CLIFTON

Clifton bingo night is serious fun — and it brings in millions for local nonprofits

NorthJersey

CLIFTON — It started off as "beano." Players at country fairs placed beans on their cards and yelled out "beano!" Today it's bingo and has evolved into a big-time moneymaker for charities, nonprofits and casinos.

Players vie for hundreds, thousands and sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Clifton, the Boys & Girls Club bingo grosses more than $3 million a year. Most of the money goes toward prizes, but the club nets about $800,000 for its operations.

During a recent visit to the Colfax Avenue club, lots of retirees were eagerly waiting for their numbers to be called. The players take the game very seriously, so don't interrupt them during the calling of the numbers.

Before the game begins, it's all smiles and good advice. Once that first number is called, it's all business.

Bingo bag with lots of daubers as well as the rolls of tape that so many bingo players bring with them to tape together the sets of cards. The white numbers represent the pattern that needs to be completed to claim bingo.

The average player has several sheets with numerous bingo cards on each. Some players tape their sheets together. Others place them in a specific order.

Some buy side games called keepers for $1 each. Games often follow patterns: bells, crosses, straight and diagonal.

It is not usual to see a player keeping track of 18 separate boards and five to 10 keepers.

Keepers' numbers are separate from the bingo cards. Get all the numbers on a keeper and you win. Call it immediately, because if the next number is called, you forfeit your prize, which is about $100 or more.

King Cardino, a retired postal service employee, is a proud bingo fanatic.

King Cardino, a retired postal worker, assembles her bingo cards. Players often tape together their various cards for a given game to help keep track of the action. Cardino also has a computer that is loaded with cards and keeps track of those cards. In front of her are numerous keepers, or side games.

She plays at the Clifton club, the Lodi club and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, which has the biggest games around.

One Tuesday night, Cardino said she spent $96 to rent a computer at the club that kept track of her cards and keepers and $16 for four books of games.

She brings figurines for good luck and a large light-up wand she waves when she wins.

"When I win, people hear me," Cardino said

The first game that night was the early-bird special and had a $100 prize.

Players keep track of their cards and mark their numbers with a dauber, a small plastic ink-filled bottle with a sponge-like tip.

Good karma?

David Pinto, a former Wallington fire chief and school board member, attends with wife, Barbara, on Tuesday evenings. He's pretty lucky, he said, especially with the keepers. He attributes his luck to a jeweled elephant and Buddha he carries in his bingo bag. Barbara brings a little "leprechaun" for luck.

"I think it is a leprechaun," she said. An "Irish lady made it for me."

David and Barbara Pinto prepare for a night of bingo at Boys and Girls Club of Clifton.

The game is relaxing, David said, but also exciting with the anticipation of filling the board.

"A lot of times you are waiting for one ball to come up," Pinto says. "You are saying 'Come on, please.' "

Money-maker

Bingo at Clifton's Boys & Girls Club is a big deal. The club funds almost 20 percent of its $5 million budget through the bingo earnings.

The club runs eight sessions between Tuesday and Saturday each week. There are at least 100 people at each session, which consists of about 10 games.

The club also sells bingo accessories and food.

Retired bus driver Garry Johnson with his taped together cards. In front of him are his good luck charms, which include two laughing Buddhas, an elephant and the rock his son painted for him. In numerous cultures elephants with trunks curled upwards are symbols of good luck.

Garry Johnson, a retired NJ Transit bus driver, is a frequent player.

Adorned with chains and other assorted bling, he has an infectious grin whenever he talks about bingo. He likes to tape his boards together to better see the patterns. He uses about three rolls of tape per month.

"Sometimes more," he said, as he used a green dauber to mark his numbers.

Green "represents money," Johnson said.

When he's not hitting the high notes as gospel soloist at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Passaic, Johnson likes to play bingo. "Even when I lose, I enjoy it," he said.

Mamie Canty of Paterson also loves the game.

"I go to church, play bingo and go back home," Canty said. "That's my enjoyment."

Canty's friend Celia Gelber said the game gets her out of the house. "Instead of my sitting inside and eating all day," she said.

Bingo players says they love the game. Some play almost every day.

They play in Clifton and Lodi.

A brief history of bingo

According to ThoughtCo.com, bingo goes back to 1530 to an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia," which many Italians still play on Saturdays.

In the 1770s, it was introduced to France as "Le Lotto" and played among wealthy Frenchmen.

The game arrived to North America in 1929, according to ThoughtCo.com. It was first played at a carnival near Atlanta. New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe renamed it "bingo" after he overheard someone accidentally yell "bingo" instead of "beano."

Lowe, who is also credited with creating the game Yahtzee, hired a Columbia University math professor, Carl Leffler, to increase the number of combinations in bingo cards.

Players generally buy more than one book. They tape them together. Games are delineated into different patterns and only unshaded areas are needed to be filled before you can cry bingo.

By 1930, Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards, with fewer non-repeating number groups and conflicts reducing the likelihood of more than one person getting Bingo at the same time, ThoughtCo.com says.

The game helps raise money for a number of organizations.

Cardino travels to Foxwoods when she wants to play the big game with a prize of $500,000.

Some local pots get pretty big, too, said Joe Holmes, director of operations for the Clifton club. A progressive pot, where the entire card had to be filled, reached $7,000.

Erlinda Aves of Passaic said she plays most nights. In March she won almost $2,000.

"I used to go to Atlantic City," he said, but bingo is more affordable and closer to home.

Valerie Freeman of Paterson plays along with her son.

"I used to come [to Clifton] a lot, but this is my first visit in a while," Freeman said. "It is an opportunity for us to spend some time together."

For Darlene Turner of Little Falls, Tuesday night is her bingo night.

Shot of Clifton's Bingo hall as players begin to arrive.

"I do it just for fun," Turner said. "It is not expensive ... Where do you go for a night out for $20?"

Also, said the fans of bingo, the game is not just for older players. On Saturday night the crowd is younger, Holmes said. Couples in their 30s and 40s use it as a date night.

Clifton's Boys & Girls Club, the Wayne PAL and the Lodi Boys & Girls Club depend on the money bingo provides. The Lodi-Hackensack Boys & Girls Club doesn't bring in as much as Clifton's, but it still collects about $1 million per year, $400,000 of it for the club's operating expenses.

Matt Fagan is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: fagan@northjersey.com Twitter: @fagan_nj

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