Both Geswaldo and Clifford said the Brigadier nonprofit gaming operation is one of the largest in the state other than those operated on Native American territory. The operation supports a successful organization that won four national championships in a row before coming in second this year in Scranton, Pa.

The state contends the Brigadiers leased their building six years ago at 1860 W. Fayette St. to be used only as a bingo hall, which would require separate licensing that was never obtained for the building owner.

The Brigadiers argue the building is the group's headquarters and is used for more than bingo. The Brigadiers use the building for storage, meetings, occasional practices and offices.

The show-cause order alleges the Brigadiers improperly borrowed money for bingo hall construction from Wacon Ltd., a Long Island-based charitable gaming supplies and consulting firm, and improperly paid off those loans with bingo earnings.

Geswaldo contends Brigadier bingo was patterned after other operations around the state and operates the same way.

"There's seven halls in Rochester structured the same way as us," he said. All seven are run by drum and bugle corps, including Syracuse's rivals the Rochester Crusaders and Empire Statesmen who ran large bingo operations before the Brigadiers.

Robert Ventre, a Syracuse lawyer representing the Brigadiers, said state Racing and Wagering Board regulations are often difficult to interpret.

"They don't give seminars in this," he said.

Ventre said that in almost every instance when the state cited the Brigadiers for improper use of bingo earnings, corps members put that money back into appropriate accounts.

"There is nothing illegal going on with the use of these monies," he said.

The state Racing and Wagering Board shares regulation of bingo with local municipalities.

City of Syracuse Corporation Counsel Terri Bright said the administration of Mayor Matt Driscoll has had no problems with the Brigadiers and has not participated in the state's regulation action.

But former Mayor Roy Bernardi was concerned about the size of the Brigadier operation and his corporation counsel, Rick Guy, worked with the state to rein in the bingo hall, which he called a "bingo mall."

He voiced concern that a large bingo operation hurt smaller nonprofits.

Geswaldo said he hasn't figured out why his organization has drawn state attention, except that Brigadiers bingo competes with smaller operations.

"I'm still trying to figure out where the animosity was formed," he said. "One day people liked us; the next day they didn't."

Clifford, from the Racing and Wagering Board, said no other similar enforcement action is under way against another nonprofit bingo operation in the state.

© 2003 The Post-Standard.

[songspirit]

I've looked back on the RAMD thread first posted back in November 2003 about the Brigadiers getting the smoking ban waiver.



(the HTML carriage return codes work)

http://tinyurl.com/273tb

The guy posting this is VERY connected - younger than most (late 20's, maybe 30-ish now) of the politicos, and definitely smarter than most of them. It's significant that he is the one posting this.

A 5 On Your Side Exclusive Report: The Onondaga County Health Department issued the first waiver on Tuesday for a Central New York business that has proven the state's anti-smoking law has caused its business to decline. The Syracuse Brigadier Bingo Hall on West Fayette Street paid $100 to apply for the waiver and came up with a plan to separate smokers from non-smokers that was acceptable to the health department. When bingo resumes on Thursday, smokers will be allowed to play in a room with a separate ventilation system. [Tom Peashey gave a rave review of a Honeywell filtration system installed for his former employer, a Rochester junior corps, which is posted. As the public relations guy for Drum Corps Associates, a senior corps umbrella organization (*heavily* political), a partner in Wacon, LLC, a bingo investment company - who appear to have made a $250K renovation loan to the Brigadiers, and a Brigadier alumnus, he's quite involved. And no, he and I don't care for each other too well... ] They will still be able to participate in the main bingo game. Marketing Director Bridget Holmes said Tuesday she is cautiously optimistic that the waiver will bring back business to the non-profit facility. Holmes said the facility lost substantial business once the smoking ban took effect in July. The health department is considering 10 other waiver applications that have been filed by more traditional businesses including bars and restaurants.

www.wtvh.com

Great news for them!

Geoff

******************************

The follow-ups are most interesting, as is the scapegoating of "Indian gaming" going on on RAMD. This has been an issue across the country with regard to the big-money "corps" bingo operations. On RAMD, it's simply part of the "technique" of inflaming emotions.

More importantly, it was suggested in these threads that perhaps the reason the Brigs' was the first to get their application approved was due to the alleged volunteer status of their workers. Now, the State Gaming Commission is investigating due to the paid status of the "volunteers" - thus making them the employees enduring second-hand smoke as a job hazard that smoking ban proponents are so very concerned about. I've made an additional post to RAMD about this point:.

It's interesting to suppose that the reason the Brigadiers were the 1st to obtain a smoking waiver.

[source: http://tinyurl.com/273tb - Geoff Jones' post which started this thread reporting this story from www.wtvh.com]

"A 5 On Your Side Exclusive Report: The Onondaga County Health Department issued the first waiver on Tuesday for a Central New York business that has proven the state's anti-smoking law has caused its business to decline." The story also states there are 10 other applications being considered.

Thus, if the reason that the Brigadiers got their waiver was because of the alleged volunteer status of the bingo workers, and the NY State Gaming Commission is now alleging there are these paid employees...

It's not just a fraud concerning a business operating a bingo operation under the guise of being a drum & bugle corps charitable fundraiser, but the smoking ban waiver was also obtained via fraud.

Add to the fact that "any moron knows skimming goes on", and I'm beginning to see a pattern here. No wonder the waiver was controversial - if true. And thus, quite a lot of people might well have legitimate reasons for being pissed off, given the number of businesses who have gone out of business due to this ban. Nor does it explain why all those private clubs, i.e., AL and VFW posts, Elks Lodges, churches, etc., weren't first in line.

My other post about the fact of the Brigs' ban being controversial hasn't been much commented about. Often, silence on RAMD can be most revealing....

-- Catherine