Charity Bar Games Getting Shut Down By Wyoming Gambling Crackdown

Wyoming regulators are cracking down on bar raffle games like Queen of Hearts and Music Bingo that raise money for charities, saying they are illegal gambling. Brian “Alf” Grzegorczyk has spent 16 years turning Thankful Thursdays into a fundraising powerhouse, donating more than $4.5 million to local groups. At his bar, Alf’s Pub, Queen of Hearts became one of his best tools for drawing crowds and fueling charitable giving—until a statewide crackdown.

In the most recent 12-week run, Queen of Hearts generated about $12,000 for Thankful Thursday, which passed along $1,000 each week to 12 nonprofits. Grzegorczyk also made $40,000 in other donations, including $5,000 for a volunteer fire department, $5,000 for a girls’ softball team, $5,000 for Cheyenne’s Brewfest supporting depot restoration, $5,000 for a pet rescue, and $15,000 toward a veterans and first-responders park. “Grants are being cut tremendously for nonprofits. State assistance is being cut tremendously,” he said. “So why are you hurting us when you have locals wanting to help locals? We’re not hurting anybody.”

The trouble, as the Wyoming Gaming Commission sees it, is that good intentions cannot make an illegal game legal. Wyoming statutes define gambling as risking any property for gain contingent in whole or in part by chance. All gambling is illegal except where exempted, which currently includes bingo, calcutta, and pull-tabs for charity. Queen of Hearts is a progressive raffle and does not qualify. Commissioner Nick Laramendy explained that there is no prize of value guaranteed to win; players are simply winning the chance to gamble on a secondary game. Because cards are removed each week, odds shift over time, violating the “equal probability” standard defining a raffle.

Laramendy also noted that gaming cannot further any profit motive under Wyoming law. “If you’re running these games to try to draw people into your bar to sell more drinks or more food, there’s an argument that could be made that you are doing that to profit your business,” he said.

As historic horse racing parlors have expanded, the Gaming Commission has started checking more of the state’s gaming landscape—shutting down games like Queen of Hearts and Music Bingo. In Evanston, entertainer A.J. Lamb ran Music Bingo for eight years, with 100% of each pot paid back to players. He was paid separately by the venue as entertainment. When Gaming Commission staff came to inspect a new casino, they also fanned out through smaller venues. “They just went through like a sweep of the town, clearing out everyone’s events,” Lamb said. He shifted to trivia and karaoke, but some businesses told him they would choose a different entertainer if he did not return to Music Bingo. “I lost about $31,000 last year from one bar alone,” he said.

Lamb started a petition with 600 signatures urging lawmakers to create a legal path for low-stakes charity games. “Why is horse racing an exception, but not charity?” he asked. “They want to protect people so they don’t feel bad. Well, I feel worse walking out of a day at the horse races, losing my socks, than I do walking out of a bar playing music bingo.” He noted that technology has outpaced Wyoming’s gambling laws: “I could sit on my phone right now and play those gambling games and waste thousands of dollars and put my mortgage down without even getting dressed. That right there is terrifying, but that’s completely fine.”