Bingo! Uptown gaming halls attracting younger and often unemployed crowd to regular games.

BY Laignee Barron
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Bingo is catching on big time uptown – where younger, often unemployed players are filling halls around the clock.

The stakes are big: With $1,000 to $3,000 jackpots and frequent payouts, two uptown bingo parlors have commercialized the game, cashing in on gamble-happy crowds desperate to make an extra buck.

“I pay my bills with bingo,” said Harlem resident Sharon Brown, 44, who has played bingo for nearly a decade and is currently a regular at West Side Hall Inc. on 125th St.

Since she was laid off from her job as an administrative assistant two years ago, Brown plays three to four times a week until late at night renting a $25 computer board in hopes of winning the jackpot.

Last month, she won a $2,000 prize, which she said she used to pay her gas bill and part of her rent.

“The payout is good,” said Brown, adding she knows it’s not the best way to solve her financial problems. “Bingo is gambling. It’s fun, but it’s a bad habit.”

While old-time bingo players still fill church basements uptown, establishments like West Side Hall and Washington Heights Arcade Inc., licensed and incorporated under state law, have lately been attracting a younger crowd, opening at noon and closing when the games are finished – often not until 10 p.m.

“In the last few years we’ve seen people a little younger mixing in and becoming regular players,” said West Side owner Belle Fisch, who has been in the bingo business for 20 years. “It’s a therapy for some. For others, it’s an economic thing.”

Fisch said the hall’s Saturday night games increasingly appeal to young couples – even with its banana-yellow walls and chipped fold-out tables.

“It’s a cheap, fun date,” she said. “If someone wants to try their luck and play a game, it’s a lot less expensive than a casino.”

A similar shift in clientele is also happening at Washington Heights Arcade Inc., located underground in the 181st Street IRT subway station.

“Down here it’s a whole other world most people don’t know of,” said Margaret Porfidio, 69, who plays bingo at Arcade every day with her husband. “It’s mostly senior citizens but, at the end of the month, the age drops off.
Maybe the Social Security check runs out.”

Porfidio warned against relying on gambling for money.

“If you have to depend on bingo to pay rent or buy groceries that’s a bad idea, although you have to do what you have to do,” she said. “I pay all my bills before I come here.”

Washington Heights local and public elementary school teacher Maria Gruriom, 31, knows her chances of winning bingo are slim.

Still, she plays at Arcade on her days off, hoping to snag a prize like she did two years ago, claiming $800 after just one round. “You play to win. And if you win you can pay back bills,” she said. “It doesn’t happen often, but it makes playing often worth it.”

No matter why they play, bingo addicts said it’s easy to get hooked, and wind up gambling away a pretty penny.

“It’s just like in the casino,” said Porfidio, “the only real winner at the end of the day is the casino owner.”