GCD finds 'bunco' to be an illegal game
By Rick Ask
Acting Administrator
Gambling Control Division
Recently, the Gambling Control Division was asked whether or not it was legal to play a dice game called "bunco" in a licensed establishment. The licensed operator had nothing to do with the game other than letting a group use a banquet/meeting room for the activity.
The GCD’s answer is "no," bunco is not an authorized gambling activity and it cannot legally be played in a public place.
Bunco is a dice game that, we are told, is being played for fun and fund raising in parts of the state. It is played with several tables of players, three dice per team, a score card, a bell and a fuzzy die.
Explaining the game beyond that would take more space than is warranted in the Montana Tavern Times. Suffice it to say, players are trying to roll ones, score points, yell “bunco” and move to a head table.
Section 23-5-111, Montana Code Annotated, requires that the department and the courts strictly construe Montana’s gambling statutes and allow only those types of “gambling and gambling activity specifically and clearly allowed.”
Section 23-5-112(11)(a) defines gambling or a gambling activity as “risking any money, credit, deposit, check, property, or other thing of value for a gain that is contingent in whole or in part upon lot, chance, or the operation of a gambling device or gambling enterprise.”
In our case, players had paid to play and prizes were awarded based on chance (roll of the dice). Thus, bunco is not authorized in statute.
In addition, the definition of illegal gambling found in 23-5-112(18) provides, in part, that an illegal gambling enterprise means, “a dice game, by whatever name known in which a participant wagers on the outcome of the roll of one or more dice...but not including” games authorized by 23-5-160, MCA. Dice games authorized under 23-5-160, MCA, are shake-a-day and shaking for drinks and music.
Section 23-5-112(33), MCA, defines public gambling as gambling in a place to which the public has access or may be permitted to have access or a place to which the public does not have access if players are publicly solicited, or the game is conducted in a predominately commercial manner. If the game is run in a public place or players are solicited in a public manner, it is "public gambling."
So, regardless of your purpose—fun or fund raising—bunco is not an authorized gambling activity and, if offered in a public place or manner, it is illegal.
This is the GCD’s first attempt to provide some public information on the topic. It was a topic of conversation on the agenda at the Gaming Advisory Council meeting May 19 in Missoula. As always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, May 2009, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W Granite, Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.