The Alaska House of Representatives passed a bill relating to charitable gaming online ticket sales and activities. House Bill 128 would establish standards for online ticket sales to ensure compliance with charitable gaming laws, including age and location verification requirements.
Rep. Zack Fields said:
“House Bill 128 makes permanent our charitable organization’s ability to sell raffle tickets online. Members may recall that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the state administration issued some emergency regulations that allowed our charities to sell raffle tickets online. There the traditionally the tear off raffle tickets. Of course, during COVID, walking around and handing out raffle tickets was not feasible. The administration appropriately allowed our charities to sell them online. It worked well and even in the midst of the pandemic; a lot of charitable organizations actually were able to raise more money because of the efficiency of online raffle sales.”
Rep. Fields added:
“It’s important to note that this bill is very narrow and simply allows charities to raise money – charities and classics – to raise money through raffle sales online and it does not touch the much broader array of policies related to lotteries and pull tabs. This bill does not address sports betting or the many other gaming issues that we could address. This is a really narrow bill. When you look at the underlying statutes, there are existing definitions of raffles and classics and we’ve heard a little bit about this. We don’t have a state lottery now, and we will not have a state lottery if this bill passes. The only way that would happen is if we separately take up the issue of lotteries.”
According to the proposed legislation, the number of activities that may be held, operated, or conducted under a permit during a specified period; however, the department may not allow more than 14 bingo sessions a month and 35 bingo games a session to be conducted under a permit. The holders of a multiple-beneficiary permit may hold, operate, or conduct the number of sessions and games a month equal to the number allowed an individual permittee per month multiplied by the number of holders of the permit.
The bill passed the state House and now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.