The Arkansas state legislature is currently mulling over a bill that would allow non-profit organizations in the state to sponsor charitable bingo games. With its current legislation, Arkansas is one of only four states in the entire U.S. to prohibit charitable bingo.

This week, House Joint Resolution 1003 was sent by the Joint Committee on Constitutional Amendments to the state House and Senate for deliberation. In order to pass the bingo resolution, the House, Senate and Arkansas' voting residents would have to grant their approval. Should this occur, non-profit organizations will be permitted to host charitable bingo games by 2007. In order to generate revenue, HJR 1003 prescribes a yearly licensing charge for running bingo games, as opposed to taxing charitable bingo earnings.

Previous attempts to legalize charitable bingo have come up short, partially because past bills included clauses relating to other gambling ventures as well. The current bill has been limited to charitable bingo only, so as to avoid conflict with anti-gambling elements in the state, despite attempts made to add gambling to the bill.