Missouri Bingo Laws: Licenses, Game Rules, and Penalties

Missouri bingo laws restrict the game to licensed nonprofit organizations under Chapter 313 of the Revised Statutes. To qualify, a religious, charitable, fraternal, veteran, or service group must have existed for at least five years and maintained at least twenty genuine members throughout that time.¹ The rules that follow control everything from who can pull a tab to how prize money is reported, and some violations rise to felony level.

Who Can Hold a Bingo License

Only a bona fide religious, charitable, fraternal, veteran, or service organization qualifies. The group must have been continuously in existence for the five years immediately before applying and must have kept at least twenty real members through that period.¹ Charitable organizations also need a federal tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3).²

Up to five eligible but unlicensed groups can apply together and share a single license. When they do, every reporting rule and operating restriction applies to all of the groups and all of their members.¹

The burden is on the applicant to show by clear and convincing evidence that it meets every requirement, and the Missouri Gaming Commission can reopen licensure hearings for any licensee at any time.³

The Three License Types and Their Costs

Missouri sells three kinds of bingo licenses, each with its own scope and fee. All fees are set by statute and nonrefundable.

Standard license: $50, valid one year from the date of issuance. It covers traditional bingo and pull-tab games with no cap on occasions. An organization may hold only one, and it cannot be transferred.³
Abbreviated license: $10 per event, for pull-tab-only games on no more than fifteen occasions a year. Each occasion must run less than twenty-four hours, and the five-year, twenty-member rule still applies.¹
Special license: $25, for bingo during a fair, picnic, festival, or celebration lasting up to one week and held no more than once a year. Organizations that pull more than three special licenses in a calendar year must file an annual report.³

Rules for Running the Games

Only Long-Standing Members Can Work the Games

Everyone who helps conduct or manage a bingo game must have been a genuine member of the licensed organization for at least six months before participating. Missouri does not allow paid staff hired specifically to run bingo. The workers are volunteers.⁴

Days, Ages, and Who Can Be in the Room

A licensed organization may hold bingo on no more than two days a week. No one under sixteen may play or help run the games. Children under sixteen can be present in the bingo area only if a parent or guardian is with them.⁴

Where Games Can Be Held and When Sales Can Start

Games must take place on premises the organization owns or leases. Any lease has to be approved by the commission, and the landlord cannot charge rent based on a percentage of gross bingo receipts. Lessors and suppliers cannot operate the games themselves.⁵ Under commission rules, bingo paper and pull-tab cards cannot be sold more than three hours before the first game, and pull-tab sales may not begin before 7:00 a.m.⁶

What Game Formats Are Allowed

Traditional Bingo

The core format is the standard 5-by-5 card with twenty-five squares and a free center square. Numbers, letters, or combinations are drawn at random from a receptacle, and the first player to cover the predetermined pattern wins.²

Pull-Tab Cards

Pull-tabs sit inside Missouri’s statutory definition of bingo and can be sold alongside or instead of traditional cards. Every card sold in the state must display the retail price on its face. Suppliers pay a 2% tax on gross pull-tab receipts, which goes into the bingo proceeds for education fund.⁷

Progressive Bingo

Licensed organizations may run progressive games such as coverall or blackout, where a set number of balls are called. If nobody wins that round, the prize rolls over into the next session held by the same organization.⁸ Accumulating pots need careful tracking in the organization’s financial records.

Electronic Bingo Card Monitoring Devices

Missouri permits electronic bingo card monitoring devices to help players keep up with multiple cards, with tight limits. Each device may monitor no more than fifty-four cards per game, and each player is limited to one device per occasion. Players who want more can still buy paper cards on top. Devices cannot let players design cards or choose where numbers appear, all card data must be loaded before the first ball is drawn, and the device must erase all stored card information after the last game of the occasion.⁹

Who Is Barred From Involvement

Some people are permanently blocked from holding a license or working any part of a game:

Anyone convicted of a felony.
Current or former professional gamblers and gambling promoters.
Anyone who has ever purchased a federal wagering tax stamp.
Anyone with a gambling conviction, a nolo contendere plea, or a forfeited bond tied to illegal gambling.
Anyone the Gaming Commission concludes poses a threat to the public interest or to effective bingo regulation based on prior activities or criminal history.

If a disqualified person is an officer, director, or employee of an organization, the whole organization is ineligible. A group whose license has been revoked can only reapply after showing, again by clear and convincing evidence, that everyone involved in the violations has been fully removed from any direct or indirect role in its bingo operations.¹⁰

Where the Money Has to Go

Every dollar of net bingo receipts above the actual cost of running the game must go to the organization’s lawful charitable, religious, or philanthropic purposes. No one who works for or is affiliated with the organization may take any compensation out of bingo proceeds. Violating this rule is a class E felony.⁴

Proceeds cannot be loaned to any person, though the organization can invest them in a licensed bank, savings institution, or government instrument. Loaning proceeds is a class C misdemeanor.⁴

The statute defines legitimate operating costs narrowly: prizes, cards from a licensed supplier, equipment purchased or leased, rent and utilities, security at commission-approved rates, reasonable janitorial service at fair market value, and advertising at fair market cost.⁴

Records and Reports

Licensees must keep complete records of every game. The retention period is two years, except for records the commission designates for one year. Organizations that hold bingo on more than three occasions in a calendar year file quarterly financial reports with the Gaming Commission.¹¹ Any change in officers, directors, or officials during the license term must be reported to the commission immediately.

Suppliers Need Their Own License

Anyone who manufactures, sells, leases, or distributes bingo equipment or supplies in Missouri needs a separate supplier license. Operating without one is illegal. The commission runs background checks on key personnel of applicants, including FBI fingerprint checks when it decides a nationwide review is warranted.⁷

Suppliers pay a 2% tax on the gross retail sales value of every pull-tab card sold in Missouri, due monthly by the last day of the month after the sale. Suppliers who file and pay on time can retain 2% of the tax they collect. All revenue goes to the bingo proceeds for education fund.⁷

Penalties for Violations

Not every violation carries the same weight. The pieces of Chapter 313 with real criminal teeth are the ones about the money.

Diverting proceeds or paying workers out of bingo revenue: class E felony, the most serious penalty in Chapter 313.⁴
Loaning bingo proceeds: class C misdemeanor.⁴
License revocation or suspension: the commission can revoke or suspend for any Chapter 313 violation and can reopen licensure hearings at any time.³
Running a bingo equipment or supply business without a supplier license: unlawful under Section 313.057, with the commission authorized to enforce.⁷

The felony classification for misusing proceeds catches many organizers off guard. Skimming from a small charity bingo night is not a minor infraction in Missouri, and individuals involved in the wrongdoing face personal criminal liability alongside the organization.

Federal Tax Reporting on Prizes

State law is only half the picture. IRS rules run independently, and organizations paying out big prizes trigger federal reporting. For the 2026 tax year, the bingo reporting threshold is $2,000 per prize, adjusted for inflation. When a player wins $2,000 or more on a single bingo game, the organization files Form W-2G.¹²

Regular federal gambling withholding does not apply to bingo winnings. But if a winner fails to provide a valid taxpayer identification number, backup withholding kicks in at 24% of the winnings, optionally reduced by the amount wagered, and the organization has to withhold and remit it.¹² A volunteer-run operation can miss this easily, so set up a process for collecting winner information before paying out any large prize.

1
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.010
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.005
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.015
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.040
5
Justia. Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 313 – Licensed Gaming Activities
6
Missouri Secretary of State. 11 CSR 45-30 Missouri Gaming Commission Bingo Rules
7
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.057
8
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.013
9
Legal Information Institute. 11 CSR 45-30.600 Electronic Bingo Card Monitoring Devices
10
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes RSMo Section 313.035
11
Missouri Senate. SB 940 – Modifies Various Provisions Relating to Bingo
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754