Bingo isn't just for Grandma anymore

You can play Bingo 7 days a week

Sunday

Afternoon

Evening

Monday

Afternoon

Evening

Tuesday

Afternoon

Evening

Wednesday

Evening

Thursday

Evening

Friday

Afternoon

Evening

Saturday

Afternoon

Evening

Sources: The Dayton Bingo Books, (www.thebingobooks.com) and Bingo Pages (www.thebingopages.com)

If you take stock in charms, then a nondescript white building positioned between Mustang Sally’s Lounge and Fatt Boyz in Moraine could be the luckiest place in the region on Thursday nights.

Hundreds of charms — scarlet Ohio State University bears, faux crystal pyramids, plastic four-leaf clover clappers and more trolls than you can swing a fairy at — sit in front of bingo computers and paper bingo boards dotted by red, orange, green and even deep purple dabber ink at Heights Bingo, 3578 Kettering Blvd.

Karla Harrison’s charms are more personal than plastic.

Her good-luck charms include photos of her daughter and granddaughter as well as a small drawing of a bingo player on a tiny piece of purple Hello Kitty stationary.

“Good luck granny,” the note reads.

“This is fun,” Harrison, 57, of Trotwood said, noting that she has been lucky as a bingo player. “I like winning money.”

Like thousands of other Ohioans, Harrison and her daughter-in-law, Juanita Thomas, 38, of Dayton attend bingo games regularly.

Aside from the bustle of volunteers hawking instant tickets and the sound of the caller at work, the room is nearly silent until someone screams out "Bingo!"

That’s the part 23-year-old Becky McGraw of Springboro likes most, particularly when she or her mom, Nancy, are doing the screaming.

“I like to scream bingo and win money,” McGraw said, taking a break from the music on her iPod.

The duo said a little hairy Viking — a find from the Ohio Renaissance Fair — has helped bring them luck.

Monica Moloney, assistant director of the Ohio Attorney General’s Charitable Law Section, said the state-regulated games are generally profitable for charities.

More than 1.4 billion dollars changes hands in Ohio’s 1,800 to 2,000 licensed bingo establishments annually, she said. That translates to hundreds of millions of dollars for charities.

“It’s a great source of revenue for the charities to run,” Moloney said, noting that $3,500 in cash prizes can be given out at a session. There is pending legislation to raise that maximum to $6,000 to help bingo compete with the three casinos planned for the state.

Bingo players are not who you think they are, Moloney said.

“The general perception is that they are little old ladies playing,” she said. “That’s not generally the case.”

Becky McGraw, who has played the game since age 18, for instance, says one of her friends often comes in from Toledo to play with her.

Lesley Johnson, editor of the Dayton Bingo Books, said that while there are many older bingo players, it is a cheap form of recreation for younger players, too.

“You can go for $20, $10 at some places, and play for three hours. You might win $1,200,” she said. “People are loyal. They find a bingo hall they like, and they will come back every week.”

Bingo is played seven days a week in these parts.

As of March 5, there were 35 license holders in a five-county area — two in Preble, three in Warren, four in Greene, seven in Miami County and 19 in Montgomery — according to state records.

Operators range from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6560 to Beth Jacob Congregation to Carroll High School.

Heights Youth Baseball president Chuck Doran said that the game at Heights Bingo helps support his organization’s programs. By 2012, Doran expects that will translate into $750,000 to cover the cost of five new baseball fields and related facilities on a planned 120-acre sports complex, just outside of Huber Heights.

Doran said bingo in Dayton is still recovering from the black eye it received when eight Dayton-area people were arrested and charged with pocketing $15 million in charity bingo money.

The matter ended in 2007 with three defendants acquitted and five others fined.

He said his charity’s volunteers go above and beyond to make the event honest.

“Everything we take in goes right back to the kids,” he said.

John Townsend, vice president of Huber Heights Athletic Foundation, said thanks to bingo, his organization provides more than $250,000 to Wayne High School athletic programs and several community projects annually.

But bingo is not just a money maker. It provides recreation.

“It gives older people something to do, and it keeps their minds sharp,” he said.

Although most of the state’s bingo establishments are run by service organizations such as the American Eagles, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Knights of Columbus, several religious groups also hold games.

Those games are typically smaller and more intimate.

Familiar faces fill the basement room at St. Peters Catholic Church in Huber Heights each week, said Susan Rickel, who manages the church’s bingo game with her husband, Floyd.

“We have nice players and (volunteer) workers,” she said. “For a lot of people, we are family.”

Dorothy Page, 58; her daughter, Kristi Gibbs, 37; and her sister Linda Dearmond, 56, consider bingo an escape and an opportunity to see friends.

Each week the trio brings snacks for St. Peters volunteers. On one recent Thursday, the women, all Huber Heights residents, brought a feast of sweets.

Page said she been pretty lucky the 18 years she played bingo, winning as much as $1,000. She doesn’t mind the risk.

“It takes money to win money,” she said. “It’s fun and relaxing.”