Bingo license pulled from Post Falls Senior Center

POST FALLS - The Idaho Lottery Commission revoked the Post Falls Senior Center's charitable bingo license last month due to an alleged violation of record-keeping laws over a five-year period.

The Idaho Lottery Commission, which regulates charitable gaming in the state, issued a revocation order effective Aug. 1. The commission pulled the license following a six-month probation period during which the senior center was expected to rectify some of the discrepancies.

"The Lottery has made many attempts to assist Post Falls Senior Center with record keeping, including meetings, providing nightly log and general ledger forms with completed samples for their reference, along with many emails," the order stated. "It is the organization's responsibility to read, understand and comply with all legal requirements. It is apparent from the records provided, along with the correspondence, Post Falls Senior Center has failed to comply with Idaho statutes and administrative rules by maintaining the required records."

Alison McArthur, the bingo manager at the senior center, declined to comment on the allegation, citing her attorney's advice not to talk with The Press.

"You need to talk with Rob Clark. He is the chairman of the board," she said.

Clark said there are many rumors being spread that insinuate there were some misappropriations of funds that caused the revocation. That's false, he said.

"What sucks is that our government is becoming an absolute joke," he said. "We are having a miscommunication problem with the state lottery. Our problem is reporting."

Clark said the real problem is that some of the required report forms have not been filled out correctly.

Repeated attempts to talk with someone at the lottery commission familiar with the revocation order were unsuccessful. However, David Workman, spokesman for the lottery, provided The Press a copy of the 104-page revocation order and supporting documents following a public records request.

According to the order, McArthur contacted the state lottery office on Aug. 10, 2011, shortly after she was hired by the senior center.

She called to inform the lottery office that a former bingo manager had been fired for allegedly stealing money from the senior center. McArthur allegedly told the lottery commission the former manager destroyed all the bingo records, so the senior center would only be able to file an estimate of its bingo proceeds until a professional audit could be conducted.

Amber French, who was the lottery director at the time, agreed to allow the center to file the estimate, but French also called for an on-site audit by the lottery commission, according to the order.

Auditors showed up at the senior center in October 2011, and started auditing the books from Sept. 1, 2010 through Aug. 1, 2011 and found a number of problems with the reporting. They sent a letter to the senior center on Feb. 13, 2012 detailing their findings, including 10 violations that needed to be addressed.

The letter provided advice on how to rectify the situation, and the senior center was allowed to continue bingo operations as long the reporting issues were resolved, the order said.

In September 2012, McArthur submitted a required Annual Bingo Report, but it was incomplete. Lottery officials stated in the order that they worked with McArthur, offering guidance until she was able to provide the proper documents.

"The lottery found that the numbers appeared to be accurate and showed that Ms. McArthur understood what was required based on the Idaho Code and Administrative Rules," the order said.

The revocation order indicated the importance of proper reporting to keep track of gross revenues and the amounts donated to the charity operating the bingo games - in this case, the senior center. State law requires at least 20 percent of the revenues to be donated.

According to the order, the senior center submitted reports in 2012 and 2013 and "the first report was incorrect, showing at least $2,407 missing."

McArthur was contacted and given the opportunity to revise the numbers to address that discrepancy.

"She submitted a revised report which had a different amount for the expenses and reports the missing money as 'cash on hand at the end of the year,'" according to the order.

On Oct. 14, 2014, the lottery conducted another audit of the senior center and found more discrepancies.

"During the audit, it was apparent that the required records and paperwork were not kept or maintained which called for a more indepth review in order to complete the audit," the order said. "The lottery took the senior center's records and paperwork back to the lottery office in order to conduct a thorough audit on all materials."

The order said once again, numerous violations occurred in the creation and maintenance of bingo records, so the lottery decided to put the senior center on probation from Dec. 1, 2014 to May 1 of this year to once again come into compliance.

During that probation period, the senior center allegedly continued to violate the reporting requirements.

In the order, lottery officials detailed several bank transactions and checks that could not be reconciled, and numerous accounts of missing bingo cards. The lottery explains in the order that bingo cards or "bingo paper" is considered inventory and must be tracked by the charity during every bingo session. The cards must be sold in sequence and recorded for each game to prove actual gross revenue.

The lottery found many of the bingo cards were never tracked.

"All paper bought by PFSC must be accounted for as either sold, damaged or used for promotional purposes. The ending (card) number of one (bingo) session has to be the beginning number of the following session," the lottery emphasized in the order. "The organization must include the series number and the tracking numbers on the nightly log with no gaps between numbers, along with the names of the games and the amount that is charged for each game.

"This will produce an accurate gross total and prevent theft," the order continued. "All of the missing paper indicates missing money."

Records on the progressive bingo games were also allegedly incomplete and some moneys unaccounted for.

It was unclear as of press time Tuesday whether civil or criminal action is pending as a result of the audit.

The revocation order was sent to Clark, McArthur and Carl Withroe in the Civil Litigation Bureau of the Idaho Attorney General's Office, who could not be reached before the close of business on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Clark said, the lottery is unwilling to lift the revocation even though he feels the whole mess is the result of clerical miscommunication and errors.

"Yeah, the license is being revoked and it is being addressed," Clark said. "We will take this to the lottery commission in a month."