Lancaster Bingo works hard so clients can have fun

LANCASTER - Lancaster Bingo employees work hard so their customers can have fun and games. Literally.

“We are a wholesale supplier of charitable gaming supplies,” President and CEO Jonathan Smith said. “We sell bingo-related items, paper pull-tabs, merchandise. We sell games to non-profits primarily and some commercial entities where it’s permissible.”

Lancaster Bingo also sells and services some electronic gaming machines. All of the equipment and supplies are housed in the company’s warehouse at 200 Quarry Road. Lancaster Bingo does not manufacture its products, but instead stores and distributes them.

The non-profits include church groups and organizations like American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and similar clubs. But the groups must be licensed to host gaming events.

In some states, commercial businesses can also provide charitable gaming if the proceeds go to a licensed charity. Also, in Indiana, bars can provide gaming for their own proceeds. As president of the company, Smith said he travels a lot to the other states and must be up to date on their various laws and regulations pertaining to charitable gaming.

Lancaster Bingo serves clients in Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania and is based in Lancaster. The company has about 165 employees altogether, with about 100 locally. Of the total number of employees company-wide, about 50 are in sales. The company also employees office workers, warehouse personnel and truck drivers.

Mark Sells formed the company in 1983 and it has been at its current location since 1987. The company has also expanded several times. Smith has been with the company for 21 years.

“Mark Sells and I have been friends for a number of years,” he said. “And I was working for a local bank and he was looking for some help. He had a successful growing company and he approached me and we were able to strike a deal. A couple years later he made me the president of the organization and I’ve been running things.”

Smith said the way the company does business has been affected by the proliferation of gambling in several states.

“It’s been really hard on the charities,” he said. “So you’ve got to continue to look for new ways to use existing products and technologies to help them reinvent themselves over and over again.”

Smith said a good stable workforce is one of the reasons Lancaster Bingo has been so successful for so long.

“Our average employee has worked here for 15 years,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people that have relocated from the Lancaster area to Louisville, Kentucky, to work out of that facility. Or Indiana to work out of that facility. Or even up in Illinois to work out of the Chicago area. We’ve been really blessed to have a lot of really good people.”

jbarron@gannett.com

740-681-4340

Twitter: @JeffDBarron