Church of the Holy Trinity
Winsted, Minnesota 55395
July 22, 2002

Honorable Amo Houghton
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515

Dear Congressman Houghton,

I am the gambling manager for a small community in Winsted, MN, and I have just found out about H.R. 2237.  I'm writing today to ask you to please help this bill become law.  We have about 1000 members at Holy Trinity Parish, and we work very hard to keep out K-12 Catholic school going.  One of our means of raising funds is through charitable gambling.  As you know, we pay a lot of tax on this charitable gambling, and that's why it is so important to us the H.R. 2237 is passed.  We need your help to make sure the IRS doesn't change its policy and begin taxing licensed nonprofit organizations that are involved in charitable gambling.

I agree that bingo should be exempt from UBIT tax, but I also think that the exemption should carry over to other forms of charitable gambling such as pulltabs, raffles and paddlewheels is conducted by licensed, nonprofit organizations such as ours.

I think it is unfair that nonprofit organizations that are involved in charitable gambling in North Dakota, for example, are exempted from UBIT tax, but our organization in Minnesota has to pay it.  Why can't all charitable organizations in all states by exempt?  I think it is discriminatory.

I respectfully request that you support H.R.2237 and do whatever you can to ensure that this important bill be passed into law in 2002.  Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Elaine M. Kahle
Gambling Manager