BINGO ..... With Police!!

As I have said in the past, you never know what will happen at Bingo.  When you get 130+ people who have been locked up for 18 months, who have become sick and tired of everyone, there's bound to be problems.  Just another Bingo night.

Last week ended peacefully, or so we thought, with us walking out the door later than usual.  However, people never cease to amaze us.  Apparently an entire family came to play.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters ... the usual.

Many times they place bets on who is going to win ... or maybe everyone tosses in an extra $5 for the group to buy extra cards to play.  Deciding who gets what when they DO win can be challenging. 

Loud voices could be heard from the back.  Pretty soon people were standing up screaming.  Despite the requests of the four acting body guard Elks members, they would not calm down.  The police were called. It took THREE patrol cars to get the message across that family squabbles should be taken back to their own house.

These people are SERIOUS about this gambling stuff.  They are superstitious about the numbers on their cards and exactly where on the card that number is located.  They are superstitious about who TOUCHES their cards.  They are superstitious about the color of dobber, where they sit, who sits next to them, what they wear, what they eat, what they drink, where things are located on the table.  SERIOUS I'm telling you!!!!  

In the end, no one was jailed and they finally calmed down enough to continue play to the end.  

It doesn't help that we pay pretty good as Bingo goes.  There are 22 games and we pay $250 for every one, not counting the Hot Ball (buy a ticket and get THE number ... if you win Bingo with that number, you win that pot too) which will net you usually around $1,000.

So yesterday I arrived at 3:00 to begin setup.  There's a lot to do, making sure we use the boxes of bingo cards in the correct order, counting money, refilling our stock from the storeroom and setting up my barriers to entry.  It's hard to keep the throng at bay when they want to pick their cards before anyone else gets the winning page.  

The Castle Lawyer handled the infernal machine (cash register) this time.  True to its nature, it tried to trip her up a few times, but it all came back ... like riding a bicycle.

The kitchen served up their usual indigestion, the winner of the night being the cheeseburger.  I SWEAR I'll never eat another one.  

At last it was our time to leave.  I put the cash register away, along with everything else.  Suddenly the Castle Lawyer was yelling ... WHERE'S THE CASH?  What?  It's in the cash box!  NOOOO ... where's the final payoffs?

Still in the cash register I just put away, where else???  We finally hit the door, yawning all the way.  At least there were no 911 calls before we escaped.  On the other hand, calling the police always wakes everyone up.  Let's hope that doesn't happen again.