Bingo is illegal -- except in licensed premises.

That was the legal interpretation of the Senior Magistrate's controversial ruling which yesterday declared VSB TV bingo illegal.

In a test case, the Wor. Will Francis slapped a $1,000 fine on businessman Neil Inchcup for conducting an illegal lottery.

He also fined DeFontes Broadcasting Company Ltd. $700 on the same charge.

Yesterday's judgment -- in which bingo was branded a game of chance -- immediately triggered fierce controversy.

Inchcup's lawyer, Mr. Richard Hector, said it made a "complete nonsense'' of the law.

It did not make sense for licensed premises to be free to stage bingo, while other places, such as church basements, were forbidden to do so.

"I am really surprised by the ruling.'' American bingo expert Roger Gibson, hired by Inchcup to oversee his operation, was also outraged.

"I am extremely shocked. I have been doing bingo for 15 years throughout the United States.'' Gibson, who was not named in the charges brought by the Attorney General's chambers, pointed out he had advised Inchcup against mixing "booze and bingo''.

"I have never been in a situation where a court states that in order to play bingo you must serve alcohol. I am just speechless.'' The television company's president, Mr. Kenneth DeFontes, meanwhile, lashed out: "It is not fair that we have been singled out.'' It was a swipe at rival station, Bermuda Broadcasting Company, which had broadcast bingo as well.

Mr. Francis delivered his ruling, which would end Saturday TV bingo on VSB, following a lengthy Magistrates' Court trial in April and May.

DeFontes Broadcasting and Inchcup had been charged with conducting an illegal lottery -- in the form of Freeport Home bingo -- over VSB television on October 22, 1994.

Inchcup, 59, of Collector's Hill, Smith's Parish, was later acquitted of this charge. However, he faced additional charges of conducting a lottery, namely a bingo game, at the Dockyard on October 18, 1994; and of allowing a multi-purpose room in the Clocktower building to be used to hold a lottery on that same day.

He was fined $500 on each count.

Mr. Francis stressed his ruling only related to this specific case.

"Let me emphasise that this is not a finding that bingo is an illegal game, only that bingo, as conducted by these accused was illegal.'' But the ruling was interpreted as having a wider meaning -- only licensed premises could conduct bingo legally.

Bingo operators lose case From Page 1 Inchcup and VSB operator DeFontes, represented by Mr. David Cooper, had been charged under the Lotteries Act 1944.

A key argument by Mr. Richard Hector was that a 1975 amendment to the Liquor Licensing Act made bingo legal.

He cited a 1976 Magistrates' Court case involving bingo in which Forty Thieves Club president Terrence Brannon was found not guilty of operating an illegal lottery.

Unlike the Dockyard site, the Forty Thieves was a licensed premises under the Liquor Licensing Act 1974.

In his 1976 judgment, Magistrate the Wor. K.C. Nadarajah pointed out the Liquor Licensing Act had been amended in 1975 to exclude bingo from the definition of an illegal game.

Although the nightclub was charged under the Lotteries Act, Mr. Nadarajah ruled the change to the Liquor Licensing Act amended the Lotteries Act "by implication'', and he found Brannon not guilty.

In the Forty Thieves case, bingo was assumed to be a game of chance, and that was not an issue.

Yesterday, Mr. Francis said of the case: "I have considered the ruling of the learned magistrate.

"I am not bound by it. But I agree with it. The provision of the Liquor Licence Act, I agree, made bingo at that nightclub not illegal.

"But does it necessarily follow from that, that bingo at the Clocktower, which is not a licensed premised under the Liquor Licence Act, and on VSB TV, which also is not licensed under the Liquor Licence Act, are also not illegal? "Mr. Hector has strenuously urged on me that it cannot have been the intention of Parliament, when it amended the Liquor Licence Act, to make bingo legal in nightclubs, social clubs and other establishments where liquor was sold, but illegal in church halls.

"As I see it, however, the object of the Lotteries Act is to control gambling.

"The Liquor Licence Act is an Act designed to license and control consumption of alcoholic beverages.

"Parliament in its wisdom felt that in places, where there were sufficient controls in place to permit consumption of alcohol, were also places with sufficient controls in place to permit playing of bingo for money prizes, notwithstanding the Lotteries Act.

"It, therefore, is not illogical or inconsistent to say that basic bingo is still illegal when it is not permitted either under the Lotteries Act or under the Liquor Licence Act.

"I, therefore, find that the amendment to the Liquor Licence Act would not make basic bingo legal either at the Clocktower or over VSB TV.'' Much of the trial had revolved around whether bingo was purely a game of chance, and thereby illegal. Crown Counsel Mr. Peter DeJulio had tried to shoot down arguments bingo needed skill -- and Mr. Francis agreed with him.

Said Mr. Francis: "Both Mr. Hector and Mr. Cooper have urged on me the fact, which has never been denied, that from time to time both at Freeport and on TV there had been what was called false bingos.

"Mr. Hector and Mr. Cooper said this proved some people were better at playing the game than others.'' Mr. Francis said there was no doubt people had to understand certain things -- such as how to achieve a bingo -- before playing the game.

But this did not mean skill was needed.

"The game, therefore, requires, I find, a certain level of concentration, for if one did not call out bingo in time and the caller moved on to call another number you had missed your opportunity to win.

"I have given these facts a lot of consideration. I remind myself that this is a criminal case. The burden of proof is on the prosecution. Any doubt must be resolved in favour of these defendants.

"Some players played with as many as 20 or more cards, some with only a few.

"But as I consider this, I find that this in no way makes the game in any sense competitive ...

"Winning is still a matter of pure luck. In bingo, as I see it, winning depends on whether you are lucky enough for your number to pop out of the scrambling machine.'' Afterwards, Mr. Hector and Mr. Cooper declined to say whether they would fight the judgment.