Trendy South Beach offers visitors and residents of Miami many attractions. The old art deco hotels and buildings have been beautifully restored and attract visitors from around the globe. What was once a derelict section of Miami populated chiefly by drug addled lunatics is now a world class tourist attraction. South Beach is also home to many trendy night clubs and upscale entertainment venues. The area draws young people from far and wide and there is a new activity that is packing them in.
The upscale Standard Hotel is offering a new variation on an old game. For decades the game of bingo has been associated with little old ladies sitting in smoky church basements and VFW halls but as the Standard Hotel advertises, this is “Not your grandmother’s Bingo.”
Bingo has undergone a transformation in recent years and is attracting a younger crowd. Bingo players years from their first retirement check are gleefully drinking, dancing, and cavorting with some of the most colorful drag queens to be found anywhere. In recent years bingo has become immensely popular in the Gay community and raucous games such as those at the Standard Hotel attract a diverse crowd.
Although some may see bingo as a boring dated pastime, games like those held at the Stanford are giving new life to the game and insure its survival. Most of the players are in their 20’s or 30’s and the bingo callers can get pretty colorful as they call the numbers and add a little bit of sexual innuendo. In most bingo games when there is a tie the players simply split the money but not at the Stanford. If there is a tie the crowd yells “Dance Off” which immediately triggers an impromptu dance contest with the winnings going to the dancer who elicits the loudest response from the crowd.
The phenomenon taking place at the Stanford is being duplicated across the country. Almost every major American city has its own version of drag bingo and the popular games fill halls across the country with habitues. Many casinos are trying new innovations to attract younger players. In Minnesota the Mystic Lake Casino offers their own version called ‘Cosmic Bingo’ which takes place on Friday and Saturday nights. The games features dance music, lots of colorful neon lights, and spicy bingo callers. The casino’s director of operations says that attendance reaches 500 on many nights.
The addition of booze, drag queens, booty shaking, and dance music has breathed new life into the game of bingo and ensures its survival well into the next generation.
Anthony Wayne works as a marketing consultant for online bingo site BingoHouse. His articles may also be found at BingoLingo and at BingoSuite.
Despite a dismal economy the online bingo industry is uniquely poised to benefit from current economic conditions. Several factors have contributed to the growing popularity of online bingo. In both the US and the UK rising food and fuel prices have forced the average consumer to make many hard choices and many are cutting back on travel and entertainment. As has been mentioned many times before, smoking bans in both countries have had a significant effect on attendance at brick and mortar bingo halls.
Online bingo operators do not face the high overhead that their land based counterparts face. The cost of running an online bingo website is a fraction of what it costs to operate a land based bingo hall. Utility costs are minimal and fewer employees are required to manage a website. The online operator can pass these savings on to the player in the form of higher jackpots and prizes and low cost cards.
In rural areas of the US high gas prices and smoking bans have taken their toll on bingo halls. In fact, in the US those same factors have affected land based gambling halls across the board. Says Eric Shippers, a spokesman for Hollywood Casino owner Penn National Gaming, “It would be very difficult to really tell what, if any, impact we may have had on attendance being down, given the ongoing softness in the economy,” he said. “We’ve seen the gaming industry as a whole down, year over year, because of higher gas prices and less discretionary spending.”
According to Bloomberg, the U.K. is the world’s most developed online bingo market with 243 websites devoted to online bingo. It also stated that online bingo in the UK generated revenues of $239 million in 2007. Despite the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, online bingo remains big business in the US. Many online bingo sites still accept US players and several online bingo companies have expanded operations into Spain and Scandinavia.
With less money to spend on travel and entertainment, online bingo offers a solution for those seeking inexpensive entertainment. There are no travel expenses involved and cards are significantly less expensive that at brick and mortar operations. The size of jackpots can range from $50 to a whopping $20,000! It is easy to see why so many players are switching to online bingo. All these factors combine to make online bingo one of the few growth industries in today’s depressing economy.
Anthony Wayne works in the marketing department of the Forex Trader Information site FX-trader in Pennsylvania. He is also editor of the Forex Network Site a network of Forex information and news sites.
For over a century most Native American tribes have lived on poverty stricken reservations. Many of these large reservations are in remote areas where economic opportunity is limited. Many Indian Reservations are in remote areas and poverty is endemic. Until the 1950’s the government tried to suppress native culture and traditions. Many saw gaming as one of the only economic opportunities available to Native American Tribes. Controversy arose when some tribes put bingo halls and casinos on Native land.
Many states opposed Native American gaming but the tribes asserted sovereignty over their reservations making them immune from state laws. In 1988 Congress passed the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act which required states to negotiate with Indian tribes to forge agreements concerning Indian gaming. If a state failed to negotiate in good faith the law gave the tribes the right to sue in Federal court.
The Seminole tribe of Florida requested the state of Florida to negotiate an agreement and the state refused. The ensuing legal war resulted in a win for the Seminoles paving the way for Indian casinos. Since President Reagan signed the act revenues for tribal gaming have soared from $100 million in 1988 to $16.7 billion in 2006.
Information from the National Indian Gaming Commission states that there are approximately 400 Indian casinos in the United States. These casinos have brought in much needed revenue to formerly impoverished reservations. The casinos are popular and draw visitors from neighboring states. The Pequot tribe of Massachusetts owns Foxwoods casino the, largest in the United States.
To think that this huge industry started with a dispute over a high stakes bingo hall in Florida. The Seminole tribal chairman approved the plans for the bingo hall and approved the hall’s operation of six days a week contrary to Florida law which only allows two days a week for bingo halls to be open. The Seminole bingo hall also exceeded the $100 limit on jackpots set by the state of Florida. The sheriff of Broward County, where the Indian reservation lies harassed the bingo hall and its patrons and the tribe sued.
The ultimate result was the opening of Indian owned casinos and bingo halls nationwide. Tribes finally had money to provide basic services for tribal members and invested a great deal of money in educational facilities and other social services. The casinos provide much needed jobs on reservations where unemployment is very high. The next time you visit an Indian bingo hall or casino thank the courage of the Seminoles.
Anthony Wayne works in the marketing department of the Forex Trader Information site FX-trader in Pennsylvania. He is also editor of the Forex Network Site a network of Forex information and news sites.
Florida bills itself as the ’sunshine state’ and justifiably so. Long known for its balmy weather year around, sandy beaches, and theme parks, Florida attracts visitors from around the globe. Retirees from all over the US flock to Florida to enjoy the weather and other amenities that Florida offers. Florida also has one attribute that is now well known: it is the best state for bingo players.
Florida demographics closely match those of the typical bingo player. A significant number of bingo players are over 47 years old and are overwhelmingly female. Florida has a large population of retirees almost all of whom are well over 47 years old. Bingo is wildly popular in Florida and generates a significant amount of revenue both in the form of taxes and contributions to charitable and religious organizations. While smoking bans have devastated bingo in other states, bingo is thriving in Florida despite the recently imposed smoking ban.
Florida bingo players have a vast assortment of games to choose from. In fact, no matter where a player is located in Florida they are never more than 40 miles from a bingo game. Bingo has been especially good for the Seminole Indian tribe. In the late 1970’s the tribe opened its first bingo parlor on the Hollywood Reservation near Miami. The venture was so successful that the tribe was able to pay off their initial 1 million dollar loan in 6 months! The bingo halls reduced unemployment on the Seminole reservations by 50% and funded police services, senior citizen services, and recreational centers on the reservations. Fortunately for the tribe, bingo halls survived a legal challenge by the state’s Attorney General. The Seminoles continue to offer high stakes bingo to this day.
An article from Time magazine circa 1988 describes a bingo hall the size of an airplane hangar capable of seating 5,000 players. The Big Cypress Bingo Hall attracted players from every city in Florida, every state in the US, Canada, and several foreign countries. They may win cash prizes ranging from a few dollars to $125,000, or a new Lincoln Town Car, or a beach-front condominium, or a trip to Las Vegas. The games were legendary for the entertaining atmosphere and were a partnership between a group of investors and the Seminole Tribe.
Outside of the Seminole reservations bingo is provided by charitable and religious organizations. On any given day of the week there are hundreds of bingo games taking place across the state of Florida. Florida provides a unique venue for bingo in the form of bingo cruises. Visit any one of the beach vacation communities and there are well appointed cruise ships offering bingo and other forms of gaming. Most of these cruises are surprisingly inexpensive and the atmosphere can be uninhibited. Cruises are available on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Florida, like many other states, is home to many veterans, charitable, and religious organizations that sponsor bingo games for fundraising purposes. The Catholic Church has used bingo for revenue generation for decades. Money generated by these bingo games is used for a variety of purposes such as aid to the poor, and parochial school scholarships and tuition subsidies. Veterans organizations use bingo to raise money for the care of disabled veterans and other veterans issues. Almost every Florida town has one or more of these organizations so most citizens of the sunshine state are in close proximity to a bingo game.
For bingo players Florida is probably the best place to live in the US. With a large population of retirees games are well attended and most facilities are designed to handle any handicap a player may have. Florida offers bingo players a choice between high stakes bingo or the old fashioned garden variety church hall. For bingo players Florida has it all!
Anthony Wayne works in the marketing department of online lottery site LuckyLotto in Pennsylvania. He is also editor of the Internet Bingo Blog a great source of internet bingo information.
In one of the more stunning instances of hypocrisy to come out of the political world, it was revealed that anti online gambling crusader Eliot Spitzer was deeply involved with a very upscale prostitution ring. It has been estimated that Spitzer spent in the neighborhood of $80,000 for services rendered. Ironically Spitzer made a name for himself fighting organized crime and prostitution rings similar to the one he was involved with.
As New York’s Attorney General he made a national name for himself cleaning up Wall Street, consumer advocacy, environmental protection, and white collar crime. He had a reputation for aggressive prosecutions. In 2002 he bullied several banks involved with online gaming with prosecution. Citibank, one of the largest issuers of credit cards in the US was forced to stop processing transactions related to online gaming.
Spitzer was elected governor of New York in 2006 and stated in his inaugural address “Every policy, every action and every decision we make in this administration will further two overarching objectives: We must transform our government so that it is as ethical and wise as all of New York, and we must rebuild our economy so that it is ready to compete on the global stage in the next century.” Spitzer promised clean government but what the taxpayers of New York got was something quite different.
It all fell apart for Spitzer last week when the New York Times published articles detailing his patronage of the Emperors Club VIP an upscale escort service based in New Jersey. It was revealed that Spitzer spent $1,000 an hour for the services of a call girl.
Spitzer’s bank was the chief agent leading to his demise. The good governor tried to conceal transactions totaling more than $10,000 by splitting up the transfers The money was destined for the Emperors Club VIP but the bank reported the suspicious transfers to that beloved agency the IRS which immediately launched an investigation. Spitzer tried to have his name taken off the money transfers but the bank, to their credit, refused. The IRS initially thought Spitzer might be a victim of fraud or extortion and the case was handed to the FBI who discovered the link to the prostitution ring.
Spitzer announced his resignation effective March, 17, 2008 giving the new governor time to make an orderly transition. A statement issued by Spitzer said, “Over the course of my public life, I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself,” said Spitzer. “For this reason, I am resigning from the Office of Governor.”
Recently the US public has seen several politicians, many who have proposed legislation regulating private consensual behaviors, fall from grace. Many opponents of online gaming have been caught up in various scandals and ethics violations. Senator Bill Frist, a fervent supporter of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement act chose not to run for re election in 2006 because of ethics violations involving insider trading and Medicare and Medicaid fraud. John Kyl, another supporter of UIGEA took campaign money from the horse racing industry.
All these politicians had something in common, they all presented themselves to the public as ethical virtuous men, and all had serious conflicts between their public actions and their behavior as private citizens. Sometimes you just want to ask; where have all the good guys gone?
Anthony Wayne is a consultant for the online bingo site http://www.bingohouse.com. His articles may also be found at www.bingolingo.com