Alternative facility under fire for bingo prize

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A residential facility for people convicted of drunken driving or drug charges conducts cash-prize bingo games, a practice being criticized by county officials and gambling experts.
Judges can send nonviolent criminals to alternative facilities, such as the ARC House on Pittsburgh's North Side, instead of the Allegheny County jail. Although gambling violates ARC House rules, director Charles E. Cain said the facility has bingo games every other week and sponsors other games of chance, such as raffles. The organization collects profits of about $1,000 a month from bingo games.
The ARC House, like other nonprofit and religious groups, obtained a license from the Allegheny County treasurer's office to conduct the games. Cain and ARC House attorney William E. Stockey both maintained that bingo wasn't actually gambling in the traditional sense.