Do you go to bingo parlors?

Nope. I went once with a neighbor who talked me into going, and I was quite amazed. For old people that usually are slow moving, I never saw such moves when a number was called. I had only one card while people around me had their cards spread all over and all I saw was a flash of bingo markers hitting their boards at lightning speed. Yikes. I never went again.
 
I've played bingo a couple of times up at one of the casinos in the foothills. I wasn't a senior at the time. They offer free bingo on your bday, so one of my gfriends and I would go. Haven't played since.
 

Once in my life I went into a Bingo hall.I was only 40...and it was a huge hall packed full of mainly women... they were extremely serious about the whole thing...


When my father was a bus driver in the 60's and 70's.. he said that during the week, he's pick up these old ladies, who struggled to get on the bus, hardly able to walk, ''wait driver'' they'd call in weedy voices as they tried to get off the bus just as gingerly

... On Fridays & saturday nights, with their hair permed, and their best clothes on... these same pensioners would catch my fathers bus to take them to the BIngo... and father said... it was like they'd shed 20 years, they couldn't get off the bus fast enough.., running to get the best seats ..
 
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My grandmother lived with us and she would coax me into going to bingo with her when I was a teen. There‘s no place a teen would rather steer clear of more than a bingo hall!
My grandmother was truly addicted and would go to “ the early birds” and stay until closing. She played about 50 cards at a time.
She thought that her bribe to get me pizza was her shrewd way of getting me to accompany her but even pizza didn’t tempt me to spend an evening there.
I went with her because I loved her. There has never been anyone I’ve loved as much except for my children….and nobody has been able to coax me to go to a bingo hall since! Not even for pizza!
 
Years ago (1978-81) I'd play at the Jewish bingo (once hit for $200) Eagles lodge #4, St. Ignatius, Moose Lodge and The Odd fellows hall (Aloha Grange hall)

Got to the point of running 15 cards. Would usually make $80 a week in profits. After I turned 21. I would bar hope playing " Gray Games" (If you were known, you could get paid off)

I laugh now remembering the "Church of Conceptual Truth" scam. They converted the old Amatos bowling alley to a bingo hall and they had weekly "Services" but it was a front for gambling.

They were known for $4,000-$6,0000 blackouts. Took the portland and oregon AG's 3 years to shut them down.
 
Years ago (1978-81) I'd play at the Jewish bingo (once hit for $200) Eagles lodge #4, St. Ignatius, Moose Lodge and The Odd fellows hall (Aloha Grange hall)

Got to the point of running 15 cards. Would usually make $80 a week in profits. After I turned 21. I would bar hope playing " Gray Games" (If you were known, you could get paid off)

I laugh now remembering the "Church of Conceptual Truth" scam. They converted the old Amatos bowling alley to a bingo hall and they had weekly "Services" but it was a front for gambling.

They were known for $4,000-$6,0000 blackouts. Took the portland and oregon AG's 3 years to shut them down.
Pray tell stranger... in which language dost thou speak...? :ROFLMAO:
 
well..I don't smoke, drink or pay Bingo.. and I STILL can't afford a horse

Back in the early 70’s, when I said that you could have.

In October, 2024 and Rusty was still alive, my vet bill for their dental exams (which included sedation), sheath cleaning and their 3-way vaccinations was $478. And that is cheap compared to other areas in my region.

It costs me as much for two horses in today’s world as it did for four horses when I moved here in 2003.
 
Both Assisted Living facilities I've spent time in (my mother's and my FIL's) ran bingo. As others have mentioned, it was surprisingly serious and cutthroat for many, especially since it was only 10¢ a game at my mom's and 25¢ at my FIL's. Mom played only a few times - and only if I was there, but it really wasn't much fun. FIL sometimes sat with some of his friends as they played, but never participated in the games.

These folks were paying $4000 and up per month to live there, but got their knickers in a twist over a maximum pot of $3.00.
 
Back in the early 70’s, when I said that you could have.

In October, 2024 and Rusty was still alive, my vet bill for their dental exams (which included sedation), sheath cleaning and their 3-way vaccinations was $478. And that is cheap compared to other areas in my region.

It costs me as much for two horses in today’s world as it did for four horses when I moved here in 2003.
My first job in the early 70's paid £4.10 a week.. as an office junior...by the end of the 70's I was stillearning only £50 pw... that's how poor the waages in the UK were.. and still are tbh...
 
The only time I went to a bingo parlor was in a casino. And those people were SERIOUS about their bingo. There was about 300 and you could hear a clock tick. I wasn't playing, I was waiting for my ex. She came in, so I waved to let her know where I was. The dirty looks I got for disturbing the crowd scared me. At the beginning of the game, people were told they could not stand, or leave the room until bingo was called. These were hard core bingo fanatics.
 
NO bingo parlors in my area.

Non-profit organizations hold them in the volunteer fire halls - prime fundraising method!

Most attendees are groups of friends in their 40s and 50s with money to burn. They play bingo, play the tip sheets, and buy tickets for the baskets that are donated to the cause.

The old people are in the casinos playing the slots.
 
Not in this country!
Now that I think about it, we may have played our parents' cards. It's a long ago and far away memory - and not a particularly fond one, at that.

Most gambling didn't do much for me. It was always about the people I was with. Penny slots in Las Vegas with DH, plus my kids and their significant others when they were in their early twenties? Now THAT was a hoot!!!
 


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