It came to Casino Guardian’s knowledge that Dublin Councillors have called for an immediate audit of groups that have used local council property to run weekly bingo nights without authorisation for years. As reported by The Irish Times, the St Monica’s Youth Resource Centre in Raheny, North Dublin has been organising a bingo night every week for decades without being authorised for that.
The youth centre has been hosted on a site owned by the city council for three decades now, with a bingo night being organised every Wednesday. Reportedly, such bingo nights have been gathering up to 500 players who used to spend from €10 to €15 each.
After the revelation, the Dublin City Council explained that it had not been aware of the above-mentioned unauthorised practice and further shared that it considered the bingo nights in question to have been against the lease contract of the site. Furthermore, it also became clear that the youth club does not own a gambling license allowing it to run such activities as the bingo nights.
It turned out that under the lease contract, the premises can be used only as a youth club and any other activities are forbidden to be held there.
Premise’s Lease Contract Conditions
As revealed by the community employment supervisor at the youth centre Susan Daly, the proceeds that were generated from the weekly bingo nights were very important as they helped the club keep its services running and it “could not survive” without it. Ms. Daly, whose parents once created the youth club, further explained that the average number of people who are normally present at some bingo nights are about 480.
The youth centre’s community employment supervisor also said that she had no idea that the 99-year lease contract with the Dublin city council, under which the club paid less than €50 on an annual basis, suspended it from organising bingo nights. The youth centre took the first steps towards getting a gambling license last week. As revealed by The Irish Times, the licensing application has been postponed until November 1st.
According to Ms. Daly, the organisers of the bingo nights were not aware of the fact that such activities could be held only under a license, because bingo is classified as a gambling activity under current legislation. She also said that the youth centre was not informed that the lease contract did not allow it to raise funds on the premises.
Up to date, hundreds of charity organisations and community groups have lease contracts or other letting arrangements with properties owned by the Dublin city council. Such organisations normally pay nominal rents as low as €30-40 on an annual basis, with the council receiving approximately an annual rent of approximately €250,000 on these properties.
Ruairí McGinley, Chairman of the finance committee of Dublin city council, revealed that he would back the audit.
- Author
Daniel Williams
