SB 860

(1) The California Constitution permits the Legislature to authorize cities, counties, and cities and counties to provide for bingo games for charitable purposes. Existing law authorizes those local agencies to regulate bingo games for charitable purposes under specified criteria. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. Prior law, until January 1, 2017, authorized remote caller bingo for charitable purposes and required the commission to regulate remote caller bingo, including licensure and operation. Existing law prohibits Gambling Control Act requirements from applying to remote caller bingo unless expressly made applicable by repealed provisions relating to the aforementioned remote caller bingo program. Existing law requires the commission to adopt emergency regulations concerning remote caller bingo and concerning card-minding devices by May 1, 2009. Existing law creates the Charity Bingo Mitigation Fund for the purpose of transitioning eligible entities to remote caller bingo, as specified. This bill would repeal these and related obsolete provisions relating to remote caller bingo. (2) Existing law authorizes a player who is physically present at a bingo game to use a hand-held, portable card-minding device, as specified, to assist in monitoring the numbers or symbols announced by a live caller as those numbers or symbols are called in a live game. Existing law also requires the Department of Justice to establish requirements for card-minding devices. Existing law authorizes the department to inspect card-minding devices and prohibits the use of any device that does not comply with requirements established by the department. This bill would repeal those provisions authorizing the department to inspect, and prohibit the use of, card-minding devices and requiring a card-minding device to be approved by the department.