The Dark Under-Belly of Bingo
Posted August 15th, 2007 by Bob Fell under the category of General+ Increase Font Size | - Decrease Font Size
The first lesson I learned about playing Bingo was that you don’t arrive at the time on the flyer… that is the time they START.
It was announced to the hundred or so people that they had to wait for me to pay my $1.00 and find a seat.
Based on the only Bingo lore I know, I was expecting people to have 50 cards in front of them and a “dauber”… I was relieved to see that these cards had little transparent windows that slide back and forth. You also only got two cards… even I could handle that.
There are rules and protocol to be followed… deviation is not looked upon with a friendly eye. Once you get a Bingo, you can’t get a second prize, if you win again the prize is given to a person that hasn’t won yet… until everyone gets a prize.
It sounds pleasant on the surface… but I was amazed that some people won 2 or 3 times and I sat needing a B-15 or O-72… slowly getting annoyed. There are two types of people… those who when calling out the numbers from their Bingo say “free space” and those that don’t say it because it’s assumed. I fancied that I would be an “assumed” type player… but I never had the chance… I got a “Mercy Prize.”
There was one consolation… the part they never talk about in polite Bingo circles. Regular Bingo is having numbers in a straight line, but they also play “H”, “T”, and “L” Bingo where you need to form the letter on your card. Bingo’s dirty little secret was whispered to me… “This is the best part… someone always yells Bingo and doesn’t have the letter… it always happens.”
We weren’t disappointed… for each letter game we played at least one person and often two or three would call Bingo only to discover that they didn’t have the letter after all. This gave all of us who were winless, Mercy Prize winners a little glee and a few giggles.
When you’re a Bingo Rookie, that’s pretty much all you can hope for.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:52 am
You can only win once per night? Interesting. On one hand that compassionate “share the fun” attitude among a tight knit group of seniors isn’t surprising, but on the other hand it is a little surprising.
I guess when you sort of have to live with these people, you don’t want to be that person who won six times at Bingo last night. That can make for a lot of cold shoulders at brunch the next day.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:11 am
Dave-
Bingo again Saturday night… I plan to win. No mercy prize for me.