About 6,800 blind and sight-impaired people in Akron Ohio turn to the Written Communications Radio Service (WCRS) for assistance on a regular basis. WCRS volunteers read aloud newspaper and magazine articles and transmit the broadcasts onto a local radio station for the benefit of the visually-challenged population in the area. Providing these special services does cost money though. Like many charitable organizations, the WCRS runs bingo games to provide for a substantial chunk of its budget. Unfortunately, it appears as though the WCRS may have to stop providing some of its services due to a potential shortfall in its bingo revenues.
No, people haven't stopped coming to the bingo games. Rather, the state has taken issue with WCRS' bingo operations. Though the WCRS has been running bingo games since 1990, only recently has the state of Ohio challenged its authority to raise funds through bingo. Ohio's Attorney General Jim Petro's main charge is that the WCRS is not officially recognized as a charitable educational organization, which would make it illegal for it to raise funds through bingo games.
Such a shame that the blind will probably have to suffer further because of legal technicalities.
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