Somewhere There's A Bingo Player...

[00:00:04] Hello and welcome to The Broke Bingo Addict. This is a podcast that ventures through the wild and crazy world of bingo. This is much more than your grandmother's bingo. My name is Shari and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment purposes only.

[00:00:28] Welcome to this week's episode of The Broke Bingo Addict. Last week I was in Las Vegas. I was visiting family and I was also going to go check out the little super session that was happening at South Point.

[00:00:41] Many people know that right now they're having the $2 million extravaganza that they have like three times a year. So it's going on right now and I wasn't going to participate in that. I knew I wasn't doing that because I just had a lot going on.

[00:00:52] But you know, I was in town so I thought what the heck I'll go check out the super session which is pretty good in and of itself because it pays $11.99 per game. I think they have roughly 30 games and that's also including a double action game that pays

[00:01:06] a minimum of $5,000 although you absolutely have the chance to win a lot more. They have like a progressive thing that if you get it within so many numbers, I think it's like 35 numbers that you get this massive progressive pot. But anyway, that said, I was there.

[00:01:20] I was sitting with a few people that I knew, some other TikTokers and just having a good time and chatting. And one of the people that I was sitting with she looked over and she's like

[00:01:31] to everybody at the table because you know, there's a lot of people there. That that event brings in just tons and tons of people for the event. So you see people from all over the place, people you know from wherever you play

[00:01:42] locally or people you've met in other places or people you've seen online. So there are a lot of people. But so she was going, you know, to everybody and we're like, OK, what? And she said, see that person over there? And it was a guy.

[00:01:53] So he, that guy, she was playing with him someplace and I'm paraphrasing. But the gist of it was that she and this person, I guess, were in some type of a line getting ready to buy their packs, buy their bingo packs. And that person let her go first.

[00:02:06] All right. So he let her go first. She got her pack. They go play and ended up that that guy with his pack, he ended up being the big winner. And it's like, oh my God, you just want to shoot yourself.

[00:02:17] And that's how bingo is, which I think is really funny. And I particularly thought it was funny because right after that event, I went back home, I went back to LA and I was deciding to go ahead and play at the bingo club.

[00:02:28] And I love playing at the bingo club. But one of the things about it is instead of having to go up to a window or going someplace in particular to buy your packs, they walk around to you and they sell the packs to you at your seat.

[00:02:41] And they also sell the pull tabs to you at your seat. And they also do strips, whatever. So I was sitting there playing and I was in my little row that I like to play and and they come along and they were playing a particular strip.

[00:02:53] I think this one was Krusty Krab, whatever it was. They're playing and I bought my strips. I usually buy about two. So I bought two and then, you know, there's a guy sitting next to me.

[00:03:03] And as it turned out, the guy sitting to my left ended up winning that strip. You actually had to share it with somebody, but still he won and you're sitting there going, shoot, he's right next to me.

[00:03:12] If I'd have bought one more strip or whatever, that could have been me. So you're like, OK, but that's good. You're happy when somebody wins. You know, nothing to worry about. But then the night goes on and they sell another strip.

[00:03:23] And for reference sake, some of the strips pay seven fifty. Some of them pay twenty five hundred and some of them pay five thousand. So the night's going on and they sell another strip. This particular strip is going to be paying twenty five hundred dollars.

[00:03:37] OK, so I did my usual thing. I bought a couple of those. The guy next to me buys a couple. Son of a gun. And he wins this time. He wins all by himself. So he's got twenty five hundred dollars.

[00:03:51] And you're sitting there thinking to yourself that close, that close. If I'd have bought one more strip, that would have been me winning the twenty five hundred dollars or whatever if I'd have bought a couple more.

[00:04:01] But still it's also funny just to show you how the odds are that somebody sitting next to you can win twice. You haven't won once. And it made me think of the series that Tanya, aka Confessions of a Bingo Attic or also just Bingo underscore Attic at TikTok.

[00:04:17] She had this little series that she was doing like somewhere. There's a bingo player dot, dot, dot. So this particular one was somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot. Who's cussing you out because you let someone skip in the line and they won.

[00:04:31] If you know, you know. So another one she's got is somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot who's saying they never win bingo. And I know if anybody's been listening, I had a streak there.

[00:04:43] I don't say I never win bingo, but there's everybody who's gone for a period of where they haven't won bingo for a long time. And I went through that phase for a little while there for like, you know, a few months, I just wasn't getting jacked.

[00:04:54] I don't care how many times I played. I don't care if I played five times a week, five times it, whatever. I absolutely wasn't winning anything. But that's just the natural thing that happens to every single bingo player out there. I don't know anybody.

[00:05:06] I'm talking people who spend a lot of money go through periods where they don't win sometimes, but you, you know, you just kind of hang in there and you keep going and doing what you, what you got to do. And then here's another one somewhere.

[00:05:18] There's a bingo player dot, dot, dot who's running late for bingo. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh my gosh. Can I relate to this one? Because I live in Los Angeles and the traffic here is crazy.

[00:05:29] And it used to be again, for anybody who listens to me or follows me, they know that I used to live literally right across the street from a bingo hall. It was Buckingham bingo. And due to the pandemic and some other factors, they never reopened.

[00:05:43] Okay. They never reopened. And that was the closest bingo hall to me. I could walk there if I wanted to. And now there's not a place that's within 30 minutes of me. I mean, I'm lucky if I can go someplace that's within 30 minutes of me.

[00:05:55] So everything seems to be out in Gardena or Montabello or Lakewood or whatever. So it just means that when I'm going, it's always kind of this stressful thing of like, you know, do you leave extra early, but then you're stuck

[00:06:08] sitting there? Or do you leave when you think it's going to be enough time, but it doesn't matter whether you leave early or whether you leave late. There's always a possibility that somebody's going to have an accident. So you're stuck in traffic.

[00:06:18] I was actually, when I was going to the bingo club the other day, I was in like, you know, where you can see the exit sign for your exit and then all of a sudden traffic comes to a complete stop and you can't do anything.

[00:06:29] And again, I was cutting it close as it was because I was coming from so far away and then boom, you get stuck. So that's me. I am always worried about running late to bingo.

[00:06:38] Many people have had to pick up my packs for me or save a seat or whatever, because they know that's happening. So I absolutely relate to that one. But another one's somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot who bought

[00:06:51] a ton of pool tabs and didn't win, which is the thing that always just, you know, people get mad sometimes. I hear people getting angry when they see tiktokers or whether it's a tiktok or not, when they see somebody who regularly comes in and buys a ton

[00:07:06] of tabs and they're always saying, well, they bought all the pool tabs. They bought all the two pool tabs. How dare they? It's not fair for everybody else. They shouldn't be allowed to buy all those pool tabs. But hey, those people do not win all the time either.

[00:07:17] I've seen many of them have streaks where they weren't winning and they've spent a buttload of money on pool tabs. But again, whether you're spending a lot of money on pool tabs compared to other people or whether you're spending more than you wanted to spend. Absolutely.

[00:07:31] There's so many times where you walk home without winning. In fact, more times than not you walk home without winning. So I can relate to that. Somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot who called into work to play bingo.

[00:07:46] OK, this absolutely doesn't relate to me anymore because obviously I am retired. But somewhere there's a bingo player who looked around for the bingo worker to bring them their winnings. Ah, have we all done this?

[00:08:00] And mainly I've done this because, you know, not that we didn't think it was going to happen, but they're selling other stuff. They're selling other pool tabs or they're doing other things that are coming up.

[00:08:09] And I've spent all my money, but I know that I've got that money coming. And I want to use that money to, you know, buy some more stuff, buy some more pool tabs, strips, papers, whatever it is. So yeah, you are sitting there going, hey, hey, what's up?

[00:08:23] Oh, oh yeah. And also you want to tip your other friends, you know, sometimes people like, wait a minute, she won like 30 minutes ago. She ain't tipped me yet. Where the heck is my money? So you're kind of anxious sometimes because you want to go around and tip

[00:08:37] other people and don't have them thinking that you forgot about them and you don't plan to tip them or whatever. So I've absolutely done that. So bingo workers, when you need to pay out somebody, pay them out as fast

[00:08:46] as you can so they can either one spend more money or make sure they can give money to their friends so they can spend more money. Somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot who ran out of money

[00:08:58] and it's a bait and on going to that ATM machine. Okay. So that follows that last conversation. Absolutely. We have all done that and I have learned the trick. If you don't want to spend any money, there's one trick that you have

[00:09:09] to do and the only thing that really works and that is you can't bring anything with you. You can't bring an ATM card. You can't bring a credit card. You can't bring anything with you because I guarantee you wherever

[00:09:21] you're playing, they're going to make sure that they're going to be able to give you some money. They're going to find a way if you want it, that bingo hall is going to be able to give you some money and it's just so hard not to.

[00:09:31] I can't tell you, I used to do this thing where I would save a little money. It's that I'm only going to spend this much money. Okay. I, this is much I have. I'm going to take a little extra for emergencies, but I'll leave

[00:09:41] that in the car and I'm not going to use that. That's just for emergencies. You know, and then my friends would smear me. It's like I'm going to my car. I would run to my car and get that money where I'd find that ATM

[00:09:54] card. It is so hard not to spend that money when you're a bingo. So again, the best way to do it if you sincerely don't want to go over your budget, then it's to like, don't hide money in your

[00:10:05] car, don't hide money in your shoe, don't take your ATM card, don't take your credit card because they will give you an advance. Don't do any of that stuff. Just take the amount of money that you plan to spend and do that as hard as it is.

[00:10:18] You know, that's, that's the best way to go about that somewhere. There's a bingo player who's waiting on the number to roll and it's the number under it or over it. Don't you hate that? Now, this is my thing. This is my question too, because you're sitting there

[00:10:32] and I guess this is happening to everybody in the room, but you need B12. Okay. So of course they're going to call B11 and they're going to call B13. I mean, that is just so annoying. It happens to everybody.

[00:10:45] So I don't know why we get so upset, but it is upsetting. So what I've actually done, I like this at South Point. They have the machines and even though I'm not a big machine person, I do like the fact that at South Point,

[00:10:57] I guess other places too. I just haven't played a lot of computers. You have that option where you can hide the number. All right. So you can do it where you just have a question mark. So if you need B3, you don't need no, you need B3

[00:11:09] because you can't see it. You just see a question mark. You just know you need a B. And that actually, I feel like takes a lot of stress off because you're not freaking out about that number. And then this, by the way, goes back to another episode.

[00:11:21] If you recall, and that's when I was at South Point in November and I actually won one of the coveralls. I split a twenty five thousand dollar cover all and I need it a B. I actually need it B3, but I didn't know I needed B3 because again,

[00:11:35] I just saw the question mark and it really took away the stress of just going, you know, B3, B3, B3. You just like B. You don't care. You just need to be and it was just really nice to be able

[00:11:47] to not have that extra stress of wanting an extra number. But again, it is absolutely annoying when they keep calling everything around your number. Sometimes they will call the entire row. I remember that as another occasion. I was playing over at St.

[00:11:59] John. I was playing a tab and I got on that tab, needed four numbers. I got the first three like boom, boom, boom. I need it like in 35. They must have called every in, in the row and they wouldn't

[00:12:13] call my number. So that was just like, oh, that's just so aggravating. So anyway, somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot counting how much you've won and how much you spent back on pull tabs. And again, this is so funny because you do, you get so excited,

[00:12:31] you just want to win. And then when you win, boom, that money goes back in, which is by the way, what I like to be an out the door winner, you know, you're sitting there playing all day and you've done what you could do.

[00:12:41] You've spent what you were going to spend. And then just before the end of the night, when you don't have any chance to spend any more money, you get that money, you take that money home, you tip everybody and then what's left is left.

[00:12:50] You are out the door. So that is my favorite way to win. Somewhere there's a bingo player dot, dot, dot rubbing their lucky charm so their ball can come out. Now I have to sit there and say,

[00:13:03] there are a lot of people, you know, you go to these events, you go to play bingo and you see people who've got their table completely decked out with everything. I am not one of those people. I was just thinking that could answer a lot of stuff.

[00:13:16] But anyway, I'm not one of those people. I do have some things that I like. Tonya gave me a little frog that I absolutely love. Another friend gave me a turtle. I've got some charms. Italian bingo mama gave me a bracelet.

[00:13:27] I've got other people who've given me some things. Luna gave me a little frog that I have. I mean, I take those things with me, but I don't necessarily put all those things out of my table for good luck. But some people do.

[00:13:40] You people have your spray, you've got all that stuff and it makes you feel pretty confident that you're going to win. It's amazing how much stuff you see out there that people have. And hopefully that helps.

[00:13:50] I don't know, it just hasn't been a thing for me that I've done that. But maybe I should start trying. Maybe I would win a little more. And last but not least, somewhere there's a bingo player dot dot dot

[00:14:00] who's trying to convince their friends that bingo isn't what they think it is. It is actually fun. And I think that's funny because there are a lot of people who have just like this weird misconception of little gray haired ladies,

[00:14:13] you know, with all their little doppers and all their little trolls and just sitting there, you know, getting mad because they have it one or whatever. And just, you know, just this weird kind of vision that they have of bingo players.

[00:14:24] And it's just so much not that anymore. It's so different from what it used to be years and years ago. There are people of every age, race and religion playing bingo. It's so much fun. There's so much more to it than just playing bingo

[00:14:37] because you've got your pool tabs, you've got your strips, you've got your extra games, you've got your special event. You know, everybody knows like the summer shakeup that Bosco Tech just have. It is really, really fun.

[00:14:49] And it's an incredible community made up of so many people, you know, and I'm just really happy that I've gotten to be a part of that community for such a long time now and hopefully for many, many years to come.

[00:15:01] But I think that Tanya does a great job of encapsulating a lot of what is the reality of bingo. And she absolutely cracks me up. So these things are true. I'm just wondering if you're listening to this, how many of these things

[00:15:13] that you thought about, how many of these things relate to you and how much of a kick you get out of hearing about it. So anyway, that's it for this week's episode of the broke bingo addict. I hope you enjoyed it.

[00:15:26] I hope you will come back for the next episode. In the meantime, thanks so much. Bye.