Known around the world, bingo is an amazing outlet for so many people, and in so many ways. There's the regular at the hall who has their favorite seat and knows everybody's name. There's the player on a bingo app, daubing from the couch. There's the crowd on TikTok and livestreams, watching the games and cheering from wherever they are. No matter how it's being played, Bingo creates wonderful communities near and far.
[00:00:04] It's not a game, it's a land stand.
[00:00:33] I'm sorry to say that I have to start this episode out with rather sad news. And that's that a young lady who's known as CIP, which was short for Cipriana, has passed away. Now like me, many of you might recognize her for doing TikToks for Winners Bingo in Stockton. She hasn't been doing that for quite a while, but that's how I was introduced to her. She did all these great little TikToks and was, you know, a really good representative for this location.
[00:01:01] And I know she has stopped doing that since. So I actually hadn't seen her on TikTok obviously for quite some time. So it was still really devastating to get the news that she had passed away. She was a very young person. I know she had children and it's just really kind of sad news. Certainly not only for her family, but obviously for the whole Bingo community. I've seen a lot of nice videos out there paying tribute to this young woman.
[00:01:29] But it just also, for whatever reason, it just made me think about this community and how big this community is. But it's not only big in TikTok, which is how I have a lot of my connections through. It's big in so many other ways. So I did want to talk about all the other Bingo communities that are out there because there are a lot. You know, there really are quite a few. So the first one I was going to talk about is obviously there's the regular one. There's the one that is historical.
[00:01:56] That's the Bingo halls that you go to that were started out, I think, primarily for charities. You know, I think a lot of Catholic churches are well known for that historically. But obviously a lot of charities use Bingo halls to raise money. They help fund a lot of schools. I know that I have a nice Bingo family over at a lot of the Catholic schools. Some of the ones that I'll mention out here are, you know, Bosco Tech. There's also St. John Bosco. There's the Montebello Christian School.
[00:02:25] So there are a lot of Catholic churches down here in Southern California that use Bingo as a way to fundraise, to help support sending kids to school. And I know that's also the case up in Northern California as well. They have a lot of charities that use this function as a way to, you know, to help support a lot of good things in the community. So it's interesting to know that there are so many relationships in those areas. And again, these are not people who participate necessarily on TikTok or YouTube or go to events.
[00:02:54] These are people who just have these relationships or have established this community within that realm, in that area of just going to Bingo halls. You know, I go to certain ones and somebody will mention another one. I got really into it actually because of the pandemic, you know, going to other ones. Before the pandemic, I just went to the one that I have spoken about many times, which was Buckingham Bingo right across the way from my house. It was so close. It was so convenient.
[00:03:21] But as you probably know, it didn't come back after the pandemic. So that forced me to go out to other places. Now, the first one I went to, again, due to the pandemic, was going to Bosco Tech because Bosco Tech at that time was letting you play bingo in your car. So that was the start of this new era of playing bingo. So that was where I started to meet a lot of people and start to build some relationships there.
[00:03:45] But then from that, the next place in my neighborhood or in my area was having bingo available was Cry Help Bingo out in North Hollywood. So I started going there as well because you could play bingo in your car. But again, started to meet some more people and build some more community in that area, which was where I got to meet Mike, who was one of my favorite people out there. He's the manager of Cry Help, and I'm wishing him well in his health journey at this current time.
[00:04:12] But once you start doing that, when I no longer had a place that I went to just week after week after week after week after week and didn't branch out, it was really kind of cool to start going to these places and meeting other people and developing these relationships. And they tell you about other places like, oh, have you played at so-and-so? Have you played at this place? Oh, such-and-such is open on this night or such-and-such has a lower buy-in or, you know, or a higher payout or something.
[00:04:36] So you start building these relationships with other people, which is really cool because then you start going to other places, which I think is hysterical because you'll go from one place to the other and you start seeing all the same people. It's like you go from here to there and it's just even people, I feel kind of like high school, like people you see in the halls all the time that you never talk to, but you always wave because you see them all the time.
[00:04:59] And that's kind of how it is with these bingo halls that you go to or these people that you just see all the time and you wave to, but you don't really know on a personal level. You just know that they're another bingo player like you are. So that's the other thing. So in addition to TikTok, you know, which is where I also have created a lot of relationships, like I said, the very first place that I think of are the traditional bingo halls. But again, speaking of TikTok, that's where I branched out to for some reason.
[00:05:27] And I don't even know how it happened, to be honest. I don't know if somebody told me about TikTok to watch bingo on it or whatever, but I think that that's an interesting area where people play bingo too. I think there's three kind of categories of your TikTok player. I think there's a person who is an influence, okay? You have people who are like, I am Cash Official, you know, Cash. You have Tanya, the bingo addict. You have Pressure. You have the Bay Area babes.
[00:05:55] You just have a lot of people out there who are TikTok influencers. That's what their goal is. That's what they want to do. Not only enjoying the game of bingo, but out there sharing it with everybody else, giving them the opportunity to watch them play via TikTok lives or via YouTube or other resources like Instagram, whatever. They do that intentionally to make sure that they have people watching them and enjoying them and just basically promoting the game of bingo.
[00:06:23] And a lot of them have been successively able to do that, to make that their total career, that that's how they support themselves. I don't have the patience. I tried it. I did some lives initially when I was getting on TikTok, and I enjoyed it. I had some people following me, people who said they liked watching me play and everything. But it honestly made it too hard for me because I felt bad if I didn't pay attention to the people who were watching me online. If I didn't answer their questions or chat with them, I felt like I was being rude.
[00:06:50] But it also took away because then I couldn't just concentrate on playing bingo, which I know a lot of them probably would have been fine with anyways. But I just said it was kind of like a big pull for me to not be able to just do both, to fully enjoy the game of bingo and also be kind to the people who were taking the time out of their day to watch me play bingo. So that's that. You have the bingo influencers that are on TikTok. You have the people who are just watching people play bingo, which I always thought was interesting.
[00:07:19] It just never occurred to me that there were people who would want to come on and just watch people play bingo, you know, just sit there and enjoy their day. And I know when I was back in the beginning of doing these podcasts, at a certain point when I started to have people come on as guests, one of the first people I had come on was bingo nurse Allie. Now, she's no longer doing the TikToks for bingo, that is. I know she's branched off to other things. But one of the things she said in our conversation is that she was drawn to TikTok
[00:07:49] because she was at a point in her life where she was kind of down. And she saw somebody playing bingo, you know, on TikTok. And for whatever reason, that brightened her, you know, that made her feel better. She was drawn out of her depression. And she just really felt that it was amazing that there was this thing that she could do that would just really take her out of wherever she was in life. So which is interesting that I've also seen other people who are not necessarily bingo players. Okay, that's where I say that's where you have the three groups.
[00:08:17] The other group is people who watch TikToks and play bingo as well. And then there are other people who absolutely don't even play bingo. They just like watching people online. And that gives them something kind of relaxing, which I can understand. I mean, you have people in all these other gaming things, right? You have people who watch these gamers play the game all day. So instead of playing it themselves, they're literally just watching somebody else play the game. And that relaxes them. So I can absolutely understand that. But I just did think it was interesting.
[00:08:47] It was something that hadn't occurred to me that that would be the same way with bingo. So it's really something that's beneficial to so many people. And you don't realize how many people are so positively impacted, which is a great thing. I mean, bingo is known around the world. But people don't think about all the little extra benefits it has besides just being a game or just being some kind of a little escape. But beyond the people who are playing in the regular bingo halls that I mentioned,
[00:09:15] beyond the people who are connected to bingo via TikTok or any other online outlet, I was also thinking about the fact that there are so many other ways that people are attached to bingo. One of the ones is this thing where people play just the apps. There are so many apps. There are so, so, so many bingo apps. I actually play a little one called Blitz. And I like it because it's very simple and it doesn't cost any money.
[00:09:43] You just do the points and you just keep going until you run out of points. And I've actually gotten to a point where I have so many points that I never have to worry about stopping at any point. And I just keep playing because I have accumulated so many points. But I don't pay any money for that one. I like that because I can just sit somewhere if I'm at a, let's say, a doctor's appointment or if I'm at the airport or if I'm on the plane, if I'm whatever. I could just sit there and I can just keep playing these games of bingo on and on and on and just keep racking up points.
[00:10:11] So I do like that because it's, like I said, it's simple. It's carefree. It doesn't cost me anything. But I have to say one of the things that I thought is pretty funny or kind of sad how people are is that I've actually, as I mentioned, have so many points that I never run out. Like before, if you had like 500 points and you ran out of those points, you had to wait until they gave you more points. So that could be hours. It could be days, whatever, until you automatically got more points you couldn't play. But like I said, I have so many points now that I don't ever have to worry about that.
[00:10:41] And it kind of makes it a little sad. I feel like there's not as much of a challenge because I have so many points. But that's one of the games I play. There are a lot of those games out there that are very complex. My sister plays one. I think it's called Bingo Blitz. And I went in there and I tried to look at it and see if I could do it. But there's so many things. There were so many ways to earn coins. And there was this. And then you can play with other people, which, again, see, there's a huge community there, I'm sure.
[00:11:07] Tons of people who go to these apps and just play the bingo on these little apps where you're just, you're not even seeing anybody. You're just playing and trying to gather points. I don't know how much they pay or don't pay, to be honest, because I've never really done that. Although I will say, to back up a little bit, I will say that I realized on the little bingo app that I play on, you only get back the money you put in. I don't know if I've mentioned this before. But I noticed that, you know, initially you had to put in money if you wanted to get extra points.
[00:11:34] So this is before I realized I could just keep earning points and not worrying about it. And so I did. I just, I put in like $10. And during the game, it's saying, oh, in addition to the $10 you've put in to do whatever, it says, oh, you've won this. If you get a free spin or whatever, then you'll win $5, right? You get the free spin and you've won $5. But when you go to cash that $5 out or whatever it is you've won, it says all that bonus money that you've technically won is not available.
[00:12:02] It's only the money that you've put in. I don't know if I'm explaining that right. But still, essentially, you only get out whatever money it is that you've ultimately put in. So I've realized that. I've not checked on any of the other games of that manner to see if they've won, if you actually get the cash or not, if it's something different than what I'm playing. My niece actually called me this morning and she was playing some game and she said she won $75. And I was thinking, boy, I hope she didn't put in $75 to get to the point where she can get that back out.
[00:12:31] I hope that was really a legit situation. But you see it all the time. You see all these commercials for these games to say, oh, if we play these games online, that you can get actually money back for them. But I honestly haven't seen that be something that is the case for myself. But still, like I said, there is a whole community out there that I know are playing with each other online, not seeing each other, just playing with a group or whatever. And I'm sure they're enjoying it just like I'm enjoying when I go to my bingo halls.
[00:12:57] Not only do they have those type of games, but what they have is they have the games where you do have a caller, which I think is really interesting. They've had those for a long time. I think the big one was Live Play Bingo, which a lot of people have definitely mentioned before. A lot of bingo players, a lot of the influencers were being sponsored by that. And actually, they even sponsored Will of Fortune at a time. They would have big banners up there that say Live, excuse me, Live Play Bingo. And yeah, that was a big deal.
[00:13:27] You'd have a caller and you can go on there. And they still do that. They actually still have that. I haven't looked at it recently, but I know it's still out there. And that's interesting because you're playing for money too. I think you have to buy in for a little bit, but you get to have all these different opportunities and there are a lot of different things going on. I say that I don't have a lot of information because it's just something that I could never get into. I could not do that. But I have recently gotten into something that's called Live Q Bingo.
[00:13:56] Okay, Live Q Bingo. And it's kind of like Live Play Bingo. I cannot say that right. But on a much smaller scale, and I like it because it's pretty simple. It's really easy. And one of these days, I'd actually like to have one of them come on the show. The lady who heads it up, her name is Gigi, I think. I'd like to have them come on the show and chat about it and give more information because I think that's kind of simple. I think it's basic. And yes, you actually get money out. You don't have to put money in to get the money out.
[00:14:24] They have some small pots, like $25, I think, is the basic pot. But that's interesting to me too because you are talking to a live person. There's somebody who's calling the bingo numbers, and you see that person, and you have the other people to do in the chat, which, by the way, I am not a good chatter. People are typing things or making comments, and I'm just not fast enough. I don't know if they're using some kind of button where it just automatically records their stuff or what. But it seems to me that by the time I try to type something in, that ship is sailed, and they've gone on to something else.
[00:14:54] But anyway, so that's one too. So it just amazes me how many outlets there are. So I think that's it. It's not only that you have these communities, but you have all these outlets to build these communities in, and I think it's interesting. And I just think it's such a wonderful place to be, such a great thing. It's like I wonder, it's like who invented this very simple game? We can make it very complicated, but it's a very simple game that seems to bring so many people together.
[00:15:21] And I'm just grateful that I have a variety of ways to participate in this game, and I have a variety of communities that have been built, and I'm just very, very appreciative. So that's what I wanted to say right now. That's what, in the wake of losing somebody very special, I'm sure, to so many people, I'm just very appreciative of the fact that I am part of this amazing group. So that's it for this week's episode of The Broke Bingo Addict. Thank you so much for listening.
[00:15:49] I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you'll come back for the next episode. Thanks so much. Bye.