Bingo is out of control in Wyoming because there are big loopholes in the state's gambling laws, Attorney General Pat Crank says.

Wyoming's gaming law is in need of reform and the game, particularly electronic bingo, needs much better oversight, Crank told a legislative interim committee here Tuesday.

Gambling generally is illegal in Wyoming. However, lawmakers in the 1970s exempted a number of activities from the definition of gambling, including "raffles or bingo conducted, or pull-tabs sold, by charitable or nonprofit organizations where the tickets for the raffle or bingo are sold only in this state."

The attorney general said the growth of new games such as electronic bingo have raised a number of issues in recent years -- specifically what exactly is bingo, what exactly is a charitable or nonprofit organization and exactly how much of the proceeds should go to charity.

"I can't sit here and tell you these are fair games," Crank told members of the Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee.

"We see some big loopholes in the (state) statute, and what we see today is not what the Legislature intended when the legislation was passed," he said.

Crank suggested the committee consider sponsoring a bill that would tighten the exemptions in the gambling law. He also advocated the establishment of some sort of gaming commission to better regulate bingo and its cousin, pull-tabs.

"If we don't change the statute and close these loopholes, then I think maybe it's time to set up some type of gaming commission in Wyoming," Crank said.

"We probably need some sort of regulatory body to make sure people are running honest games and the right amount of profits are going to the right charitable organizations," he said. "And we need to probably set some minimum-level percentage of the profits that needs to go to the charitables."