Bingo Innovations of Cal. v. Shimazu CA3

BACKGROUND

Bingo Innovations filed a petition for administrative mandamus and injunctive relief, alleging as follows: On July 1, 2008, the ability of charities to use electronic devices to conduct bingo games was terminated “in favor of exclusive use by Native- American reservation gaming facilities.” A “Charity Bingo Mitigation Fund” was established “to ‘ease the transition of Remote [Caller] Bingo,’ which was made available to charities as a substitution for electronic machines.” Section 326.3 sets forth the license and control scheme to oversee this form of gaming. However, “[o]n May 26, 2011, [the Commission] unilaterally purported to ‘terminate the remote caller bingo program’ and stopped reviewing license applications, effective June 7, 2011.” Over 100 potential licensees “were prepared” to apply for licenses, but could not do so because of the

Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 Commission’s action, although the Commission still polices bingo gaming by issuing cease-and-desist orders “to locally approved bingo sites which could not get [their] State license applications considered.” Bingo Innovations asserted the Commission had a…