TEMECULA —— The city suspended bingo games Thursday at Great Oak High School because game organizers did not comply with city licensing requirements, officials said.

The City Council in June approved nonprofit bingo in Temecula so that the high school in Redhawk could continue holding the games to raise money for athletic and academic clubs. The ordinance required that nonprofit groups get a license from City Hall and obtain tax-exempt status from the state.

The Great Oaks fund-raising group has not shown proof of that status from the state, City Manager Shawn Nelson said. The suspension will be in place until the group receives the tax-exempt classification from the state Franchise Tax Board, Nelson said. The city has been requesting proof of this for months, he added.

John Wetteland, president of the fund-raising group, said the violation was an innocent mistake resulting from the organization's failing to realize that it had to apply directly to the state.Group leaders believed filing with the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit would automatically register the group as one with the state, he said.

"We really thought, honestly, that we were within all the requirements," he said.

The group, Great Oak Academic Leadership Society, has now applied to the state, a process that typically takes one to two months, Wetteland said. The games hopefully will begin again early next year, he added.

The school has been hosting bingo games for about nine months, Wetteland said. The school's clubs get a percentage of profits from the games, a take that has varied from $250 to $1,200 on bingo days, he said.

The city got involved in establishing bingo requirements when it annexed Redhawk in June. Prior to that, Riverside County had jurisdiction over the area and the group didn't have to meet as many requirements, Wetteland said.

"To our credit, the county never asked for any of this," he said. "The city is just far more thorough on the legal things than the county is."

The suspension comes at a time when the group is considering reducing the number of bingo games offered each year. Until recently, games were played twice a week. But two weeks ago, Sunday games were canceled because attendance was so sparse, Wetteland said.

Fewer people were coming on Sundays because fuel is so expensive and because they don't want to drive home in the dark as the days are getting shorter, he said. Most of the players are retired, not school parents, and come from as far away as Orange County and San Marcos for their love of bingo, he said.

The group is considering scaling the games down to either once a month or four times a year, he said. Bingo isn't the only way the group makes money. It also sells food and snacks at events such as the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival and NASCAR races at California Speedway in Fontana, he said.

Contact staff writer Deirdre Newman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2623, or dnewman@californian.com.