Five Phoenix-area American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts recently lost their legal battle to offer raffle fundraisers after an appellate court ruled the raffles were illegal gambling under state law.
Following a state Department of Gaming agent’s threat to seize equipment provided by a vendor who was paid up to half of the raffle revenue, the posts ceased offering the fundraisers. But claiming the raffles are allowed under the state law exemption for nonprofits, the five posts sued the state to be allowed to continue offering them. The judge in that case ruled against the posts, which then filed an appeal. The Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court’s decision that the posts did not qualify to offer the raffles under the nonprofit exemption, due to the revenue-sharing deal with the vendor.
The posts involved in the case are: American Legion Post 62 in Peoria and Posts 1 and 105 in Phoenix and VFW Posts 1433 in Glendale and 1796 in Black Canyon City.
