Bingo Operators

Recently some Bingo operators have added an extra ball which is distinctively colored and bears no letter or number. It acts as a wild number. In some games, when this ball is drawn, a player can cover any desired number on her card at any time during the game; sometimes it can only be used to cover the last number completing the winning position.

At the end of each game, after the awarding of the prize or prizes, all players clear their card or cards of markers and either retain them or exchange them for the next game. They may also purchase additional cards.

Sometimes intermission tickets are also sold at a discount in the hope of continuing the game action throughout the intermission period. There are also junior jackpot tickets which payoff a smaller jackpot. Actually all these specials have the same purpose: to relieve the Bingo player of more cash.

The admission ticket to a Bingo parlor usually costs $1, and the player gets one card called an all-night board. Additional single-game cards usually cost 215¢ each. Most players play more than one card at a time, and it is not uncommon to see a woman playing as many as 21 cards at once, a total cost to her of $6. If you think that playing 21 cards simultaneously is a relaxing way to spend an evening, just try it. I have, and you can't relax for a second its hard work. But the women love it.

Many large parlors have a special jackpot which must be won in a specified number of plays. Example: A jackpot winner must be declared within the first 50 numbers drawn. If there should be no winner at one session, an additional $200 or more is added to the jackpot the following week. Jackpots of this kind starting with $500 have been known to reach $10,000 and more before being won.

After clocking a great many players in different parts of the country, I found that in bingo halls having jackpots of $2150 or more the average player spends $4 per session. Some women spend as much as $7 per session; very few as little as the $1 admission fee. Mrs. Edreth Videtti, an avid Bingo player from my neck of the woods, summed it up this way: "A person would look awfully cheap to sit through thirty Bingo games with just the admission board."