Can an illegal bingo game be considered a “lottery”?
Second, the court must decide which statute would apply to unauthorized bingo games if the court does not use the bingo law. The court has two options. First, the court could consider unauthorized bingo games to be gambling. (Look at chapter 849 in general.) The punishments for gambling range from misdemeanors to third degree felonies. The second option is to consider unauthorized bingo games as a lottery, which has more serious punishments. Only the State can conduct a lottery. Operating an illegal lottery is severely penalized by RICO, the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. (Look at section 895.03). The legislature passed RICO to stop “mobster-like” activities, including distributing or using explosives, murder, assault and battery, kidnapping, arson, extortion, bribery, counterfeiting, obstructing justice, betting, and running lotteries. (Look at section 895.02(1)). If conducting an illegal bingo game is considered a lottery, then the State can seize all of B
