When I say I went to play bingo with my mom, most people have given me a funny look. They expect that I played it for fun at some retirement home with grandmas and grandpas who forgot where they put their teeth. It may come as a huge surprise to people my age, but I had so much fun! Although I don't encourage gambling for anyone, especially hardworking college students, bingo is definitely something to try sometime this summer just for the sake of trying it. This summer, say "who cares!" and try something new and exciting. (Yes, I did just say bingo is exciting.)

My mom took me, so we got there early to meet up with her friends. Bingo was held in an event center multiple times a week -- there were tables everywhere, big screens on every wall showing the ball numbers and the patterns to get "bingo." To my surprise, my mom's friend brought her 13-year-old daughter. Apparently, at these bingo halls, children 13 and older are allowed to gamble if they fill out the correct forms, and the money is paid out through a guardian present. Ages 17 and older can go to the bingo hall to play without a guardian.

For each session, there are a set amount of games, each requiring a different pattern to win, and with a different amount of prize money (yes, prize money!). There are paper cards and little machines that look like tablets, so you can choose which games you play on paper, which games you play on the machine, and how many cards you have for each game. Our table group chose to play the whole event time, so we played multiple cards on each game in the session. It cost us about $40 each to buy all of these cards, but that varies depending on where you go to play. Sometimes it's cheaper, sometimes it's more expensive.

When we started playing, it was really fast. You find yourself frantically checking over your card for the numbers called, sometimes getting a little bit behind. I thought to myself, 'This is speed bingo."
Playing multiple cards on hard rounds where you are looking for an intricate pattern, or multiple patterns can be really difficult. Each game has a specific type, or multiple types of bingo required to win! This was notthe child's game of bingo I was expecting. After winning a card and shouting "bingo," I won my first money gambling -- $50! Because I was also wearing red on this particular night, which must have been posted somewhere because other people were wearing red to support the troops, I won an extra $20! Now, I was really hooked.

While I was playing bingo, each game paid anywhere from $50 to $5,000. One man won $4,900 on a blackout game. The bingo hall we went to is non-profit, and the cards are a bit expensive, so their prizes are huge! Gambling for that much money is exhilarating, and it's fun to do in a controlled setting where you aren't continually spending money. Bingo was surprisingly really fun, and I would definitely do it again.

This experience has made me realize I should not judge a book by its cover -- or a game, rather. Try something new, something that has a negative reputation, even. It might surprise you.