Civil engineer David Lindeman sells pull-tabs to raise money for the baseball and softwall teams of Tates Creek High School. Pull-tabs are very similar to scratch-off lottery tickets, only with tabs. The biggest prize one can win is 599 dollars, and if it is a progressive game 2.400 dollars. Perhaps, the most attractive thing about pull-tabs is that they provide instant winnings. This is one of the many proposals known as charitable gaming.
Leah Cooper, assistant director in the Office of Charitable Gaming, said that players crowd in bingo halls, when real money is in pull-tabs. As a matter of fact, in the Fayette County, public schools organize bingo games seven days a week, and occasionaly until the morning, in order to fund sports and music programs. The thing is that the school district only pays for coaches and music band directors, whereas the other expenses have to be faced by parents. Funraising through bingo has brought 6.8 millions dollars in the past 5 years, although they have begun to decrease lately.
Most parents do not like bingo events but understand that teams and bands need money. Actually, in some schools they can buy their right not to work bingo. Tates Creek Baseball team does not allow it. Ed Workman, president to the baseball booster club of this school, said that if they would allow parents to buy their way out of working bingo, there would not be enough volunteers to do it. One of Tatest Creek baseball players parents said that they it is much better to work at bingo events than having to pay incredible amounts of money for the kids.
