Big, Bad and All About Bingo!
Posts tagged Bingo Halls
Bingo! Uptown gaming halls attracting younger and often unemployed crowd to regular games
110 months ago
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.”
As bingo struggles, fans in St. Louis area hang on
1As bingo struggles, fans in St. Louis area hang on.
This is a great article about bingo in the St. Louis area. Very in-depth about the state of bingo in Missouri.
Charitable Bingo In Texas Wins The Right To Lobby For Gambling
0This article originally appeared here.
By Terry Goodwin
The state of Texas is facing some large budget deficits and gambling expansion is starting to become a hot topic among lawmakers. Gambling interests have long been lobbying for expansion, and now they will be joined by another group.
U.S. Judge Sam Sparks issued a preliminary injunction Friday that will allow charitable bingo halls to use their proceeds to lobby for gambling. A law has prevented the bingo halls from being able to use the funds for lobbying, but Sparks has placed an injunction on enforcing the law.
In Texas, racetracks have already been pushing hard for slot machines. The tracks have been devastated by the economy and a general floundering racing industry, and slots are seen as a way to make up the money that is being lost. Lawmakers have been slow to warm to the idea, but the lobbying is only just beginning.
Judge Sparks has given the bingo halls an opportunity to lobby on equal ground as the tracks. A group is already being formed to ensure that the bingo halls get equal consideration if any of the gaming laws are changed. Of course, that is still a long way off.
Two-thirds of legislators must approve a constitutional amendment to allow the expanded gambling. Even if the lawmakers agree on an amendment, it will have to be voted on by the public. That is where the lobbying money could be spent, educating the public on the advantages and disadvantages of adding slots in the state.
Millions of dollars could be used for the state budget if the slots are approved. The gambling revenue would help the budget, and the unemployment rate would also likely drop as thousands of jobs would be created to help operate the slots at the gaming facilities.
On the flip side of the issue, opponents will argue that the social ills associated with gambling expansion will outweigh the jobs and tax revenue. In other states, that argument has been losing traction with the general public, as many states have expanded gambling in the past several years.
Schwarzenegger Bans Welfare Cards at Bingo Halls and on Cruise Ships.
0This post originally appeared here.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California recently used his powers to limit spending of his struggling welfare state. Welfare recipients used to be able to buy marijuana, get psychic readings, enjoy so called massages in massage parlors, get bail bonds, play bingo, shop for guns, gamble on the race track or go on cruise ships or spend their time in smoking shops or get the latest tattoos.
All these nice past times are no longer. Based on a report in the Los Angeles Times, the Schwarzenegger administration informed county welfare directors on Monday with a letter, announcing that ATMs and point-of-sale card readers in such establishments will no longer be on the list of approved destinations for California’s Electronic Benefits Transfer cards.
The welfare cards are intended to pay for life’s necessities and are not considered consistent with the welfare program was said in the explaining letter.
Earlier this Year casinos and poker room had already been removed from the network, after the LA Times reported about out of state usage of welfare cards. Based on these reports, $69 million of California welfare money was spend elsewhere. $12 million of said money was spend in Las Vegas. Florida was also a hip location to get rid of the welfare funds. The tally counted in Florida was about $1.5 million. There was also welfare money spend on cruise ships which were sailing from Miami.
In Austin, a Lawsuit Over “The Future of Bingo”
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Courthouse News has the suit filed in Austin federal court: More than a dozen veterans and fraternal organizations, including VFW Texas and Dallas-based Amvets Dept. of Texas, Inc., are suing the Texas Lottery Commission and its commissioners over “the future of bingo.” Which is to say: Each of the plaintiffs holds a state-issued license that allows them to conduct charitable bingo. Only, with that license, which is granted under the Texas Bingo Enabling Act, comes this stipulation: Any money made from charitable bingo can’t be used to support political candidates (which they’re fine with) or “influence or attempt to influence legislation” (which they’re not cool with).
Because as far as these groups are concerned, it’s only a matter of time before Texas — which, says the lawsuit, “faces an unprecedented fiscal deficit estimated as high as $18 billion in the coming biennium” — legalizes all kinds of gambling, including bingo. (Matter of fact, on July 8 the Texas House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures does have on its agenda a discussion concerning “Gaming and the expansion of gambling in Texas.”) And if the state ultimately decides, yup, let’s git to gamblin’, it’ll involve going to the voters to amend the Texas Constitution. And these groups want to be able to have a say in the outcome, which laws prohibits at present:
Charities that rely on bingo revenues to support their activities are one of the groups in the greatest position to gain or lose, depending on the outcome of anticipated gambling legislation. If, for example, a measure is passed that permits casinos or similar facilities across Texas, but which leaves bingo halls alone, this would very realistically be the end of bingo in many parts of the State.9 On the other hand, bingo and the charities it supports could greatly benefit if the charities were permitted to offer additional types of games as part of a proposed gambling bill. Therefore it is no exaggeration to say that the life of Texas charitable bingo is on the line during the next legislative session.
This article can be found on the Dallas Observer website here and is authored by Robert Wilonsky