Win or Lose, They Keep Playing the Game
It’s 3:55 p.m. After winning two times Saturday, Vennie Smith, 67, hasn't won Tuesday, and 120 people want to be the first to call out that word -- “Bingo.”
Smith plunked down around $20 to play, and she’s been waiting for more than four hours for her luck to come.
It’s the last game, and in an effort to concentrate, she won’t let anyone talk to her. Socializing has been postponed because Smith’s big smile will be bigger if she leaves the hall with $250.
Bingo is more than a gamble to the mostly older women who frequent St. Therese Byzantine Catholic Church’s twice-weekly game. It’s entertainment.
On Tuesdays and Saturdays the same women show up prepared for a day of bingo. They bring good luck charms and special bingo bags. They have a strategy to their game. Sit in the same seat. Wear the same pin.
Most players shell out between $20 and $30 for a session of bingo.
During the four-hour session, volunteers on the floor hand out $2,400 in cash prizes. On average 150 people play, but not everyone wins, of course.
Still, they keep coming.
Smith says she has two activities: church and bingo. She started playing bingo in 1976. She once won $6,000. Her nerves stopped her from hollering “Bingo,” so her friend had to do it for her.
Right before a bingo is called a buzz goes across the hall, and as soon as the “Bingo” is yelled, the whispers turn to gasps, groans and then to chatter.
Sue Wilcox, 66, turns to her mother, Thelma Nuckols, 93.
“What did you need, Mother?” she asks.
The same questions and comments reverberate around the room. The sound of paper tearing comes next. The disposable boards are already in the trash, and it’s time to move on to the next jackpot. The game moves along slowly enough to allow the players to talk with one another.
“They don’t like me no more,” Smith says after she wins a second game Saturday. Smith used to play every day, but now she only plays three or four times a week.
“Today is a donation day for me,” says Berlena Hudson, 59, a friend of Smith, who hasn't been winning.
“Today is a winning day for me,” Smith says. “Sorry, girls.”
Gaming expert Bill Thomp
Bingo gives players something to do and gets them out of the house, says Thomp
Bingo requires a lot of luck and not much skill, so most of the players bring good luck charms. People display small stuffed animals, trolls and plastic keychains. They also like to blame the teller when their numbers aren’t called.
On Saturday, Smith loses her good luck pin for a while. When she realizes the gold angel is gone, a look of despair comes across her face. It brought her two wins that day.
After a short search, the pin is found on the floor, and Smith sighs in relief.
Thelma Nuckols, like a lot of the women, has a bingo bag. It’s a little, red, round bag with pictures of bingo boards and chips. What’s special about it is the outside, which has pockets for the ink.
Bingo players have their gear -- colorful ink daubers to mark the paper boards, magnetic wands to pick up the markers and plastic bags for the old boards.
Most players play off 20 or 30 cards at one time.
Almost four hours and 600 boards have gone by since Vennie Smith started on Tuesday. None of them brought her a win.
For the final game of the day, players need to cover all the spaces to get a bingo. As the game gets longer and people fill more and more squares, gasps and groans again come from the crowd. With every number, more players are getting close.
Teller Martha Behanic calls B3.
Smith has one space left to fill, and when it finally appears on the TV screen, her hand shoots up.
She has to hold her cry of “Bingo” until the teller reads the number. Smith’s smile means she’s ready to talk now. The others throw away their cards, say their good-byes and move on.
Smith is the only winner in this game, so she pockets the whole $250.
“Vennie, where are you taking me to dinner?” Behanic asks.
“Anywhere you want to go,” says Smith, whose hope for the evening is that her $250 will buy her way out of cooking dinner.
Vennie's won big. But it doesn't matter. She'll still be at St. Therese every Tuesday and Saturday playing bingo.
