The Gazette’s David Migoya was recently recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for his investigative reporting on Colorado’s $110 million charitable gaming industry.

“Fascinating report on a loosely regulated industry, well-researched and investigated,” said the judge of Migoya’s story. 

Migoya found that a number of charities receive very little if any of the proceeds of their bingo nights — the money that’s left over after prize money is paid out to players — and, in several cases, the charities are grossly misreporting what they make to the IRS.

His findings included evidence that convicted felons were certified as games managers, which is specifically prohibited by law. At least two are registered sex offenders, he found.  

Migoya also found dozens of other certified games managers with histories of misdemeanor theft and fraud convictions, bankruptcies and other financial and legal troubles such as not paying bills or even their income taxes — backgrounds that would disqualify them from working bingo in every other state, but not in Colorado.

After the series, we were very glad to hear that the board overseeing the charitable gaming industry created a committee to tackle issues raised in the Migoya investigation.

“There were significant allegations in there and it gets back to our specific purpose,” board member Tom Downey told Migoya in proposing the committee and its approach. “There were a number of things that jumped out at me and it’s important to get a sense of what it said. Are there things that raise alarms and are there things we can do?”

So how goes the board’s investigation into Migoya’s investigation?

Board members tell us it’s pretty much crickets now, alas.

Unfortunately, the board has had three meetings that have accomplished little more than to agree they need to create rules. More importantly, the committee is a toothless tiger, with zero authority to make substantive changes itself. Rather, it makes recommendations to the secretary of state, to whom it has made none so far. And the secretary of state has taken very little action herself.

The new board took months to find anyone willing to serve and did so only after The Gazette’s investigation was published.

The board was created more than a year ago by the legislature, replacing one that was so dysfunctional that state officials for years couldn’t even coax its membership to meet. They hadn’t moved an inch on even filling out the board and convening it until we started asking why not.

Which re-raises the question the original series did, and underlines it in red Magic Marker: Why won’t Secretary of State Jena Griswold get her butt in gear and get something substantive done about the problems with charitable gaming?

To be fair, the secretary of state has removed the felon game managers we named in the story from game manager certification, so they technically cannot be a part of any bingo game in the future. But that was only six people from a list of more than 3,000 names, of which we ran a sample of perhaps 10%.

“We have neither the resources, manpower or purview to do the whole list” of felons and other bad actors, the board tells us.

Jack Todd, spokesman for the secretary of state, said in an email to me, “We have multiple open investigations into entities referenced in Mr. Migoya’s reporting. As is our policy, we do not — and will not — comment on the status of specifics of any open investigation, including to board members.”

I’m guessing that’s frustrating to board members. It’s been seven months since Migoya’s stories landed. Now that the board is finally and fully active, I’m betting they are eager to improve the whole system and weed out more of the felons and other bad apples.

But committee members worry that there are not enough people, money or, most importantly, will to enforce the rules that they establish to get the job done, Migoya tells me. The legislature passed the law that created the board; perhaps legislators should get in Griswold’s face about getting the job done.

Weirdly, Migoya himself was invited to appear before the committee to describe his findings and reporting in detail. Then suddenly and mysteriously, he was disinvited.

My guess is that’s because Griswold, who is now running for attorney general, doesn’t want problems that happened on her watch to mar her campaign narrative of an effective and successful administration. She’d probably just prefer the whole charitable gaming industry mess go away until after the election cycle.

That becomes a problem when someone who wants to be the highest law enforcement official in the state isn’t willing to enforce the law aggressively and quickly. As a candidate for AG, she ought to set a strong example that she means business. Someone at her campaign events ought to ask her some hard questions about selectively enforcing the law. We plan to do just that during a debate on May 28.

Spokesman Todd earlier told Migoya their office does what the law asks it to do.  

“Law and the Colorado Constitution govern the bingo-raffle industry. Any change to the law falls under the purview of the state legislature; any possible alteration to the Colorado Constitution would be passed by the people of Colorado,” Todd said. “Should there be changes to statute or the constitution, the Department will engage in that process and implement them faithfully just as it does today.”   

But Migoya didn’t ask about changes. He asked about enforcement.

I asked Todd what’s taking so long. “We treat any allegation of wrongdoing with the utmost seriousness and investigate any time we have evidence to do so, as we are doing here,” was his response.

Essentially, I’m guessing Griswold wishes the charitable gaming oversight was somebody else’s problem.

Colorado is unique in requiring the secretary of state to regulate charitable gaming. Legislators and regulators alike have considered a plan to move it to the Department of Revenue, where casino gaming and the state lottery are already being handled.  

“The Secretary of State’s Office is always scratching its head, wondering why they’re regulating bingo,” said Rich Lemon, president of the Colorado Bingo Association and a member of the Charitable Gaming Board. “Each candidate invariably says they’re with us, and as time goes on, we become a nuisance to them.”

Griswold probably figures the further the news cycle moves away from Migoya’s stories, the more people will forget that this is really her responsibility and no one else’s.

We’re hoping now that Migoya’s work has been recognized by his peers, Griswold will similarly recognize the importance of policing the industry and put her investigations on a front burner.

But if I were a gambling man, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Vince Bzdek, executive editor of The Gazette, Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics, writes a weekly news column that appears on Sunday.