On pull-tab bingo, officials with Baptist General Convention have weighed in. They are not pleased.

Christian Life Commission (CLC) director Suzii Paynter, in a May 14 letter to the three commissioners of the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC), questions the process by which video confirmation for more than two dozen pull-tab bingo games was apparently approved earlier this month.

CLC, which opposes expansion of gambling, is crying foul that the Charitable Bingo Division of TLC did not involve them more in the process of making sure the games fall within the Attorney General’s narrow definition of video confirmation.

Baptists have been wary of the electronic displays, which make pull-tab bingo appear more like video-lottery terminals, or slot machines. The CLC fears the format could entice more people to gamble.

The CLC letter, copied to Attorney General Greg Abbott, says the Baptist General Convention of Texas learned May 6 that video confirmation for approximately 26 games was “apparently approved” by TLC’s executive director of charitable bingo, Phil Sanderson.

The new video confirmation for the games is immediately available to bingo establishments that wish to install it for their pull-tab games, Sanderson said, emphasizing that bingo halls are not required to install the new video confirmation in order to continue to be able to play the games.

Last month, Sanderson showed Paynter, Rob Kohler with the CLC, and members of the Texas Lottery Commission games that were under consideration by the Bingo Advisory Committee.

Among these were the horse race game previously reported on in Lone Star Report. Paynter’s letter reports that “only one or two” of the games could operate under the Attorney General’s definition of video confirmation.

“In fact,” wrote Paynter, “we would argue that any version of video confirmation that did not ‘merely permit video display of winning numbers’ could not operate.”

At the time of that meeting, Kohler told Lone Star Report, no new games had yet been approved. Ever since TLC had approved the rule and Abbott had issued the opinion on video confirmation, the CLC had been checking in with the state agency regularly to see what new products were in the pipeline. It was nearly 10 months since the original adoption of the video confirmation rule.

But Sanderson told Lone Star Report that the games, all of them essentially pull-tab bingo, have been around since 2002 at the earliest, and have been played in Texas for at least a year.

What varies among them according to Sanderson, are the packaging and the level of payout.

Sanderson emphasized that on May 2 he approved video confirmations for 26 different types of games, but said that the games themselves had been approved long ago by the TLC.

He said he approved the video confirmation of the results of the games, explaining that they were “all lottery games that are similar or the same game, just different payout structures.”

“Video confirmation is a graphic display of the results of an event pull-tab game,” Sanderson explained. “So the pull-tab games have to be approved, which all of these have been approved prior in the past. And all we did was look at the video confirmation and make sure it worked with the tickets and did not offer anything that would not be within our statutory or regulatory authority.”

The pull-tab bingo games are packaged under the names “Horse Race,” “Jackalope,” “Bumblebee,” “Betty Boop,” etc. Each has a distinct visual appearance according to its name. But ultimately, “It’s just a name for a ticket,” Sanderson said. These 26 were approved to be used with the video confirmation device on May 2. Their prices also vary according to the levels of payout, like scratch-off tickets.

Paynter also expressed concerns that TLC commissioners themselves seem not to have been involved in the approval process for video confirmation of the games, even though their rules regarding video confirmation say that they would be.

“Our understanding of the rule was that the approval process would be much more inclusive with the Commission’s open review and approval of the video confirmation,” the letter continued.

Kohler says CLC still does not know exactly what the games are because, says the letter, “When we asked how we could see the games and type of video confirmation approved for use in the State, we were told that we would have to submit an open records request.”

“We don’t like that,” Kohler said. “We think they’ve got an obligation to let folks know as easily as possible what these games look like,” because private citizens who have never done an open records request might want to know about the games being made available at local businesses.

Sanderson said he was not aware of anyone’s having been told to submit an open records request. He said anyone who wanted to see a video confirmation device could simply “walk into a bingo hall that’s using it.”

“All it is is a computer with a CD and software that displays the confirmation that a pull-tab event ticket is a winning ticket,” Sanderson said.

But CLC has taken issue with at least one of the existing games. CLC believes that the horse race game does not meet the standard for video confirmation under the opinion issued by the Attorney General last Jan. 17. “[T]he graphic and dynamic video confirmation device solely to inform players of the winning numbers in a bingo game would not by itself convert the game into electronic bingo,” the CLC contends.

Said Kohler: “There’s a difference between having a winning number and creatively showing that winning number … compared to the winning number being represented as a result of a competitive [event], for example a horse race, which creates the illusion of a secondary game, not just the representation. So that’s the line that we’re looking for.”

Paynter asked the commissioners to add a demonstration of the video confirmation approved by Sanderson to the next Lottery Commission meeting agenda. The letter also includes an open records request for “any information, guidelines, description, video demos, brochures of the games and associated video confirmation that have been approved for play in the State.”

“We think there’s a consumer protection issue here,” Kohler told Lone Star Report. “The consumers, the folks in this state have a right and the government should let them know of new gambling activities that are coming” into their communities, he said.

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