Playing to win

Players are scattered throughout the hall with cigarette smoke filling the air with only the sound of stampers steadily pounding the cards. Anticipation builds along the rows of tables as players scan their numbered sheets, listening intently for their final number to be called. The tension suddenly breaks as someone shouts a triumphant "Bingo!"

Every Tuesday evening, approximately 50 to 70 bingo players take their seats, ready their stampers and look forward to having a lucky night at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

Bingo player Donna Reighard said she usually arrives at the hall at 4:45 p.m. to find a spot to fix up her cards before the event begins. The bingo games themselves do not start until 6:30 p.m. and can last anywhere between two to three hours.

Reighard said the social atmosphere at the VFW is what makes it stand out from the other bingo halls near Kirksville.

"In here, you can cut up and yell and you can holler something, and you'll make a remark about it and half the crowd will laugh," Reighard said. "And a lot of people will think that's terrible. But you just feel like you are loose. You can let everything go."

Don Magruder has called the numbers at the VFW for five years. People can win regular bingo using five different patterns — a postage stamp, a diagonal, a hard way, an inside four corners and an outside four corners. The VFW also offers special bingo games like the progressive game, where the money builds up every week until someone wins the jackpot.

"It can be a lot of fun," Magruder said. "Sometimes it's a little comical, and other times it gets serious. People do take their bingo seriously."

Despite all the fun and games involved with bingo night, the VFW must follow Missouri Gaming Commission rules. John McKim, the VFW Post Commander, said although bingo nights bring in revenue for the VFW, there are some nights when a progressive game is finally won, and they must give away more money than usual.

"Everybody has a good time out here," McKim said. "When the big jackpot goes, it's not my favorite time. You have to give away $1,195. It kind of hurts, but it's going to build up."

Nothing else goes on in the hall during the game — no pool is played and no jukebox can be heard in the background. During game time, players focus all their attention on one of the several television screens set up in the hall.

Players can win anywhere from $30 to $1,000, depending on the type of game. Because the VFW offers 29 games each session, players have the potential to rack up a lot of money.

Marilyn Castiner has played bingo for 10 years. She said one of her favorite parts of the game was the opportunity to have a good time with her friends.

"On most given nights, about everybody around us we know or at least know of," Castiner said. "We don't know them all personally, obviously, but we know of them. And that's probably why I still come as much as I do. Because I live alone and my days are boring, and it gives me something to look forward to, get out of the house and be able to socialize."

Castiner said the possibility of winning bingo also keeps her coming back to play. She said she plays bingo five nights a week at the El Kadir Shrine Club and in Novinger, Green Castle and Moberly.

"Even though I've played all these years, it is still exciting to yell ‘Bingo,'" Castiner said. "You hope you get to do it before somebody else does, but it is still exciting for me. If it wasn't, I wouldn't come. If I didn't get the gratification of being able to socialize and play the bingo and win a little bit of my money back, I wouldn't still be coming."

(Additional reporting by Shihara Maduwage)