Everyone has seen this image before in a movie or television show: A big, dimly lit room with long stretching tables lined with older people. Colorful "dabbers" line the tables. Ashtrays getting filled by the minute while people chain smoking and checking their bingo cards. This stuff happens in real life.
One of my journalism classes had us go out and write a story about community events that go on around the UB campus. I couldn't think of anything good enough so i had to settle for the class back up plan: playing bingo.
I had to go to http://www.bingoplanner.com/ and find a local bingo game to go to and write about for my class. I had no idea what to expect.
Most of the bingo games are held in basements of churches but I found one that was held in a banquet hall. The game started at 7:30 p.m. I arrived at 7:45 p.m....when they say it starts at 7:30, it starts at 7:30.
Me and my friend walk over to the ticket window and pay admission. $3 got you a book of bingo cards which made you eligible to play for the whole night. I have never seen so many people so into a game of bingo. The only noise you heard was the sound of the announcer stating the numbers chosen and the sound of everyone dabbing the places on their boards that were called.
My friend and I finally found a set of chairs at the end of a table across from an older gentleman and an older woman. The crowd was mostly over the age of 60 which made me and my friend the youngest people there. The woman did not speak English and the older man did not speak a word unless it was the break between games.
We had to watch a full round of the game before we could actually play the game. Each game of bingo had four rounds. In the first round you could get bingo in any known way of getting bingo. The second round you had to fill in all the boxes surrounding the very middle box on the bingo board. The third round you had to fill in every box on the outer edges of the bingo board. The final round you had to fill in every box on the board. The money winnings grew as the rounds got further on and as the games got further on into the night. The big jackpot of the night was $2,800.
We stayed the whole night. Did we win? No. Did we think we won and almost screamed out bingo without actually having bingo? Yes, yes we did. Did we have fun? Oh you bet we did. Besides second hand smoking about four cigarettes throughout the night, community bingo surprised me in many ways. I did not expect the whole thing to be so organized. There was a board of men that ran the game and controlled the money. There were more people then I expected. There were close to 150 people playing bingo and according to a bingo regular it gets more packed then it was that night.
If you and your friends are ever bored one night and your looking for a cheap way to potentially make money, go play bingo. I know most people won't play bingo but it actually is a very fun time and who knows, maybe you'll win the jackpot!
