Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun has provided ongoing coverage of the Union Club of Springfield’s financial issues and dealings with the Attorney General’s charitable law section dating back to 2012.
Union Club instant bingo by the numbers
$1.95 million: Instant bingo sales in 2014 license year
$420,000: Bingo profits in 2014
76: Charitable organizations received more than $100,000 in donations in 2014
The state has notified the Union Club of Springfield that it intends to reject the renewal of its bingo license, which supported more than $100,000 in scholarships and charities last year, but the organization has appealed.
The Ohio Attorney General’s office sent the social club a letter in March saying it planned to reject its application on the grounds that it submitted false information on quarterly reports and operated instant bingo as its primary revenue source, which isn’t allowed under state law.
The club has submitted quarterly reports since its 2014 bingo license was initially rejected and has been fully compliant with everything the state has asked of them, said Brian Long, treasurer for the Union Club’s charitable arm.
The group was granted a temporary license for 2014 and never got any indication that there was a problem with its reports until the rejection letter arrived, Long said.
“Never once in all that time did they call up and ask about our quarterly reports,” he said.
The club has resubmitted its 2015 renewal application, clarifying its revenue totals, Long said, and is awaiting a hearing on the matter.
In 2012 the club was split in two following an investigation into reports of missing money and as part of an agreement with the AG’s office to ensure funds raised from bingo and other games was used for proper charitable purposes. Its bingo license was suspended for 10 days in 2013 and they were fined for operating illegal gambling machines.
Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office declined to discuss any further details of the 2015 application, citing the pending hearing.
The club has had a license to sell instant bingo tickets since 2006. At issue now is the ratio of bingo revenue to other retail revenue, including bar sales.
State law says for charitable organizations that offer instant bingo at a retail location, the primary revenue cannot be the tickets themselves.
But on its 2014 application to renew its bingo license, the Union Club disclosed that between Nov. 1, 2012, and Oct. 31, 2013, gross receipts from instant bingo totaled more than $2.7 million while gross receipts from all other retail sales was just over $500,000.
After sitting down with the state attorney’s last year, club members discovered they weren’t claiming all eligible revenues like receipts from daily raffles entered by members, and jukebox and pool table money to name a few.
The club had for years only reported bar sales as other revenue, Long said, following instructions from an Ohio Lottery consultant.
“They’ve used those figures every year and (the state) has granted them a license,” Long said.
The Union Club included the additional raffle earnings in its revised 2015 application, saying they sold $1.95 million in instant bingo tickets and had $1.94 million in other retail sales.
After the cost of the tickets and payouts to winners, the club made about $630,000 in profit from bingo in 2013 and $420,000 in 2014, according to the applications.
“You’re allowed to use that money to pay for the operation of the building,” Long said.
The club also pays three janitors with that money and can use some of it to pay board members.
“After that you have to give it all away,” he said.
The club gave away about $100,000 in 2014 scholarships and grants to other charitable groups.
Long is confident the bingo license will be renewed. It would be a loss for the community if not, he said, because the money supports scholarships at all Clark County schools.
The AG’s office processes about 1,600 bingo applications each year and issues fewer than five intent-to-reject letters, according to spokeswoman Kate Hanson.
The 2012 agreement with the Union Club also ordered the completion of a financial audit to find more than $1 million in alleged missing funds, but two attempts by different accounting firms found the club’s books to be unauditable.
Several former board members have continued to push for the completion of a forensic audit. An investigator has been hired by the AG’s office, according to Long, but as far as the Union Club is concerned, the matter is closed.
“We’ve been as transparent as that place has ever been,” he said. “We can’t handle or know what happened in the past.”
DeWine’s office has declined to comment on the audit, citing an ongoing investigation.
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