Bingo

I learned a new language yesterday - Bingo. My previous experience with Bingo included fun family nights at the kids' school and it was all very simple. But with terms such as Accumulator, Double Action Progressive, Catch the Star Bonus Progressive and Toonie Pot Plus, I felt like I'd stepped into another world.

Our kids' swim club is one of many organizations that hosts a bingo event every week. This happens at the local bingo club, which has been a staple in our city for many years. As soon as you enter the building, you feel like you've entered another dimension and another era. The bingo hall hosts approximately 40 sessions every single week, where people come and play bingo for a few hours, morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night. Endless options. Countless tables and chairs are lined up facing the stage where a rather morose looking woman calls the games and balls.

It's a huge business - people drop money for cards with no hesitation and it's serious business for them. In the few hours I was there, there weren't many smiles to be seen, or laughs to be heard. The term "fun and games" does not apply here - this may be a game they're playing but I'm quite sure they're not playing for fun.

There is a sort of desperation in their eyes - maybe today will be the day they "win big." How much does a person have to spend before they win big? What if they never win big? It is so easy to see how this becomes an addiction. It really is not a happy place.

And the irony floors me. All the money raised from the bingos goes towards over 40 different charities/organizations/clubs in the area. I raise funds and rack up volunteer hours by helping out. It's great that so many organizations can support themselves and their members this way. But at what cost? I'd be lying if I said the bingo players didn't fall into a certain stereotype. Of course, there were a few who seemed out of place, but the vast majority were a very lonely and desperate-looking lot, and they are the ones reducing the fees at my childrens' swim club. It's not even a social activity - most people arrived and sat alone.

Is it just me, or does society go about things in very unusual ways? Why should I benefit from the addictions of others? Perhaps I have a sense of naivete about this whole situation, but I had never seen its hard reality before. Thoughts to ponder from the bingo hall...