Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Slippery Gulch Days duck race in Tekoa is on hold for the festival’s 90th year next month after a visit from the State Gambling commission. The change comes after a process started just before last year’s Slippery Gulch Days, held every year on the third weekend in June.
After the gambling commission received two anonymous complaints, Special Agent Mike Fitzpatrick came to town to take a look.
Because both the raffle and duck race are a type of gambling – people buying tickets to win in the raffle and buying numbered ducks to see which one wins the race for a prize in Hangman Creek – protocols are required.
The duck race in particular drew Fitzpatrick’s eye because of a change in the event last year.
Because Hangman Creek was running low in 2017, organizers looked to conduct the duck “race” another way which was essentially another form of raffle. During the Slippery Gulch Saturday night dance, vidoetaped images of ducks were shown on T.V. monitors and numbers were drawn.
Under state law, a duck race has to be held on a natural body of water.
In the creek, it took four people to run it, including someone to launch the ducks and another to fish them out at the end of the course.
“It takes more people to run the damn thing than actually watch it,” said John Jaeger, Tekoa mayor.
Tickets were sold for the video-monitor “race” for $5, as usual, which also had an online element.
“It wasn’t a virtual duck race, we’re not that sophisticated,” said Melinda Wilkins, co-chair of the Slippery Gulch committee.
It brought up another issue.
“You also cannot transmit gambling information over a telephone line,” Fitzpatrick said.
What if they put the ducks on the street and used a firehose, someone suggested.
“It has to be a natural body of water,” said Fitzpatrick. “We just couldn’t get there with what they wanted to do.”
So the duck race is on hold for 2018.
As for the raffle, in Washington state, non-profits may do two raffles per year without a license if they don’t exceed $5,000 gross for both.
In February, Tekoa approved a suggestion by the gambling commission for the city to take over running the raffle.
Tekoa’s violation on the raffle was that the Slippery Gulch Committee was not listed as a non-profit group — it had let its registration with the Washington Secretary of State’s office run out. In order to run a raffle, an organization needs to be registered for at least one year.
Jaeger met with Fitzpatrick again in March. All told, the mayor indicated the interactions were fruitful.
“We really benefitted by it. I think, anyway,” Jaeger said.
One additional item he picked up is that for a raffle, the tickets which are not sold need to be accounted for. If a thousand tickets are printed and 600 sell, the 400 that did not sell have to be turned in too, as opposed to just thrown out.
“Otherwise you could say I sold them, and just pocket the money,” Jaeger said. “How do they know I didn’t sell another 400 and keep the money?”
Another related item Jaeger took in is the practice to have two people walk with money from one spot to another during a town event. The two ensures that one could not pocket some of the money.
“Sometimes that money is not even counted,” Jaeger said.
Slippery Gulch Days 2018 is June 15-17 in Tekoa.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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