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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- State alcoholic beverage control officials have nixed plans for pay bingo at an annual fundraiser for a cloistered order of nuns in Holladay.
The mid-September Carmelite Fair annually generates enough revenue to provide a year's worth of living expenses for nuns at the Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Monastery.
In the past, some of that money came from bingo games. Players paid a small fee to use the bingo cards and winners were paid with donated prizes.
But the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission says state gaming laws prohibit paid games of chance that pay winners with cash or prizes.
A staffer raised the issue after spotting a bingo booth on site plan submitted by the nuns as part of their beer sales application.
Lou Bertram, a retired F-B-I agent who represented the nuns to the commission, says the sisters want to obey the law and won't charge for bingo this year. He says they'll try and make up the revenue in other ways.
-------- Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
