BILL ANALYSIS
SB 126
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 19, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
SB 126 (Cedillo) - As Amended: July 1, 2009
Policy Committee: Governmental
Organization Vote: 18 - 0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill makes technical clean-up changes to the remote caller
bingo law that was enacted last year. Specifically, this bill:
1)Deletes reference to school districts in the provisions
specifying the organizations that may conduct bingo games and
instead authorizes "charitable organizations affiliated with a
school district" to conduct bingo games.
2)Deletes reference to organizations "registered" to conduct
those bingo games.
3)Contains permissive model ordinance language for local
governing bodies to use.
4)Deletes requirement that the California Gambling Control
Commission establish criteria for registering manufacturers
and distributors.
FISCAL EFFECT
There are no significant costs associated with this legislation.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author's office, this bill was
introduced to correct technical, non-controversial errors,
clarifications, and/or omissions in the statute created by SB
1369 (Cedillo; Chapter 748, Statutes of 2008). This bill
makes a number of technical and clarifying changes to the
SB 126
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remote caller bingo law enacted last year. As CGCC began to
develop the regulations to govern remote caller bingo, a
number of minor drafting errors were discovered in the law.
This bill is intended to correct those drafting errors to
alleviate ambiguity in the law as CGCC moves forward to adopt
regulations.
2)Remote Caller Bingo . The major differences between remote
caller bingo and traditional bingo are that remote caller
bingo allows for the transmission of an audio and video signal
of a live bingo game from one organization (a YMCA, for
example) located in a local jurisdiction that has adopted a
remote caller bingo ordinance to either an affiliated or
unaffiliated organization (another YMCA or a Boys' and Girls'
Club, for example) located in other jurisdictions across the
state that have also adopted remote caller bingo ordinances.
To date, no organization has come forward and expressed an
interest in conducting remote caller bingo.
3)SB 1369 (Cedillo; Chapter 748, Statutes of 2008) prohibited
the use of electronic or video technology in connection with
bingo and, instead, authorized remote caller bingo as a game
in which specific tax-exempt organizations may use audio or
video technology to link designated in-state facilities for
the purpose of playing bingo.
4)Electronic Bingo . Identical in appearance to slot machines,
electronic bingo machines are interconnected and allow
everyone in a bingo parlor to play against each other for a
cash prize, rather than traditional slot machines where
individuals play against the house for jackpots of various
sizes. California was home to several large-scale bingo
parlors using electronic bingo machines until they were
outlawed by SB 1369.
.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081