logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Charitable Gambling Dealt Bad Hand, Casinos Open in Ohio

Nancy Knoche
June 13, 2011
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

June 12, 2011; Source: Cleveland.com | Bingo built St. Clarence Catholic Church and paid the motel tab for a homeless army recruit. A small nonprofit acquired a much needed $55,000 handicap-accessible van through charity poker proceeds. Now leaders in Ohio fear that this revenue – for many, their main source of fundraising – will shrink as casinos gear up to open across the state.

Charitable gambling is big money for Ohio nonprofits. Between 2005 and 2009, bingo generated more than $850 million dollars for churches and organizations like the VFW. Charity poker raised millions more, and the state lottery produced $3.3 million for education. State leaders are nervous and for good reason. Ohio leaders fear the future of charitable gambling is bleak if their state follows the experience of others where casinos were permitted to open to help strapped budgets.

Organizations that depend on gambling proceeds for revenue are usually small nonprofits who cannot afford to have a development director or staff. For over thirty years, most Ohio religious schools and parishes depended on bingo to help reduce tuition costs. Bingo revenue has been on the decline for several years, but weekly bingo games became as much a social gathering as a fundraising event. As the younger generation has internet gambling options, leaders predict within six years, bingo games will fade away because of a lack of players – with or without a casino opening.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The Nautica Entertainment Complex opened in the summer of 2005 near downtown Cleveland. The owner’s plan to develop a casino fizzled, but it has blossomed into a year round locale that has raised millions for charity. Medina Creative Housing raised tens of thousands of dollars through a poker festival held there.Nautica has charity games scheduled through the end of the year, but with a casino opening close by in 2012, its future is uncertain.

State officials believe that the lottery will fare better than either charitable poker or bingo. Other states with both lotteries and casinos seeking the public’s cash have seen mixed results.

Leaders believe the best strategy to counteract the new casinos is figure out ways to join them. A bill in the legislature was introduced to allow nonprofits to raise funds with slot machines. Ohio nonprofits hope to keep in the game as casinos open their doors. —Nancy Knoche

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
What Nigeria Can Teach the US About Food Insecurity
Chidinma Iwu
Arab American Philanthropy
Tamara El-Khoury
Forerunners of Food Justice: Black Farmer Movement Spans Generations
Demetrius Hunter
What Would a Social Justice Investment Ecosystem Look Like?
Steve Dubb
Measuring Healthcare Equity in North Carolina
Sonia Sarkar
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Is Doing Business with AARP a Bad Deal?
Nancy Knoche
9/11 Charities Hope to Open Hearts and Wallets
Nancy Knoche
Bloomberg Spreads the Wealth to Fellow Big-City Mayors
Nancy Knoche and Rick Cohen

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.