A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to require that beach bingo operators be licensed in the same manner as exempt organizations operating bingo games and to appropriate funds for the regulation of beach bingo.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑309.14 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑309.14.  Beach bingo.
Nothing in this Article shall apply to "beach bingo" games except for the following subdivisions:
(1)	Beach bingo operators shall comply with the licensing requirements of G.S. 14‑309.7(a), (b)(1), and (b)(4) in the same manner as exempt organizations operating bingo games.
(2)	No beach bingo game may offer a prize having a value greater than ten dollars ($10.00). Any person offering a greater than ten‑dollar ($10.00) but less than fifty‑dollar ($50.00) prize is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Any person offering a prize of fifty dollars ($50.00) or greater is guilty of a Class I felony.
(3)	No beach bingo game may be held in conjunction with any other lawful bingo game, with any "promotional bingo game", or with any offering of an opportunity to obtain anything of value, whether for valuable consideration or not. No beach bingo game may offer free bingo games as a promotion, for prizes or otherwise. Any person who violates this subsection is guilty of a Class I felony.
(4)	G.S. 18B‑308 shall apply to beach bingo games.
(5)	Upon conviction under any provision of this section, such person shall not conduct a bingo game for a period of at least one year."
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2004‑2005 fiscal year to fund the licensing and regulation of Beach Bingo.
SECTION 3.  Sections 2 and 3 of this act become effective July 1, 2004, and the remainder of this act becomes effective October 1, 2004.