As most of you involved in local charities already know, I am in the process of creating a festival center as a venue for qualified charities to host “game of chance” festivals. Times have never been tougher than right now for charitable organizations to raise funds. If we all pull together as a group, our financial goals will become closer to being achieved.

Lorain Mayor Krasienko (Website | Profile) and I have been devoting many hours working on this project over the past six months. The legalities, possibilities, and logistics of this project have all been analyzed inside and out, up and down, not only by us but by the Lorain Law Department, Police Department (Website | Profile), City Council and the State of Ohio. We have come up with a format for these festivals which will be legal and very profitable for qualified charities.

One of my original thoughts on the poker equipment that would be rented for the festivals included $15,000. automatic shufflers. This would have created too high of an hourly fee for our community so the idea was scrapped for much less expensive equipment. I would rather the charity make that money than the equipment company.

After informing the equipment supplier of this he completely eliminated the hourly fee and replaced it with a small set rental fee commensurate with his cost for the equipment. Help me spread the word about this important development.

Originally, I wanted to turn Kennedy’s Broadway Billiards into the Lorain Charity Poker Festival Center. The Ohio Department of Liquor Control said they don’t want me to do that. So then I went to play B, use another building for the festival center which does not have a liquor license. I decided the need is so great for these festivals it must continue even though I will not make that extra money by having more customers in my business, I decided to continue on. Many charities and poker players are counting on me. Small Lorain businesses would be helped by the infusion of new people spending money here. It will be a win/win for everyone.

You do not pay me, Mike Kennedy, one penny to host your festival. There are some expenses associated with holding a festival, which I am proud to say, on a percentage of gross revenue, will be less than any other “game of chance” festivals currently being held in the State of Ohio!

Expenses:

• The City of Lorain charges a $100 permit fee, and $100 per each day a festival is held. This is to offset the cost of having the police spend time qualifying the eligibility of your charity under Ohio Revised Code 2915 etc.
• Rent for the Lorain Charity Poker Festival Center is $250. per day. The total for a four day event is $1500 (city and festival center). This is to be paid as follows: $100 with Festival permit application. Upon approval from the city, then $1400. with festival lease.
• Lorain city law also requires two armed Lorain police officers at the festival center. This is a good thing. I wouldn’t want to do this without them. This will be billed after the conclusion of the event.
• A Whittgard security officer will be at the cashier window to buy and sell chips to the players. This will be billed by Whittgard after the conclusion of the event.
• Equipment rental, which includes 8 tables, chairs, automatic shufflers, cards, chips etc. etc. $350 per day. This will be billed by Lash Poker Equipment Co. after the conclusion of the event.
• Utilities, includes water electric etc. $50 per day. This will be billed by the appropriate utility company after the conclusion of the event.
• Cleaning and supplies $40 per day. This will be billed to the appropriate cleaning co. after the conclusion of the event.
• Marketing is a variable expense. The more you spend the more successful your festival can be.

It’s up to you, however my marketing recommendation is for at least the following five sources for this:

1. T-shirts $7.50 each They are to distinguish volunteers from everyone else, with LCPF logo on front and “VOLUNTEER” across the back. This will be billed by Kendra Screen Printing Co. after the conclusion of the event.
2. Morning Journal ad in the Arcade $200. Billed by the Morning Journal.
3. Chronicle Telegram $200. Billed by the Chronicle Telegram.
4. Cleveland Plain Dealer $200. Billed by the Plain Dealer.
5. Las Vegas Hotline $200. Billed by the hotline.

Revenue:

Your organization makes its money by charging poker players a seat rental fee. You are not participating in the “game of chance” itself. You don’t care who wins or who looses. You have no vested interest in the outcome of any particular poker hand.

Seat fees typically range from $10 to $15 per hour/per player. That totals $100 to $150 per hour/per table. The more tables running, the more hours, the more revenue you bring in. It’s that simple.

The beauty of this lies in the fact that no one except your charity handles the cash. You collect it, hold on to it, then deposit it where you wish each night.

The Center provides 8 tables. If 4 are full for the entire festival your revenue should be in the neighborhood of $20,000. with expenses approximately 30%. If all 8 tables are full revenue could approach $40,000 and expenses approximately 15%.

As can be clearly seen, there’s not much in this venture for me personally. My wife thinks I might be making a mistake spending all my time on this without enough support from the charities. She sees the 30 plus organizations wishing to hold events and only 2 filling out the application and wanting to be first to actually come on board. I need your help convincing her. I need more charities to fill out the applications. I won’t start until there are at least 5 charities on board. It is my hope that this letter explains any misconceptions.

The application process takes up to 4 weeks. I don’t want to start the festivals until we have enough events booked so there will be no down period. Once we begin the players will know they don’t have to call ahead to see if there is a game. Charities that know they want to participate must come on board now for this to work.

Can we all pull together and meet on Thursday evening November 5, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. for an hour to discuss the future of the Lorain Charity Poker Festivals.

Hopefully we can get a core group of charity volunteers to help steer this ship. I need someone to teach the volunteers how to deal, run the seat board, run tournaments, etc. It’s bigger than me, I can’t do it alone, I need your help.

Looking forward to seeing you on Nov 5th.