A Little Bingo Mashup

[00:00:04] Hello and welcome to The Broke Bingo Addict. This is a podcast that ventures through the

[00:00:14] wild and crazy world of bingo. This is much more than your grandmother's bingo.

[00:00:20] My name is Shari and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment

[00:00:26] purposes only. Hi everybody and welcome to this week's episode of The Broke Bingo Addict.

[00:00:32] I actually have a couple of things I want to talk about. And to start off, one of the things

[00:00:36] I want to address is what happens when you're playing either a horse race or a downline and

[00:00:43] when to yell bingo? Okay, you're like why? Why is that a problem? That should be so easy. The

[00:00:49] answer is yell bingo when you have bingo. But the problem is there are a couple ways that

[00:00:54] these horse races or downlines are performed. Okay, and this situation just popped up

[00:01:00] recently in one of the places that I was playing bingo at. Okay, to give you the back story,

[00:01:04] I play bingo at a location that switches out its bingo callers. Okay, a lot of places do

[00:01:09] it. Actually, I think most places do that where they switch out the bingo caller.

[00:01:13] Somebody's calling for the first half of the night and then somebody switches it up or they

[00:01:17] just go back and forth throughout the night. Okay, so the situation was that we were

[00:01:20] playing a downline. So to explain first of all what a downline is, is that in bingo,

[00:01:25] certainly in the United States, you have 15 rows. Okay, the 15 rows go across the numbers 1 through

[00:01:32] 15 and in each one of those rows you have five numbers. So the object is that whoever gets

[00:01:40] all five numbers in one of those 15 rows is the winner. In some instances, you've got to

[00:01:47] get two rows but for the most part it's whoever gets the first row with all five numbers

[00:01:53] and that person wins the bingo. But since it's obvious that whoever gets the first five numbers

[00:01:59] is the winner, in some places they will automatically stop the game. In other places,

[00:02:05] they require you to actually yell bingo. So the problem occurred in the place that I was

[00:02:10] playing at is that it was a confusing situation because one of the callers would automatically

[00:02:15] stop and the other caller required you to yell bingo. So that's what was happening.

[00:02:22] After having played the first part of the night when the bingo caller would automatically stop,

[00:02:26] I mean he would say, oh you know this is it. So he would make it quite obvious that that person

[00:02:31] had the bingo and would stop the game. Whether somebody said bingo or didn't say bingo,

[00:02:37] they would automatically stop. But for the other part of the night when the other person

[00:02:41] was calling, they absolutely required you to say bingo. So of course the situation occurred

[00:02:49] where somebody had all five numbers and neglected to yell bingo on the assumption

[00:02:55] that they were just going to stop the game. Well this person just kept going. When the person

[00:03:00] didn't yell bingo automatically after the first five numbers were called in their particular row,

[00:03:05] the bingo caller just kept going and said hey you got to yell bingo. Okay,

[00:03:10] you got to say bingo or else I'm not going to stop. So that person who didn't yell bingo

[00:03:15] again on the assumption that the bingo caller was going to automatically stop lost their bingo.

[00:03:21] And I think it was for a substantial amount. I think it was for it was either 500 or 1199 and

[00:03:27] I think it was the 1199. So can you imagine that? Can you imagine that you didn't get your

[00:03:31] bingo on the assumption that what was happening previously in the night was going to happen for

[00:03:36] you and then that wasn't the case. Now mind you, the next person who got their bingo was

[00:03:40] really happy because they knew to yell bingo because this particular bingo caller wasn't

[00:03:45] going to stop. But in my opinion, to me it's like that's a lot of money whether it's 500

[00:03:51] or 1199 or 250. It's money that I want to win. It's why I'm there playing bingo is to win

[00:03:56] and whether the person is going to stop automatically for me or not, I'm sure shooting

[00:04:02] gonna yell bingo as loud as I possibly can because I don't want to take that chance. And

[00:04:07] I don't understand people like that. Why would you take the chance that they're going to

[00:04:13] automatically give you that bingo? And I think there's another place that I play at.

[00:04:17] I play at Bosco Tech a lot. Everybody knows I play at Bosco Tech a lot and God bless them.

[00:04:22] Tori is the bingo caller there but whether it's Tori or whether it's Paul, 90% of the time

[00:04:27] it's Tori. She actually makes that announcement. She says it every freaking week and I think she

[00:04:32] says it before every opportunity when they're going to play a game that has that option

[00:04:36] where it's either a horse race or downline. Tori sits there and says,

[00:04:42] I am not going to stop the game unless you actually say bingo. And even still,

[00:04:48] I think there have been occasions where people just automatically thought she was going to stop

[00:04:52] and have missed their bingo. So that's what I just want to throw out there to people.

[00:04:56] Come on. It is hard. It is hard to win and I think you've got to pay attention and just

[00:05:01] not assume these things. You got to yell bingo whether you need to in some cases or you don't

[00:05:06] need to. Why take the chance of missing that money? So that's the first thing I want to put

[00:05:11] out there. The next thing I want to put out there is also in the same kind of line. I was

[00:05:17] playing at this place and there was a lady sitting next to me. This lady and her family

[00:05:21] were sitting next to me at this table and we were sitting toward the back of the room

[00:05:26] and on this occasion, the lady got the bingo. It was very exciting. Yeah, yeah,

[00:05:30] yeah. Always nice when people around me win bingo but she did the thing that again drives

[00:05:34] me bat poop crazy. She went, bingo. We're in the back of the room. The caller clearly did not

[00:05:43] hear her so everybody around me were all going like, yell bingo again, yell bingo and she did.

[00:05:49] She yelled bingo again and then the caller did hear her but it was clear that he had not

[00:05:53] heard her initially and if he'd have said the next number, she would have been mad.

[00:05:59] She would have been, but I said bingo, but I said bingo and much like the situation with the

[00:06:04] horse, they say it every freaking time. People every bingo hall in America sits there and says,

[00:06:12] I don't care if everybody sitting around you heard you say bingo. If the caller

[00:06:20] didn't hear you say bingo and they call the next number, you're just poop out of luck.

[00:06:25] You are just poop out of freaking luck. I can guarantee you if the caller hadn't

[00:06:31] heard her and if he had gone on to say the next number, she and her family would have been

[00:06:36] cussing up a blue streak saying, but I called bingo, but I called bingo.

[00:06:41] God bless the people who are around her who were supportive enough to say,

[00:06:44] yell bingo again. People themselves are saying bingo and the guy stopped and it was

[00:06:49] a place where they call slow enough so it wasn't an issue but it absolutely could

[00:06:53] have been. I remember I also play at the world renowned bingo club

[00:07:01] and I'm telling you at the bingo club, I've seen it. They don't stop.

[00:07:05] They don't give a rat's fanny. They don't care how many people are screaming.

[00:07:09] If you haven't called bingo loud enough for the bingo caller to hear you,

[00:07:14] they are not going to slow their roll. They're going to keep on going and it is just

[00:07:19] poop out of luck for you. Just throwing that out there again, people, please pay attention.

[00:07:25] Yell your bingos whenever you think you have bingo and yell it loudly. That's just my

[00:07:32] public service announcement for the day. Again, like I said, I had a few things I

[00:07:40] want to talk about but the other thing was I was checking out the bingo bugler lately and

[00:07:44] I really like to look at them every now and then. I'm trying to see if there's something

[00:07:47] going on that I'm missing. I try to check out the other states to see if there's something fun

[00:07:52] going on. That's the place where I always find out about the bingo cruise which by the way is

[00:07:56] happening again this year at the end of October. If you want to get more information

[00:08:00] about that, you can check out the bingo bugle to get that. I think it's starting

[00:08:05] like the end of October and I know it ends November 3rd so that's going on.

[00:08:10] There's always a couple of other things that are in there that absolutely crack me up so

[00:08:14] I've got to read this information to you because I thought some of it was absolutely hilarious.

[00:08:20] Basically, it just tickles the heck out of me how incredibly popular bingo is all over the world

[00:08:25] and in any level. People are always saying things like, I didn't have that on my bingo card

[00:08:30] when something happens or anything and it's just amazing how incorporated bingo is on every

[00:08:37] kind of level all around the world. That's the thing that tickles me and not just in

[00:08:41] the United States of America. I was checking out like I said bingo bugle and there was this article

[00:08:46] called Spin and When. Here it is, this is what it says. This is going on in Europe by the way.

[00:08:55] This is going on in England. Spin and When, in an effort to cater to the evolving fitness

[00:09:01] preferences of Brits in 2024, Mecca Bingo has introduced a new fitness concept called

[00:09:09] Mecca Springo. This unique combination of exercise and bingo aims to help customers stick

[00:09:19] to their new year's fitness resolutions by merging bingo with spinning. The concept involves

[00:09:25] spin instructors doubling as bingo callers and leading classes from the saddle of a spin bike.

[00:09:32] As participants pedal to energetic tracks, they will simultaneously be able to mark off

[00:09:37] their bingo cards. It goes on to say Mecca Bingo's decision to launch Springo stems from a survey

[00:09:46] revealing that 43% of the nation has made fitness resolutions for 2024 with 22% specifically

[00:09:54] seeking more exciting workout options. Recognizing the need to motivate individuals to stay

[00:10:00] committed to their goals, Mecca Bingo hopes this new scheme will be able to inject a dose

[00:10:06] of enthusiasm into people's exercise routines. So bingo is out there saving the world. Not only

[00:10:15] are they winning money presumably, but they're also staying in shape. So that was one thing I

[00:10:20] saw. That was over in England. There was also a big old controversy over in the Netherlands.

[00:10:29] There was a group of pensioners and I imagine that that is the same as for us as I would

[00:10:34] guess would be retirees. But it says a group of pensioners in the Netherlands who had been

[00:10:38] deprived of their bingo afternoon because of gambling and alcohol regulations have found a

[00:10:43] very good way around the ban. The pensioners who gather every month at a community center,

[00:10:49] the clarinet, and I can't say the name of this place, SOEST, were unhappy the council has

[00:10:56] issued a bingo ban because alcohol is served at the same venue. For shame.

[00:11:04] It's they say it's not as if anybody is on the booze during the bingo.

[00:11:08] Yeah, that'd be over there. That's not here. People have the occasional glass of wine. That's

[00:11:12] all organizer Petra again can't say the last name till the local paper. No cafes or community

[00:11:18] centers where alcohol is served are allowed to host gambling events which bingo is considered

[00:11:23] to be even if the event itself is a teetotaler for many elderly people bingo afternoons are

[00:11:29] the only outings they have the person said what are they supposed to do sit behind the

[00:11:34] geraniums she said referring to the Dutch shorthand for bored and lonely elderly's.

[00:11:38] Well you learn something new every day. The group have now found a way around the ban for

[00:11:44] shouting geraniums instead of bingo when they get a full power to foil inspectors.

[00:11:49] So they say the rules have been changed a bit but it's sort of the same game but it's a message

[00:11:53] that counts the organizers say we just want this group to continue to meet up and we don't want

[00:11:59] to give that up so anyway where there's a will there's a way let me tell you bingo players

[00:12:04] will find a way to play bingo if it's the last thing they do and I just reminds me of

[00:12:11] the pandemic when you know we found ways to play bingo for me it started out with playing

[00:12:16] online bingo where they would just email you the card and you would print the card out and then you

[00:12:20] would watch it through zoom and you would play bingo and you didn't have big prizes you just

[00:12:25] had things like amazon cards or t-shirts or anything but it got me through I was losing

[00:12:30] my mind during the pandemic when I wasn't able to play bingo so it was really very

[00:12:34] helpful for me to at least have that outlet but again like I said it just goes to show

[00:12:39] where there's a will there's a way people love to play bingo so to that point again back in the

[00:12:47] good us of a there's a thing that they're doing in North Carolina called recycling bingo

[00:12:53] okay to celebrate America Recycles Day Wake County in North Carolina made recycling all

[00:12:58] fun and games launching its annual bingo game to help residents learn about recycling

[00:13:04] bingo game to help residents learn about recycling and win some prizes

[00:13:09] by the way American Recycles Day falls on November 15th but every single day we should

[00:13:14] be thinking about minimizing waste and recycling better because it impacts generations this was

[00:13:19] said by the Wake County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Susan Evans so what's going on there

[00:13:24] is that Wake County residents download their bingo game online and complete activities that

[00:13:30] help them learn about best recycling practices and available resources so those who complete

[00:13:36] a bingo card receive prizes this year's included a reusable stainless steel straw

[00:13:42] and cleaning brush pouch disposable plastic straws have a huge impact on the environment

[00:13:48] in the U.S. people throw away around millions of straws daily which can last 200 years

[00:13:53] polluting waterways and sickening animals in addition the reusable straws everybody

[00:13:58] can play their bingo card also have a chance to win a free composting bin okay that sounds

[00:14:03] pretty cool i'm in for the composting bin although i don't compost but i could see

[00:14:06] would that be a pretty significant prize for people so anyway like i said it's very

[00:14:11] interesting that bingo impacts everybody people who are regular bingo players and

[00:14:16] people around the world who just use it as some type of way to make things in life just

[00:14:21] a little bit more fun bingo is a universal game that brings joy to everyone i don't know anybody

[00:14:28] who wouldn't possibly like playing bingo so anyway like i said this is going to be kind

[00:14:33] of a mishmash of a lot of different things i just wanted to say hello hopefully it was

[00:14:38] information that you found enjoyable and hopefully you'll come back to listen to

[00:14:42] the next episode of the broke bingo attic thanks so much bye