Darcy DaCosta traces the trajectory of her career to a community service requirement in a sociology class at Rhode Island College. It was 1990, an election year, and the Warren native was interested in working on then-Representative Claudine Schneider’s campaign to unseat longtime Senator Claiborne Pell. DaCosta loved the work, and it wasn’t long before she was offered a paid position, taking a semester off to work full-time on the campaign. While the result at the ballot box was not successful, the experience sparked an interest in public affairs work. Today, DaCosta is vice president of government affairs for Arrow International, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of charitable gaming products, like bingo. Previously, she was senior director of government affairs at Molson Coors after spending 20 years at Brightstar Lottery (formerly GTEC). She is also an active volunteer with the Bristol Warren Education Foundation, serving as its chair for the past five years.
My priority is to expand by legislation, state by state, what sort of products charities like VFW, American Legion, and Elks Lodges can use to raise money for their causes. That’s moving from paper to electronic, that’s looking at the paper games they’re allowed to sell. We’ve developed innovations that can’t be sold because they’re technically illegal in a given jurisdiction. The issues vary state by state – the demographics of the state are different, the politics of the state are different, all of which make it interesting to do state government affairs. There’s no carbon copy strategy to get something done.
Arrow International was founded in the early 1960s in Cleveland, Ohio. The owners’ local parish was having trouble sourcing bingo supplies, and the family saw a business opportunity and got into the charitable gaming business. They bought a printing press and they started printing bingo paper. The facility spans a million square feet, with a press operating 24 hours a day. The primary beneficiary of our products and services are charities.
There is exponential gaming expansion in the commercial space, which is somewhat easier to do because when you’re talking about commercial gaming, a legislator or an administrator is thinking about what that will generate in tax revenue. Charitable gaming is generally non-taxable. Clubs like VFWs and American Legions are not exactly organized lobbyists; they’re volunteers. Much of my work involves collaborating with charitable organizations to mobilize grassroots support around legislative strategies.
One of the things organizations like VFWs are struggling with is membership, especially attracting younger members. When you start bringing in new forms of entertainment, you’re bringing in new constituents and also helping to grow the revenue. In places we’re able to modernize the offerings in these charitable locations, there is a reversal in the trend of membership loss.
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