Bingo is king in Georgia. Georgia is where Bingo came from in America, way back in Nineteen Twenty Nine. However in the decades immediately after Bingo showed up (via Italy) at a fair in Georgia, the game ended up being made illegal along with most other kinds of gambling.
In 1976, Bingo was made legal for non-profit businesses. Since Bingo is one of just 3 kinds of wagering allowed by the law in Georgia (along with raffles and the state lottery), the game has develop into a huge crowd pleaser.
You can find above 200 bingo operators in Georgia today. Georgians brought in over $35,000,000 in revenues for its Bingo operators in 2005, for an average of around One Hundred and Trity Thousand dollars per provider. Georgians won above 20,000,000 dollars in cash during the same period. Georgian non profit organizations saw $1.5 million in income from the Bingo sector.
Georgia has several of the toughest bingo laws in the U.S. Providers are restricted in the number of prizes they can pay out at any 1 time. Games can hand out prizes with a one thousand five hundred dollars per session and three thousand dollars per week, which is well lower than the restrictions in other states.
The GBI: Bingo Unit regulates bingo games in the state. In the last 25 years, around Fifty businesses have forfeited their licence in Georgia for repeated violations of the local wagering regulations. The end result is that almost all bingo palaces in Georgia are Veterans of Foreign Wars and assistance organizations, the type of organizations which operate a game to pay for their not for profit activities.
Obviously, as long as bingo is a big money venture, there will be individuals who discover a way to work around the law. With twelve thousand or more individuals employed in the charitable betting sector of Georgia, the Bingo Unit is going to be busy in the years to come.