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  Popular Richmond bingo hall shuts down
November 25, 2015
 
 

Popular Richmond bingo hall shuts down
http://www.contracostatimes.com/richmond/ci_29162214/richmond-popular-bingo-hall-shuts-down

By Karina Ioffee kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted:   11/25/2015 06:57:50 AM PST| Updated:   80 min. ago

RICHMOND -- Fans of bingo were stunned to learn that Marina Bay Bingo Hall, one of the largest such halls in the Bay Area, was shut down last week. The reason? The organization's business license was not renewed after it was revealed that the hall's top management had failed to undergo a background check, according to the Richmond Police Department.

That includes the hall's chief executive officer and chief financial officer, as required by Richmond's municipal ordinance.

"Based on the information we were able to gather, it doesn't appear that they have ever been Live Scanned (fingerprinted)," said Sgt. Mike Rood, who works for the police department's regulatory unit.

Bingo halls in Richmond must be run by nonprofit groups and donate all proceeds to charitable purposes, according to the municipal code. The last known nonprofit to operate Marina Bay Bingo Hall was San Francisco-based United Council of Human Services, managed by Gwendolyn Westbrook. A call to Westbrook was not returned, nor were calls and emails to Richmond's finance department, which oversees business licenses.

The Marina Bay Bingo Hall is popular with visitors, but it's also had a troubled past. In 2010, it was revealed that the commander of the American Legion Post 875, the nonprofit that ran the parlor, was a twice convicted felon. San Francisco preacher Rev. Eddie Welbon had attempted to bribe the leader of a charity that sought bingo permits in Oakland in 1986 through the city's Commission of Public Charities.

Welbon later served a 12-month federal prison sentence for mail fraud and money laundering in refinancing the property of the San Francisco church he led, then used the proceeds to pay off personal debts and fund a charity he ran. It was shut down the same year and has since shuffled through various owners.

Contact Karina Ioffee at 510-262-2726 or kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/kioffee

 

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