Jack Powers, the owner and operator of Tudor Road Bingo Center Casino and Jack's Rippies, recently took over Anchorage's oldest bingo hall, Northern Lights Bingo. The addition of the 20-year-old gaming facility gives Powers control of the city's leading bingo casinos as well as the distinction of being the state's largest gaming operator.

"It was the second best bingo hall in Anchorage," Powers said of the Northern Lights facility. "Now I'll be running the number one and number two halls of the six in Anchorage."

Powers' original venture, the Tudor Road facility, was selected as one of the Top 10 bingo casinos in North America by Bingo Manager magazine. He said that's because his company looks at the business a little differently than the competition.

"I'm really not in the bingo business, I'm in the service business," he said. "I firmly believe in having skilled, professional people work for me."

The staff of 55 employees is always supervised by management, and special accommodations are available for those customers who need them.

"We have wheelchairs available and we reserve tables for the regulars who are here every day. They are our friends, not our customers, and they look at us the same way," Powers said.

That business approach struck a chord with the bingo-playing community. Between the two facilities, Powers now offers four daily sessions that run three to three-and-a-half hours each, and payoffs are guaranteed to be at least $20,000 in cash and prizes, each day. He noted that an average of 250 people each night visit the Tudor facility to try their luck at a chance to win $1,000 in cash.

Powers estimated that the Tudor Road facility grosses about $20 million in revenue each year, before prizes and charitable pay-outs are deducted. At least $1 million of that is paid out to the 20 Anchorage-area charities and non-profit organizations with whom he has formed business partnerships. Powers said he hopes to double both his charitable pay-outs and the number of organizations with whom he works in 2003.

Gaming, in the form of bingo and raffles, was legalized at statehood with the creation of the Department of Revenue. Today, it is monitored by the Tax Division's Gaming Group and has expanded to include pull tabs, said Jeff Prather, the supervisor of the group.

State gaming laws say a bingo hall operator must donate at least 10 percent of their adjusted gross income -- the income that operators keep after prizes and overhead costs are subtracted -- to a qualified permit holder, Prather said. He added that operators of pull tabs facilities are mandated to pay out at least 30 percent of their adjusted gross income.

Permit holders must be either a municipality or a qualified not-for-profit organization. Prather said earning a qualification depends on an organization having at least 25 members and a three-year history of association within the state. State-recognized groups include civic and service organizations, religious organizations, police or fire departments, dog mushing societies and fishing or not-for-profit outdoors organizations, Prather said.

"It's important to understand that 'charitable gaming' is a misnomer. Charities only constitute a fraction of the permit holders and operators in the state," he said.

Once a group or municipality qualifies to hold a gaming permit, the operator is allowed to run the casino or facility on behalf of that holder.

Prather admitted that it's a complicated system, and that it's had its share of abuse; but, he said, things have improved in the past 10 years.

If a gaming operator wants to remain successful amid the regulations, he or she has to work with the state, said Powers, who has been active in Alaska gaming since the early 1990s.

"I've always found that if you just do what the statute says, within its true intent, you'll do just fine," he said. "This is a tough business. Dealing with the customers, the employees and the bureaucratic system gets hard ... everybody's looking for a shortcut."

Laine Fleisher, the executive director of Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Anchorage, one of Powers' permit holders, said her history with the operator goes beyond bingo.

"I've known Jack for a long time, our kids used to play soccer together," she said. "I like Jack a lot, I trust him."

When she found out that Powers had purchased his original Tudor Road facility, Fleisher approached him about operating on her charity's behalf. She was impressed that Powers kept the operation of the business within his family.

"His son was actively involved, and that's a good thing," she said.

Powers and Big Brothers-Big Sisters have had a partnership for more then a decade, Fleisher said. She added that there is no end in sight to the cooperation.

"He's very supportive of our mission, he plays very fair with us, he's just been a great partner," Fleisher said.

She added that he also does his share to support the community.

"I think the biggest misconception is that these operators bring in tons and tons of money and just a little goes out," she said. "That's not true at all, when you consider the amount they're giving away in prizes and the amount of support he offers us. He's actually been a good source of funding for us."

Powers, who is also a founding father of the Anchorage Bucs baseball team, said that, while he has managed to carve out what he called a "livable wage," he gets the most satisfaction from the fact that he's providing entertainment to the public.

"Our halls allow you to take a card, meet with your friends, play a few hands of bingo, and, at the end of the night, go home where you are safe," he said. "It's good clean fun."