“What happened was COVID hit and they shut down the bingo hall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For those of us that don\u2019t drink or anything else, that was our social life, you know? In Bethel, there\u2019s not much to do,”<\/strong> he continued. “It\u2019s laughter, it\u2019s fun, it\u2019s connecting with people you haven\u2019t talked to in a long time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAuthorities beg to differ. The letters dated March 5 and signed by Katrina Mitchell, gaming manager for the Alaska Department of Revenue remind the groups that offering gambling is illegal in Alaska.<\/p>\n
The state has no casinos and no lottery, just one electronic bingo hall, operated by the Metlakatla Indian Community, several charitable bingo establishments, and a smattering of pull-tab booths.<\/p>\n
Unenforceable Threats <\/strong><\/h2>\nMitchell this week made the self-defeating admission to KYUK that her department had no powers to enforce gambling laws. Meanwhile, the police say they\u2019re too busy with other crimes to bother about Facebook groups’ live streaming lottery scratch-offs.<\/p>\n
But as the pandemic recedes, Alaska\u2019s charitable bingo halls are beginning to reopen, which may put an end to the proxy-betting craze.<\/strong><\/p>\nBut if it persists, it\u2019s likely Facebook will eventually get around to shutting the groups down, as users could potentially expose themselves to fraud and rigged games.<\/p>\n
The social media giant has said in the past that its policy is to shut down pages that offer unlicensed gambling, such as raffles, once they are reported, investigated, and deemed to be illegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The State of Alaska has written cease-and-desist letters to organizers of dozens of Facebook groups that promote \u201cproxy betting\u201d on pull tabs. Proxy betting is big in Asia. Its popularity in America\u2019s frozen northwestern extremity appears to be a more recent phenomenon and one which has been driven by the coronavirus pandemic. In the casinos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":173649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13592,22988],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Pandemic Ignites Facebook Proxy Pull-Tab Gambling Craze in Alaska<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n