Bingo shrinking in size, stature

LYNN – Forty-eight-year-old Beth Cotes has been playing Bingo since she was 18.That’s when her grandmother introduced her to Bingo at The Knights of Columbus, where she played her first game alongside several hundred other players.Thirty years later, Cotes still faithfully attends the fraternal order’s weekly games on Thursday night.But Bingo is no longer a tradition passed down from generation to generation, says Cotes and some of her fellow players.”I don’t think my kids would come to this when they’re old enough,” she said.Instead, Bingo is an aging game whose potential players are drawn to flashier games and whose halls have run out of resources to host the time-intensive game, said Brian Magrane, the Grand Knight at The Knights of Columbus in Lynn.The number of halls hosting Bingo is dropping, said Donna Foley, the director of audit and control for the state’s charitable gaming commission, a branch of the Massachusetts Lottery that issues permits for Bingo.In 2009, 30,000 weekly Bingo players played at 212 licensed gaming halls. In 2010 there were 202 gaming halls across the state and in 2011, 175, Foley said.”With generations that have grown up with video games and iPhones and everything that’s just instantaneous, Bingo isn’t that attractive to a younger audience,” Foley said.Bingo is still attractive to Cotes, who surrounded herself on a recent game with a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup, scotch tape and a dozen or so thick colorful markers called dabbers, a more modern version of bingo chips.”Gambling is my favorite pastime,” she said as she taped the Bingo cards she purchased together.”I used to do 36,” she said. “I was on top of it.”Dorothy Down, 87, played with 12 cards on a recent night.”I’m hoping for a win, but I never get one,” she said.Jane Hinds religiously totes a miniature ceramic elephant she bought in Hawaii to place on her Bingo cards for good luck.The hall grew quiet at 6:30 p.m. On a recent Thursday night as organizers pulled white balls marked with number-letter combinations from a tumbler and placed each one in front of a scratchy video camera broadcast throughout the hall.Players dabbed corresponding combinations on their cards and hoped one of their cards filled up before anyone else’s.Those achieving Bingo first can win up to $50 for the earlier games and a pot of $1,000 for the final game.Magrane said The Knights of Columbus keeps meticulous track of all the prize money issued and cards sold to comply with its annual license permitted by the Lottery Commission’s charitable gaming division.The license is restricted to nonprofits who have been active for five years, and every nonprofit must spend the money it makes on Bingo games on charitable expenses, said Foley.In its heyday, the Knights of Columbus raised about $60,000 a year, mostly from the Bingo games, Magrane said.The money went toward helping Little League baseball teams host games and other charitable community events. But now the game pays for itself and not much more, Magrane said.Magrane is also worried that the planned opening of a resort-style casino at nearby Suffolk Downs race track would pull some of his regular players.He said he’s counting on the camaraderie created by the hall’s long-standing tradition of hosting the game to keep it going.”We hope that Bingo will last as long as we’re able to supply it to them,” he said.IF YOU GOAll are welcome to play Bingo at The Knights of Columbus in Lynn, 177 Lynnfield St., every Thursday. Doors open at 4 p.m., the game starts at 6:30 p.m. and lasts until about 9 p.m. Food and drink are for sale alongside Bingo cards and scratch tickets.