Other LanguagesA noncharter code city may levy a city business and occupation tax on the gross receipts of parimutuel machines at a horse race course that is situated within the corporate limits of the city.
1. RCW 9.46.0209 authorizes state employees to conduct charitable raffles, but such raffles may benefit a person or family in need through a qualified charitable or benevolent entity. However, state employees may not conduct a raffle for the purpose of raising funds that will be transmitted directly to an individual person or family in need. 2. A charitable raffle conducted by a group of state employees may benefit a family, family member, or friend of a state employee conducting the raffle, only if that recipient has been designated as a person or family in need by a qualified charitable or benevolent entity.
The state gambling commission has delegated authority to define what is including in the term “pull-tabs”, but this authority does not extend to define “video pull-tabs” as “pull-tabs”, because a paper ticket or folder is a fundamental element of a pull tab.
Although a bona fide charitable or nonprofit organization organized primarily for purposes other than the conduct of gambling activities may, under the circumstances set forth in RCW 9.46.030(3), conduct bingo, raffles and amusement games without obtaining a license from the State Gambling Commission to do so, that organization may not lawfully conduct a "fund-raising event" as defined in RCW 9.46.020(23) without obtaining such a license.
(1) The possession of (a) a multiple coin "bingo" type pinball machine, or (b) a punchboard or pull tab device each of which is more fully described in the body of this opinion is unlawful per se , under RCW 9.47.030 and 9.47.110, without extrinsic proof that the particular machine or device is being operated for the winning or losing of money or property. (2) The games of poker, rummy, pinochle, cribbage, or panguingue, and similar card games, when played for either limited or unlimited stakes in an establishment which is paid either a fixed amount per hour or per hand by the players, violate RCW 9.47.010 and 9.47.020. (3) The game of bingo, when played for a money or merchandise prize by persons who have paid a valuable consideration to play, constitutes an illegal lottery under the provisions of RCW 9.59.010. (4) The fact that an illegal gambling game or lottery is conducted by a charitable, religious or fraternal organization, with all proceeds to be devoted to the purposes of the organization, does not constitute a defense to criminal liability. (5) A city or county may not license and thereby permit the possession or operation of any gambling game or device which is violative of any state statute.
Revenue from the tax on gambling activities authorized by RCW 9.46.110 must be used chiefly, or for the most part, to enforce gambling laws. However, revenues from the tax on amusement games must be used solely for the enforcement of gambling laws.
1. Under the Washington State Constitution, article 2, section 24, an initiative authorizing forms of electromechanical gaming not previously authorized would require a sixty percent majority vote to be effective. 2. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. §§ 2701 et. seq. ) does not preempt state authority to set state policy on gambling, or to determine the procedures by which state gambling laws will be adopted and/or modified.
The provisions of § 7, chapter 218, Laws of 1973, Ex.Sess., under which gambling activities licensed by the state gambling commission may be prohibited by a first class city, do not extend to cities in excess of twenty thousand which have adopted the optional municipal code.
The proprietor or owner of a restaurant, tavern, coffee shop or similar establishment would be engaged in the conduct of prohibited gambling activities within the meaning of chapter 9.46 RCW if such proprietor or owner, without other participation in the game, were (1) To maintain on the premises for use by its patrons, customers or others a board, sheet or other similar paraphernalia to be used in the conduct of a football, baseball or other sports pool, and in connection with such pool were to assign scores, receive wagers and distribute anything of value to a contestant, although without fee, commission or other profit for such services; (2) Except to the extent of card games licensed under RCW 9.46.030, to furnish dice or playing cards to patrons, customers or others on the premises of the establishment to be utilized by such persons for gambling in order to determine which person in their number shall pay the cost of the meals, drinks or other sustenance purchased on the premises; (3) To maintain on the premises for the convenience of his patrons, customers or others, any of the aforesaid devices which are in fact owned by such persons and utilized by them for the purposes set forth in (2) above.
If the outcome of a mechanical or coin-operated game is "as the result of the operation of an element of chance" and "depends in a material degree upon the skill of the contestant," such a game may constitute gambling and be an "amusement game" under RCW 9.46 [chapter 9.46 RCW]. The Gambling Commission may approve "digger" or "crane" games as amusement games if warranted by the facts and all statutory criteria have been met. The award of prizes directly from the game does not affect the classification of a game as an "amusement game" or "gambling device."