Guest columnist: Kentucky communities win with charitable gaming
Published 1:00 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026
On any given weekend in Kentucky, you can find the heart of a community in simple places. A veterans post in Willard gathering items to donate to their local church food pantry. A youth league in Louisville organizing a small fundraiser to cover uniforms or travel. An Elks or Moose lodge in Northern Kentucky operating a fish fry to donate to schools and their local community. These gatherings are about more than games or meals. They are about neighbors showing up for one another and finding practical ways to keep local organizations going.
For many Kentucky nonprofits, charitable gaming is one of the quiet tools that helps make those moments, and the missions behind them, possible. Across the state, small, voluntary entertainment dollars are being turned into real community support, delivering more than $90 million dollars to local organizations last year alone.
In Eastern Kentucky, the American Legion Family Post 342 uses charitable gaming revenue to keep a veterans’ food bank stocked, pay utility bills, and continue serving veterans and community members in Carter County. Charitable gaming funds directly supported their efforts to participate in a Special Olympics event and helped purchase a new gymnasium mat for the East Carter High School wrestling team.
In North Central Kentucky, the Southwest Center for the Developmentally Disabled relies on this support to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities build everyday life skills such as budgeting, meal planning, and grocery shopping. That funding helps individuals move closer to living independently and participating more fully in their communities.
Another North Central Kentucky organization, I Would Rather Be Reading, depended on these dollars when federal funding delays threatened after-school care for more than a hundred families. Because of that bridge, children kept a safe and supportive place to go each afternoon, and families were not left scrambling for alternatives.
In Western Kentucky, VFW 12175 was able to re-establish a physical veterans post in 2024 due to its ability to participate in charitable gaming and make enough money to support the growing post. Since that time, they’ve been able to rebuild their local city park for youth to congregate in a safe and healthy environment.
The impact is not abstract. It is heat in the winter, meals on the table, and support for neighbors who might otherwise go without. And the stories are not unusual. They reflect how this form of fundraising works across the commonwealth. Since electronic charitable gaming became operational in Kentucky in 2016, receipts have more than doubled, allowing nonprofits to reach more Kentuckians and strengthen the services they provide. These are local dollars, raised responsibly and reinvested directly into local communities.
Taken together, the impact adds up in practical ways. These funds help put food on families’ tables, support veterans’ services, maintain stable after-school programs, expand access to addiction recovery, improve mental health counseling, bolster senior services, and keep community centers open and serving the people who depend on them.
This approach does not replace generosity or volunteerism. It supports the work that neighbors are already doing for one another, often behind the scenes and without much attention.
To learn more about the work being done by Kentucky’s charities in your community and see how you can get involved, visit PlayforPurposeKY.org.
Richard Dallaire is Senior Vice Commander for Kentucky American Legion. Based in Grayson (Post 342), Dallaire serves on the Veterans’ Program Trust Fund Board of Directors. He and his wife, Whittney, have five children, including one enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces. He can be emailed at richarddallaire@yahoo.com