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Welcoming in New Year With Bingo Marathon

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: January 7, 2009

PORT RICHEY - For millions of Americans, 2009 started as does every year, with heads glued to pillows for an extra couple hours, sleeping off the end of 2008 or taking advantage of a day they could ignore their alarm clocks.

But there's a small segment of our society that traditionally starts the New Year with a running start, bright and early Jan. 1.

"Most of these people don't stay up New Year's Eve; this is their party today," said Vince Adkins, bingo chairman at the Jewish Community Center of West Pasco.

It was shortly after 9 a.m., only a few minutes after the official opening of the center's doors, but Adkins and several volunteers were having a hard time keeping up with the players who were lined up to buy cards for the center's New Year's Day bingo marathon.

"Today is a special day," Adkins said. The center holds bingo nights every week. But a few times every year - New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and sometimes on the Fourth of July - the center has special holiday events that dedicated players look forward to.

For most of us, the "bingo zealot" is a familiar TV sitcom stereotype - armed to the teeth with a satchel full of card markers and lucky kewpie dolls, as eccentrically superstitious as they are manically competitive. The fact that nearly 300 players were ready for action New Year's morning might seem to confirm that stereotype to the distant observer.

But to those inside the hall, theirs is no different than any other pastime where folks get together for friendly competition, the ratio of friendliness to competition varying from person to person.

Though the doors opened at 9 a.m., the first game wasn't scheduled until 11. It's a fast two hours, though, and it's a big part of the event. Players need to find a spot at a table and set up. Many regular players have certain spots in the room they like to always be at, if possible.

Jo Loizzi, Ginny Grinnell and Beth Wiles arrived early and set up in their favorite spot, right up front. For some people, a favorite spot is a matter of good luck, like the many stuffed animals, toys and other totems they line up alongside their cards.

"I got a whole bag of them," Wiles said, "but I decided today I'm on my own."

Just as with Wiles' take-it-or-leave-it attitude about the power of lucky charms, the trio explained their reason for having a favorite spot in the hall is less a matter of superstition as it is one of practicality - they like to sit up front so they won't miss any of the numbers as they're called. Bingo is fun, but it's even more fun when you win a $50 jackpot.

They all live in Port Richey now, but Loizzi comes from Chicago, Grinnell from Maine and Wiles from West Virginia. They each brought their bingo hobby with them when they moved to Florida.

"I've been playing since I was 18, 19 years old," Loizzi said as another of their bingo buddies, Lucy Guercia, came over from the next table to join in the conversation.

"When I go back to Brooklyn, the first thing I do is find a bingo game," Guercia said, to which the others laughed with a sense of recognition.

As important as anything, it's a social activity, the common bond from which friendships are based, another reason players arrive early. The New Year's Day marathon was a perfect example, they said. There's only so much football a wife can take, even if she's a good sport about it.

So today, their husbands can have their gridiron games with their friends while they have theirs.

For all they get out of it, it justifies the $30 to $40 they estimated they each spend on a typical bingo outing.

"I save my Christmas money, my birthday money," Grinnell said. Many players keep what they call their "bingo accounts." The money they win goes toward playing in the future. That way the hobby doesn't get too expensive.

The 2009 edition of the marathon would run to 80 games, nearly a third more than at the weekly bingo nights. Adkins estimated that would mean up to five solid hours of bingo.

Throughout the hall, other players pretty much repeated what the ladies up front and what Adkins had said. Like any other pastime, being a regular at the bingo halls has several appeals.

At the back of the hall, Dottie Murray of Spring Hill was also setting up in her favorite spot. Bingo players come in all varieties, she said. Some folks are a little overly superstitious. She recalled one time when she went to the concession stand and "this big, fat guy" had started moving all her stuff because he wanted sit in that spot.

Other people are a little overly competitive, but you can't let them spoil your fun, Murray said. Like her fellow players up front, with bingo she has the perfect combination of entertainment and social interaction. It sure beats spending New Year's Day watching parades or football.

"I didn't stay up last night," Murray said. "It would have been a dull day."

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com

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