Bingo is our name-o

by Neil Diamond

ingo has been a Cree tradition since the 1950s, completing its conquest of Eeyou Istchee only 30-odd years after its invention in the US, where churches and charity groups would play for low stakes.

Where can you pick up a fresh copy

In some Native communities down south, many of those casinos with gaudy neon lights that are visible for miles around began long ago as humble bingo halls. For instance, the Seminole gambling palaces in Florida started off as tiny bingo trailers. Today, they are one of the wealthiest tribes in the world – they purchased the Hard Rock Café restaurant-bar-slash-museum empire in the early 1990s for $1 billion.

Let’s cheer these amazing businesses listed below… Nation is available there! –

To this day, at many casinos in Oklahoma, hidden away from view usually, will be a tiny hall reserved for bingo. Now, however, they are quiet and almost empty save for a few elderly ladies squinting at their bingo cards.

Bingo in Rupert House started sometime in the 1950s at the now long-gone J.S.C. Watt Memorial Hall at the end of town. Mrs. Maude Watt’s bingo games offered baked goods and merchandise as prizes.

One evening Roderick W. won a pair of bloomers and waved them around to everyone’s laughter. On another game night an elderly man coughed too hard and blew the paper markers off his soonto-be-winning card. Several young boys tried to help him replace the markers but abandoned him when the game continued.

Gambling has always been big in the Cree world. So much so that a Creenglish word – jackheejanuu – was coined for at least three games where money was involved to say that bingo nights back then were small, fun, communal affairs until radio appeared. cards or a pair of dice in their pockets when we were young.

I spent quite a bit of time in Whapmagoostui-Kuujuaraapik several years ago. There was a bingo game almost every single night. It was not a case of bingomania as I believed it to be.

There are two radio stations in town and the Cree and Inuit would take turns broadcasting their games. I would call a friend to chat and after a few seconds I would hear his wife in the background ordering him to stay off the line. I imagine many players had both radio stations on speed dial before the age of cellular phones.

The bingo prizes in Great Whale can be quite grand. One can win several thousand dollars, a speedy snowmobile, an ATV, even a shiny new car!

Then there was the coin toss, which combined skill and chance. A short stick was stuck into the ground and made smooth and flat. The object was to land coins as close to the stick as possible. Whoever’s coin landed the closest would gather the coins. Depending on whether “shaking” or “taking” was called, they would take the ones that landed heads up, or cup the coins, shake them down and take the one he called would land heads or tails up. There was no way to cheat at this game. It was all in the wrist.

819-978-3656

Which brings us, finally, to a recent incident at a radio station close to you. There was yet another bingo game one night with a meagre pot of $3,000. A gentleman called the station claiming to have the winning number. The card was verified, and he was awarded the cash.

Not long after, someone noticed the 3 on the number 23 had been not too cleverly altered to read 8. The jig was up.

T: 819-895-2727

According to George, who claims to have been an infrequent player, things were not always on the up and up at Mrs. Watt’s games. The same group of women always seemed to be the one who would shout BINGO! He called bingo once and Mrs. Watt checked his winning card only to declare it invalid. Sure enough, one of Watt’s ladies had the winning card after several more numbers were called.

It’s not that easy to cheat at bingo, as we will see later in our story. Suffice it

Bingo can be an expensive affair in an isolated community like Whapmagoostui. The boxes and boxes of cards must be flown in by air cargo after all. Still, on cold winter nights, people bundle up and head to the radio station, cash in hand, dreaming of hitting the jackpot.

Gambling has always been big in the Cree world. So much so that a Creenglish word – jackheejanuu – was coined for at least three games where money was involved, those being the checkers, poker and craps that were constantly played down by the river in Rupert House. It seemed almost everyone had a deck of

Angry bingo players took to social media to rant and rave. Some blamed the radio station, others called for the culprit’s head. The police were soon involved. Rumours flew back and forth. Accusations of fraud were heard. Fisticuffs were reported.

In the end, the money was returned unspent, and no charges were laid. But there was to be no happy ending. As of now, all bingo games have been suspended until further notice.

418-745-3211

The voice on the radio drones on with another bingo number. I’m not sure how many numbers have been called or how many are left to call out, when we hear the voice declaring someone had won on the previous number.

Aarrgg! I toss my unlucky dabber into the big pile of used-only-once game dabbers. It’s a good thing I only play when the jackpot is too big for people to handle. They need a big spender like me around, if only I could finally win.

A few minutes pass by on air and then we hear a golden oldie, as the kids call it, written and performed in the long-ago year of 2012.

I realize that my taste in music has now retreated to an ancient era when lyrics and words were considered important. When having to repeat the same thing more than twice was blasphemy and considered lazy songwriting. The bassist’s beat was just to help stir things up, joined by an occasional guitar riff.

Life and music were simple yet complicated, as songs had to be written in some sort of secret code that didn’t offend strict laws of free speech. Not an ass was bare, and the excitement at live concerts came from spectacular fireworks.

Finally, the announcer returns with the promise of easy winnings and a lifetime of richness. If only the prices would go down long enough so that any windfall wouldn’t disappear into a few bags of groceries. The voice drones on, another winner is called out and the game continues into the silent night, where nothing stirs but the dabbing hands.

Anyway, trying to get to a topic that affects us all and trying to make anyone laugh about it isn’t as hard as it appears. I lose again and laugh out loud – maybe the next generation will have better luck than I do at games of chance.

The only real gamble, which is more than a sure bet, is the time spent on moulding a young mind into a razor-sharp calculating machine during years of schooling. Yes, betting on our youth is a wiser use of our funds and time. One