Senate Bill 5565 amends existing law (RCW 9.46.0209 and RCW 9.46.0321) to expand which nonprofit entities may conduct bingo and to change limits and exceptions for those activities. The bill adds senior centers, senior housing organizations, senior living centers, and senior living communities (minimum residency age 55) to the statutory definition of "bona fide charitable or nonprofit organization" for purposes of bingo. Those named senior organizations may conduct bingo once each week and may have gross bingo revenue up to $10,000 per calendar year, while other qualifying organizations remain subject to a $5,000 annual gross revenue cap. Existing exemptions that permit bona fide charitable and nonprofit organizations to conduct bingo, raffles, and amusement games without a commission license when specified conditions are met are retained. The bill also preserves and restates various procedural and eligibility requirements: organizations must have existed and operated continuously for at least 12 months before applying or operating activities, must show significant progress toward their purposes in the prior 12 months, and must devote net revenue (after prizes and expenses) to qualifying purposes. Organizations must notify the local police agency at least five days before an event and keep one-year records of gross revenue, expenses, and uses. The bill references specific rules for raffle groups of executive branch employees and mentions affected entities including the commission, credit unions, counties/cities/towns, the state combined fund drive administrator, and local police. The text provided does not name the commission or reproduce the contents of the other RCW and federal provisions it cites, so those cross-references and any related statutory language are not included here and are needed for full interpretation.

Senior-focused organizations such as senior centers, senior housing organizations, senior living centers, and senior living communities (55+ residences) will be able to run bingo much more often and raise more money from it: they can hold bingo once a week and keep up to $10,000 gross revenue from bingo per year, with net proceeds required to go to their qualifying purposes. That change will likely expand small-scale fundraising options and steady income for those senior organizations compared with other nonprofits, which remain generally limited to two events a year and a $5,000 annual cap from those activities. Those senior groups will also take on clearer compliance duties and some modest administrative costs and risks: they must have been operating at least 12 months and show progress toward their purposes, notify the local police at least five days before events, keep one-year records of revenues and expenses, and ensure staff compensation meets local prevailing wages to retain their nonprofit status for these activities. The text repeatedly references oversight by “the commission” and other RCW provisions whose specifics aren’t included here, so some details about enforcement and other limits are unclear.