Bingo Prizes

Can our HOA give HOA funded prizes in bingo games? Our HOA currently offers $25 gift cards for certain things. Is this legal? We are in Florida.

our HOA gives away $100 visa gift cards for best decorated house, filling our surveys and coming to annual meetings. It works decent to improve turnout. but so does a sign saying you are going to increase dues to install a pool

[FACE SLAP] ...Augustin has brought us full circle to CICs asking vendors and unrelated businesses to become sponsors.

In complete disagreement with Augustin, CICs that have the legal authority to provide for discretionary spending can and should use that authority in a reasonable way. Here are a couple examples:

1) We're wrapping up a new satisfaction survey. To encourage participation, we offered 4x $25 gift cards to randomly selected participants.
2) We offer juice and doughnuts in the lobby every few months.
3) We have one or two low-key "social events" for residents every year. These are low-key enough that they aren't even catered, but we do supply some food and beverage to encourage participation.

Overall impact to our budget: about two tenths of one percent. Overall impact to promoting a sense of community: outsized.

Regards,
Steve

Ah, I didn't quite catch that Augustin. To your point though, what does it mean for the "offical" volunteer directors to ask a "non-HOA social committee"? Is that a group of homeowners that aren't officially recognized being asked by an officially recognized set of people to do something that makes it sound less official?

I'm definitely in the camp of CICs conduct their own business on their own dime, period. Anyone anywhere can solicit sponsorships for anything, but CICs should not be in the business of doing this as it does lead to a slippery slope. What you suggest as a slippery slope of capital improvements is about 10 to the 18th power removed from reasonable discretionary spending for community-building activities.

Regards,
Steve

All,

I think you are bringing an argument from a former thread into this thread, which is probably confusing the OP. I also think you are missing the elephant in the room.

More than likely, people have to pay to enter the bingo game in the hopes of winning a prize, which is gambling, and this is not something the HOA can sponsor without a gambling license.

What I read from the OP's post is that the HOA is putting on a "bingo event" funded by its annual budget. Part of the event includes rewarding participants with relatively small $25 prizes. Not sure there's any "gambling" happening and I'm also not sure that it's worth worry about in the grand scheme of all the really important things that CICs need to tackle like dealing with blistering insurance costs (especially in Florida!), planning for the future, maintaining, repairing and replacing infrastructure, getting their reserve studies in order, holding fair elections, ad infinitum.

Regards,
Steve

I'm with David, Thad, Steve and anyone else who says, let them be. There's also no indication that the Board itself is organizing such games and spending any of their volunteer time on them. And if they/a director are involved, that's no indication that they are not active in other aspects of their duties.

Steve wrote: "Overall impact to our budget: about two tenths of one percent. Overall impact to promoting a sense of community: outsized."

My favorite property managers -- worked with maybe 6 over time--are those who are able to oversee the big picture and simultaneously appreciate and support small efforts. These are my favorite board members too.

Very recently a couple of board members promoted and got Board approval for a weekly (for 6 weeks) $100 raffle for owners who voted on our restated CC&Rs & Bylaws, which needed 67% approval. These two members designed a raffle fish bowl decorated with a St. Patrick's Day theme to fit with such a party put on by our Social Committee, and "thermometer" fliers for out elevators showing voting progress. These same two, meanwhile, are overseeing a huge renovation project here AND the purchase/installation of EV charging stations for those wanting them in our underground parking levels.

My point is, there are motivated volunteers who can keep more than one ball -- of different sizes- in the air at a time and are good at it.

Google turned this up, which I thought was a fascinating summary of Florida law on lotteries and so forth:

https://www.rpfoley.com/illegal-lottery-or-raffle-crimes-florida-statute-849-09.html

The Usual Disclaimers: I'm not a lawyer, I have no relationship with the website; I just thought it was a nice resource.

BillD

*chuckle* I think that the real 'trick' to answering OP's question is that - whatever the answer is - it's going to have a uniquely Floridian flavor to it.

BillD

F

Yeah! And I’ll bet hardly anyone in Florida plays Bingo. Yeesh.

BillD

Note that the events can be done no more than twice per year in Washington State.

FURTHERMORE, in Florida, the statue is even more clear about permitted uses. It clearly statutes the following. CICs in Florida are not considered exempt, but they're also not conducting a "Bingo game" if participants are not paying a "sum of money for the use of one or more bingo cards."

We all need to GET REAL about what's being discussed here. A CIC is using discretionary funds to provide for community engagement activities. Is $1,500 too much to spend to engage five residents? Perhaps. Is it illegal? Probably not.

Florida Statute 849.0931 Bingo authorized; conditions for conduct; permitted uses of proceeds; limitations
(a) “Bingo game” means and refers to the activity, commonly known as “bingo,” in which participants pay a sum of money for the use of one or more bingo cards. When the game commences, numbers are drawn by chance, one by one, and announced. The players cover or mark those numbers on the bingo cards which they have purchased until a player receives a given order of numbers in sequence that has been preannounced for that particular game. This player calls out “bingo” and is declared the winner of a predetermined prize. More than one game may be played upon a bingo card, and numbers called for one game may be used for a succeeding game or games.
(b) “Bingo card” means and refers to the flat piece of paper or thin pasteboard employed by players engaged in the game of bingo. The bingo card shall have not fewer than 24 playing numbers printed on it. These playing numbers shall range from 1 through 75, inclusive. More than one set of bingo numbers may be printed on any single piece of paper.
(c) “Charitable, nonprofit, or veterans’ organization” means an organization which has qualified for exemption from federal income tax as an exempt organization under the provisions of s. 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 or s. 528 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; which is engaged in charitable, civic, community, benevolent, religious, or scholastic works or other similar activities; and which has been in existence and active for a period of 3 years or more.

Regards,
Steve