If you love bingo, chances are you've got that one hall you'll drive past three others to get to. But what actually creates that kind of loyalty? Is it the buy-in prices, bigger payouts, convenient session days, or a duration that better fits your schedule? Maybe it's something more personal, like a favorite caller or manager. For many players, loyalty has nothing to do with winning at all.
[00:00:04] It's not a game, it's a ranch thing. 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's Shari, and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment purposes only. Hi, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of The Broke Bingo Addict.
[00:00:33] Today's topic is going to be loyalty. Yes, yes, yes, we're going to talk about loyalty. And what brings that up? What made that the topic of conversation? Well, I went to bingo the other night at this location that I play at several times, you know. I guess I could be called a regular there. But when I got there, for some unknown reason, this place was extremely crowded, okay?
[00:00:57] And so I went to the row of tables that I usually sit at, and this row was full of people, people I had never seen before. And it was just kind of weird to me because it's like it throws you off, okay? You're ready to sit at your table. You're ready to sit in your usual seat, and all of a sudden that option is not available, and it completely throws you off. So I was actually able to sit at the table, but I wasn't able to sit at my seat. And so that got me thinking about loyalty.
[00:01:25] There are several areas in bingo that I think loyalty is kind of important and that I want to talk about. But starting out with the seat thing, because like I said, obviously, this was a problem for me the other night. It also made me think about the fights that there are over seats sometimes. Now, I'm not the type of person who's going to do that. If I haven't specifically reserved a seat, like online or call the manager ahead of time or whatever, I'm not going to worry about it. It's either my seat or it's not my seat.
[00:01:50] I'm just going to keep moving and, you know, find someplace else, hopefully close enough to that area that I feel okay. But there have definitely been big fights over seats. I've seen people just get knocked down, drag out dirty over their seat and somebody sitting in it that they don't think that they should have the right to do it. So it might seem like this is a small issue to other people, but trust me, seat preference is huge in the bingo arena.
[00:02:17] So that, again, that's what kind of started me thinking about this loyalty issue. But once I got started thinking about it, it made me think about some other areas that I question about. So I'm going to go through some of them. Okay, I'm going to start with the top one. First and foremost, I wonder about the location. What creates bingo loyalty to a particular location? Now, for me personally, the number one thing, but not the only thing, but the number one thing is location.
[00:02:46] Now, I'm sure many people have heard me chat about it time and time and time and time and time again about how I used to love to play at Buckingham Bingo. It was literally just like a block away from my house. As they say, a stone's throw away from my house. And they played five nights a week. And out of all the places that closed during COVID, it was the only one that I'm aware of that I played at, certainly, that didn't come back.
[00:03:15] So when that happened, that meant I had to choose other places. And trust me, in Southern California, there is a plethora of places to play bingo. There's bingo out in Montebello. There's bingo out in Cerritos, Long Beach, Bellflower, Harbor City. I mean, there's a ton of places. But as it turned out, for the most part, none of them were close to me. All of them were at least a 35-minute drive. And the place that I like to play at on Wednesday is a minimum of an hour and a half drive, okay?
[00:03:44] So it's like, so who do you choose? What makes you decide where you're going to go to? So, again, to me, for me, first of all, the initial reason happens to be location. But I wonder about other people. Is it because of location or not? And how loyal are you to that place? If there's a place that is a location and it's close to you, what if another one opens in that area? What makes you stay at the same bingo hall in that particular location?
[00:04:11] So, like I said, if there's a couple of places in Bellflower, some of them are actually right next to each other. What makes you stay at one bingo hall as opposed to another bingo hall? And one of the things I thought about is the caller. Do people have a particular connection to a caller? Because I know there are different ways, obviously, of calling. Some people call fast. Some people call slow. Some people are talkers. And I know some people hate that. Which, just for reference sake, I always feel bad for the caller.
[00:04:41] You know, like at the bingo club or just other places that I play bingo at. But there's certain things that you have to do because it's part of the job, part of advertising for the bingo hall. You have to say if there's a special coming up. You have to say if they're bringing a new pull tab out. You have to say if they're going to be closed for a certain event. You have to say if there's some kind of discrepancy we need to take care of. Whatever. Sometimes you have to actually take the time to say these things.
[00:05:07] But I can't tell you how many times I've heard people go, shut up and just call. It's like, okay, that's part of their job. I get that we don't like that. But that is part of their job. But are there places where you think the caller speaks too much and you say, I'm not going to go there because I don't want to hear all the chatter from that bingo caller. So I'm not going to go there. I'm going to go to this other place because I know George, Bob, Susan, whoever is calling there. And I like the way that she calls. I like the pace that she keeps or whatnot. So that's one thing.
[00:05:38] Is there bingo caller loyalty that holds some kind of importance in your decision about where you're going to go? And what about the buy-in? That's another question. That I actually think is a really important question because that makes a huge difference. There are places that range from buy-ins from $50 up to $140 or whatnot. There can be certain occasions where they're going to charge more. So I definitely think that that's something to keep in mind because it depends on how your budget is.
[00:06:07] I know that there's a place recently that I spoke about and they changed their initial buy-in, minimum buy-in from $50 to $75. And I think that that is huge. I mean, they didn't like minimize what you got. You actually got a little bit more than what you were getting for the $50. But the point is sometimes you've got $50 and it could be harder to have $75 to do that. You know, there's another place also that kind of did the same thing. They raised their price.
[00:06:37] But not only did they raise their price, in this instance, opposite of the other occasion when you actually got more for that $75, you got less for the $75. People still go there and everything, and I understand that. But it's like I was like, that doesn't seem right. How do you end up paying more but you actually get less than what you got initially in the past? Okay. So that's a good question to buy. And also I know that there are times when they have certain events. There's this one particular bingo hall that I know.
[00:07:07] Again, no names. But when they have special events, they charge what I consider to be a substantial amount for their buy-in for their strip night. Now, I'm saying that in comparison to other places. I know there are other places that will have a strip night and their prices go up a little bit but not that much. And you get a substantial payout. Now, this place, their price is, you know, more than double.
[00:07:33] Well, and, you know, it's a reasonable payout, but it just seems odd that it more than doubles. Now, to be fair, it did occur to me that this particular location is smaller than a lot of other places. So in order for them to make their money back, it is possible that they do have to raise their prices substantially, you know, to make their money back on those evenings. But regardless, I will have to say that that is something that does hinder me from going to that location because I think that the buy-in is kind of a little bit more than is necessary.
[00:08:02] Or not even necessary, but it's more than I have to do in other locations. So that's something I'm sure a lot of people think about is what the buy-in is and in reference to what the payout is. Because you know what happened this past weekend? I went to St. John Bosco, which is over there in Bellflower. And when I got over there, it was really a sight to see because it was just, I won't say empty, it obviously wasn't empty, but that was the least amount of people I've seen at that location. And God knows how long.
[00:08:32] I mean, it was noticeably absent of people. And you're like, what's going on? I mean, sometimes there are a lot less people over there, but usually this place, you know, is pretty packed. And the sign that there was definitely some kind of an impact going on was the fact that they have these things that are called their all-plays, okay? Online, on their Bingo Me Now app, they sell all-plays. They sell three particular all-play cards, meaning that if you buy them, you are guaranteed numbers.
[00:09:02] They charge $2 a piece. They each pay $500. So they're very, very popular. And I can't remember the last time when I went there and by the time the game started, the game starts at 5 o'clock, they still had some of those available. Usually those suckers sell out before that even happens, before even the day of the game. They usually sell out online. If they don't sell out, they certainly sell out really quickly on the day after the doors open.
[00:09:28] So for it to happen that they actually had some still available, okay, that's an indication that something is going on here. So what happened was there was an event happening at another location where the payouts were going to be $2,500, okay? That's a pretty good payout. And again, the buy-in wasn't that bad. I think it was around $1,75 to $100. I'm not sure, so don't quote me. But it wasn't a bad buy-in for such a great payout. And I think a lot of people went there.
[00:09:56] There's also a place that plays a lot of pool tabs. So that had an impact that really eroded the amount of people who went to John Bosco because of the payout. And I definitely know that that happens on other nights too, so you have to keep that in mind. How loyal are you to these places? I mean, are you going to still go there? Are you going to go where the payout is much more beneficial? So that's one of the things that I think about. And I can't fault people because the fact is I had totally forgotten about that.
[00:10:23] If I'd have remembered that it was paying $2,500, as much as I love St. John Bosco, my little butt would have been over there too, also trying to get that $2,500. Because, hey, we all got bills to pay. So that's one of the things. So it's location. You got the payout. You got the buy-ins. You know, another place is Bosco Tech. They're really good too. And I want to mention the combination of it because of all the places I have to say that I think really does the best with that is Bosco Tech.
[00:10:52] Bosco Tech has the best balance of bang for your buck, okay? Having relatively low buy-ins yet having considerably high payouts. So it's amazing. You can sit there and only spend, you know, 50, 60 bucks for a basic buy-in to give yourself an opportunity and still have a chance to win games that are paying $500 and strips that are paying $2,500 over there. Plus, Paul has a lot of freebies that he throws in sometimes too.
[00:11:19] So that's a place where I think you really get a big bang for your buck. But that brings up another question. With loyalty also being connected to the length of time. Because as wonderful as Paul is, Paul's game is an all-day commitment, okay? Don't schedule a bridal shower. Don't schedule a picnic. Don't schedule going to the zoo. Don't schedule anything else. Because if you're playing at Bosco Tech, your little butt is going to be there all day.
[00:11:46] Now, again, you're getting a great bang for your dollar. But it is an absolute commitment to be there for the majority of the day. A fun day, but the majority of the day. So the duration of a game can absolutely play a part in your loyalty to a particular bingo hall, okay? Some places like Bosco Tech play a substantial amount of hours. There are other places that actually, you know, try to keep it to about four or five hours. There are places like the bingo club where I actually have sessions, okay?
[00:12:15] So there's typically three sessions at the bingo club. Sometimes they have four sessions, but that gives you a little bit of flexibility. So in addition to the time of day, the duration can absolutely play a big part in what place you want to go play at and your loyalty to that place. So there are other places, too. There are some places that play on the weekend in the daytime. Other places that play in the weekend in the evening. So what's the loyalty there?
[00:12:42] What's the primary thing that makes you go to that place regarding time? Is it the places that are after work? You know, there are a lot of places that tend to play like at six o'clock, but vice versa. There are places that play in the afternoon because people have to work at night. So that's another question I have, too. So what's the loyalty with regard to the time of the day and the day of the week it plays?
[00:13:05] Because, again, I was speaking to Paulette over at Live, Love, Play Bingo out in Pasadena, which I think is another great location. I would love to be loyal to Live, Love, Play Bingo, but I can't because they play on a Wednesday night. It's absolutely too hard for me to get there. By the time I take the two hours I have to drive there, I am so stressed. I can't have a good time. I am so stressed when I get there.
[00:13:32] They actually had an event recently that was on a Saturday, and I had the best time. I really enjoyed going out there and playing with them. I think they have a really good system. Now, they did add a Friday night, but Friday night is actually worse for me than a Wednesday night because there's just so much traffic. So, anyway, how's your loyalty when it comes to the manager of a location? Because, you know, sometimes there are places that I play at that I would have no clue who the manager is, like specifically the Bingo Club. I don't know who the manager is.
[00:14:00] But a lot of places, people go for that particular person. I know that JD is very popular out at Forty Martyrs. Like I said, there's a lot of other people that have some kind of a connection to the manager at a particular place. And for me personally, what actually hit home recently was that Paul out at Bosco Tech is leaving, which was devastating when I found out because he makes Bosco Tech for me. It's the energy and the things that he pops up and just engineally how he runs it.
[00:14:28] So, I was kind of devastated to find out that he was leaving. But the remedy to that was I found out that he's going to a new location. So, that actually is important to me. You don't think it is. It's like you go there. They either pay well or they don't pay well or you have a good time. You don't have a good time. But the manager actually makes a difference. It makes a difference to the attitude, the flow, and just the overall enjoyment of playing at a particular bingo hall. So, I think that that is surprisingly important too. So, anyway, those are just some of the things I wonder about.
[00:14:58] What makes people loyal to particular places? So, just something to think about, okay? Anyway, that said, I hope you're going to be loyal to me and come back for the next episode of The Broke Bingo Addict. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening and take care. Bye.