The first game of the night doesn't start for another 45 minutes, but already the Pike Place Bingo Hall in Covington is filled with hopeful players.
Everyone wants to walk away a winner, but most of the 150 people in attendance won't be ahead at the end of the night. Regardless of whether or not their winning numbers come up, though, players point to a variety of other reasons why they play the game, ranging from social interaction to stress relief.
Phyllis Bridges of Crittenden drives up regularly from Grant County to attend bingo games in Covington. Besides the thrill of winning, Bridges said her favorite part is the simple act of dobbing her paper sheets as numbers are announced.
"It's the only time that I'm not stressed out and worrying about other things," said Bridges, describing her interest in the game. "I do it because I enjoy it."
Instead of buying clothes, she plays bingo. And while she does make time to visit garage sales whenever possible, Bridges averages about five bingo games a week.
"I'm more lucky at bingo than anything else," she said.
As any player will tell you, bingo success revolves around luck. But the game also involves keeping track of your cards and the series of numbers necessary for a bingo.
Rather than looking frantically over their cards as numbers are hollered out in 20-second intervals, more and more players now rely on technological advances when it comes to finding their bingo edge.
The Bingo Mate 2000, available for rent at the Pike Place hall, is an electronic device that downloads bingo cards into its memory file. The 2.5-pound machine features a backlit LCD display screen that automatically shows the best card in play. It also alerts players to numbers they need for a bingo.
Computers Have Changed Bingo
Fred Stephens of Covington uses a Bingo Mate whenever he plays. A few weeks ago he won the $1,000 jackpot at Pike Place.
"It changed it all together," he said, describing computers' effect on bingo. "There's no skill in bingo. There's no bluffing. You've either got the number or you don't have the number. There's nothing to it."
Running a fulltime bingo hall, though, is a different matter. Required to have a license with the state's Office of Charitable Gaming, bingo halls file quarterly reports similar to those submitted by non-profit organizations that conduct bingo games.
Jim Salyers, a Covington developer who owns Pike Place Bingo Hall, said the regulations serve a crucial purpose.
"It's almost like overkill, the way they check out the reports and audit (organizations) every quarter and every year," he said.
Licensed halls have no involvement with the actual charitable gaming held on the premises, though. Organizations bring in volunteers and run the game. Besides Pike Place, there are only two other licensed bingo halls in NKY: Turfway Park in Florence and the Oldenberg Brewery Building in Fort Mitchell.
In the case of Pike Place Hall, staff members sell food and beverages and clean up the room after each game.
Salyers installed a $20,000 ventilation system to offer a nonsmoking section of the bingo hall and describes his building as "the top of the line" in NKY.
After hosting bingo games for years at the Madison, Salyers moved the games to the current location eight years ago.
Several nonprofit organizations rent out the building space for weekly or biweekly games. By law, licensed organizations may only conduct bingo twice a week for up to 10 hours per week, or five hours per session.
Organizations sign leases for anywhere from one to three years, said Salyers. Current tenants include: Shamrock Boxing Club, BBC Boxing, Glen Cole Evangelistic Association, VFW Post 1484 and VFW Post 1484 Ladies Auxiliary.
Average Rent: $650 Per Night
According to records on file with the Office of Charitable Gaming, tenants pay an average of over $650 in rent per session, netting Pike Place over $80,000 every three months.
As a developer who owns several buildings in Covington, Salyers describes his foray into bingo as a natural one.
"It's an opportunity to utilize that facility, or any facility, at night when nothing is going on downtown," he said. "Most of these people are retired. It's like their one big night out. So we feed them and try to make it more like an Argosy-type adventure."
But unlike the riverboat casinos of Indiana, players won't "lose their shirts" playing bingo, according to volunteers and players alike.
"It's gambling. That's the whole point. But you're not going to lose your money as fast as you will at the casino," said Don Seligman, a volunteer with the Northside Community Church. "You can hang on to it a little longer."
Adds Willie Baldwin, an 81-year-old player from Cincinnati: "It's a big kick when you win."
