Pull Tab Games in Florida: Rules, Payouts, and Permits

Pull tab games in Florida are legal, but only when run by qualifying nonprofit, charitable, or veterans’ organizations that follow the charitable gaming rules in Florida Statutes section 849.0931. Tickets must sell for no more than $1, prizes are limited to the amounts printed on the ticket or game flare, and all profits after actual expenses must go to the organization’s charitable purpose.¹ Step outside that framework and the game becomes illegal gambling.

Who Can Legally Run Pull Tabs

Florida limits pull tab operations to charitable, nonprofit, or veterans’ organizations that have been in existence for at least three years and hold federal tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c) or 528.¹ The three-year rule exists to keep shell organizations from being spun up just to profit from gaming.

Condominium associations, cooperative associations, homeowners’ associations, and mobile home owners’ associations can also run pull tabs, though under tighter conditions and usually as small community fundraisers.

Ticket Price, Payouts, and Prizes

Every instant bingo ticket must be priced at $1 or less, as printed on the ticket or game flare. Bulk discounts and giveaways are not allowed.¹

Each deal is limited to 4,000 tickets, and the preset prize payout for that deal must equal at least 65 percent of total ticket sales.¹ A deal that pulls in $2,000 must return at least $1,300 to players. Prizes cannot exceed what the ticket face and flare show. Instant bingo prizes are carved out from the regular bingo jackpot caps and governed instead by the printed values.

The manufacturer or distributor has to provide an invoice for every deal, showing the serial number, ticket count, prize structure, and price. That invoice must stay on the premises where the tickets are stored or in play, and both the organization and distributor must keep it on file for three years.¹ That paper trail is one of the main safeguards against skimming.

Where and How Games Must Be Run

Games must be held on property owned or leased by the organization, or at a location within a 15-mile radius of its premises. Everyone involved in running the game must be a resident of the community and a member of the organization, and no one can be paid for their role.¹ Paid staff is one of the fastest ways an operation starts looking commercial rather than charitable.

All tickets must meet the pull-tab standards set by the North American Gaming Regulators Association, which cover tamper-evident construction and unique serial numbering.

No one under 18 can play or help operate the game. After deducting actual business expenses essential to the operation, every remaining dollar must go to the organization’s charitable, religious, or community-benefit activities.¹ Regular bingo is capped at two days per week, but Florida law places no such cap on instant bingo.

When Pull Tabs Cross Into Illegal Gambling

Any pull tab operation outside the charitable gaming framework is illegal under Florida law. The common failure points:

Running the game for private profit rather than a charitable purpose, which falls under Chapter 849’s prohibition on keeping a gambling house. That is a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.²
Willfully violating any provision of the charitable gaming statute. A first offense is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. A second or later offense is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.¹³
Rigging outcomes, misrepresenting the prize structure, or tampering with tickets, which falls under both the charitable gaming statute and Florida’s broader gambling laws.
Letting anyone under 18 play or work the game, which can trigger felony-level consequences under the general gambling statutes.

The jump from misdemeanor to felony on a second offense is steep. An organization that gets cited for a technical violation and repeats it faces the same penalty class as some drug crimes, so boards and officers should treat even small compliance slips seriously.

Local Permit Requirements

Florida does not issue a statewide license for charitable pull tab games, but some counties and municipalities require a local permit before a gaming event can go forward. Fees and application processes vary. Check with the county or city clerk’s office before your first fundraiser. A missing local permit can sink an otherwise compliant operation.

Taxes on Pull Tab Winnings

The IRS treats pull tab winnings as income, and you have to report all winnings on your return regardless of amount. For payments made in calendar year 2026, the organization running the game must issue a Form W-2G when bingo or instant bingo winnings meet or exceed $2,000.⁴

Regular income tax withholding does not apply to bingo winnings. If you hit the reporting threshold and do not provide your taxpayer identification number, though, the organization must apply 24 percent backup withholding.⁴ Non-cash prizes count at fair market value. With the $1 ticket cap, most single Florida pull tab wins will fall well under the threshold, but the IRS allows organizations to total all winnings from a single bingo game on one form.

Spotting a Fraudulent Operation

Most Florida charitable pull tab operations are legitimate, but the IRS has documented recurring fraud patterns worth knowing if you volunteer with or belong to an organization that runs these games. The biggest red flag is cash purchases of pull tab supplies. When an operator buys deals with cash from a supplier who provides no invoice, the profit from those deals can disappear entirely. The IRS has found cases where operators skimmed more than $1.5 million from combined bingo and pull tab sales using this method.⁵

Other warning signs: nightly sales that never show up in the organization’s records, one person controlling both cash collection and financial reporting, and profit margins that seem impossibly thin. The IRS notes that when a pull tab operation reports ten dollars or less in profit for every dollar spent on supplies, the numbers likely don’t add up.⁵ Florida’s invoice rules exist precisely to catch these schemes. If your organization can’t produce its invoices on request, raise it with the board.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 849.0931 – Bingo Authorized; Conditions for Conduct
2
Justia. Florida Code 775.082 – Penalties; Applicability of Sentencing Structures
3
Justia. Florida Code 775.083 – Fines
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754
5
Internal Revenue Service. Detecting Fraud in Charity Gaming