Bingo in Richmond is a thing, did you not know that!?
Fair enough, I didn’t know we had a killer Bingo scene either.
If you’ve driven past the intersection of Broad and Boulevard in the city there sits a large white building in a state of semi disrepair. In ten years of driving past I’ve never seen a soul venture in or out. When I finally bothered taking a closer look I realized there’s been a GIANT Bingo hall on Broad the whole time I’ve been living here!
I wouldn’t consider myself a Bingo enthusiast but I resolved to one day visit this decaying monolith and one night I rallied some support and my brother, I and a friend drove over the the Broad Street Bingo Hall.
It was closed. Not closed as in we came on the wrong day or at the wrong time, sadly it appears the building has been shut down and put up for sale. I was determined to play Bingo so I consulted the internet and found that surprisingly, Richmond has a healthy and active Bingo scene.
The nearest location to us was at Diversity Thrift so we headed down Hermitage Road through the industrial district and pulled into a full parking lot.
It’s been around 6 years since most places in Richmond banned indoor smoking but Bingo halls seems to have some sort of loophole. The air was redolent with the acrid smell of cigarette smoke. To those of us who came of age when smoking everywhere was a thing there’s a certain nostalgia to this. There is a non smoking section in a different room, but let’s be honest – if you’re going to get the real Bingo experience it needs to be in the trenches.
Looking around the expansive hall I realized immediately that this was not the Bingo I remembered.
There were people using computers or wielding colorful tubes all the while concentrating as they smoked ferociously. This was no worn card stock and plastic chips operation. There was clearly more to this than I’d anticipated. Peering at the woman behind the entry counter I muttered “ummm, this is my first time here. How does this work?”
A confusing litany of options were laid out before me…well actually only three, but having expected the simple version of Bingo I played in my youth, I felt slightly overwhelmed by the entire operation. I was definitely out of my league.
Two of the staff members patiently explained how everything worked, I chose my option (Give me the double pack I said…this would later prove to be a mistake) and we were give free marker tubes since it was our first time and we clearly looked panicked.
The three of us sat down with our sheaf of paper, list of which game variations would be played and wondered exactly what we were supposed to do. We looked at each other. We looked around. We looked down at our piles of paper with multiple Bingo cards printed on them. We looked very confused.
Imagine you just bought something from Ikea and found out the only instructions included were in Swedish. It was like that.
If you’re a Bingo newbie there’s no worry about being lost for long. Our fellow Bingo enthusiasts, seeing how confused we looked, took it upon themselves to be sure we knew what games we were playing and on which cards. They were so unexpectedly helpful in explaining everything. I’m not going to lie, it was kind of touching.
One thing I hadn’t considered which I imagine for some is the major draw is the fact you can win big at Bingo. The prizes you can win playing can be considerable considering what you pay for admission and cards.
We slowly got the hang of how the games were played and I found myself having a blast. Your heart races as you peer at your cards frantically stamping the numbers as they’re called out, or if you’re quick – looking at the monitor which displays the upcoming number before it’s called.
A word of advice if you’re new to playing, unless you decide to rent one of the computers which automatically do the Bingo marking for you, DO NOT GET THE DOUBLE CARD PACK! I did. That was stupid. I am not Rain Man.
I opted to eschew use of the computer and mark up my double sheet of cards manually. More than once I found myself behind the call and had to abandon sections of my sheet in order to catch up. Any lapse of concentration meant falling behind or missing a called number. This game was turning out more difficult than I imagined.
Hoping to have at least one of my ridiculous quantity of cards turn out to be a winner I frantically scanned the sheets and marked the numbers down as quickly as I could, yet inevitably someone else beat me to it.
Lady Luck wasn’t with me that night however I was happy that my brother got Bingo on one of the special games which gave him an opportunity to play for a bonus – which he also won. I must admit a twinge of envy but I’m glad someone in our group won because after all it was MY idea to play Bingo.
This was my first Bingo experience but it won’t be my last! For a little more than the cost of a movie and popcorn you can have a few hours of interactive fun and possibly walk out richer than you walked in. I will visit other Bingo halls but based on this experience I can highly recommend Diversity Bingo based on the friendliness of the staff, fellow players and unique atmosphere. You can find a listing of Bingo games in Richmond here.
