Bingo Casino
One of our favorite date night outings in Wichita is bingo, and our place to do that is Bingo Casino!
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you are aware that we are bingo fanatics and even have our own bingo dauber bag from Things 4 That.
I have many fond memories of bingo, either playing with family or even back in college when I was our fraternity’s social chair and set up bingo nights with other sororities. When tossing out the idea of a bingo night, there were many odd stares and confused looks. But when everybody went, everyone had a lot of fun. My friends and I also used to set up bingo nights where we’d go meet and play. One of Megan and I’s first date nights was also at Bingo Casino. Fast-forward years later and here we are with a beautiful little girl who will one day join us at bingo.
It’s safe to say bingo has a special place in my heart.
For Bingo Casino, they have three locations:
- 540 N West St.
- 1211 E 47th St.
- 2431 E Mt. Vernon.
I encourage you all to follow their Facebook page.
Modern-day bingo is different from what many of you may remember. There’s no more smoking allowed at Bingo Casino, and there’s even electronic bingo available using tablets. You can purchase electronic bingo packs which are displayed on a tablet and all the work is done for you. FYI, you still have to purchase a regular pack of bingo cards to play before you can get a tablet.
Oh, and they even sell beer and seltzers!
At Bingo Casino, the mini-sessions at 6:30pm and the regular session at 7:30pm. Every so often you’ll want to arrive a little early as the place can get packed. The mini-sessions are roughly 20 quick bingo games, where the session lasts for a little over an hour; each game is finished literally in minutes. I usually stick to the 7:30pm session where there are more games to play and bigger payouts, but we’ve been known to show up at the minis before.
The cost is relatively affordable too. Depending on what you want to play, you can spend anywhere around $9 on up. The typical spend for me is about $20-25 when I go play, unless I’m feeling frisky and want to press my luck more. Many people stick to the $20 packs that give you a chance at a vast majority of the games.
My recommendation if it’s your first time is to start with a 9-on, which runs around $9. The sheet will cover 8 different games for the evening. If you don’t have a bingo dauber, those run around $1.25 and up. I have a plethora of bingo daubers that cover all the colors of the rainbow.
Once you purchase a 9-on pack, you can get a schedule of the games that will be played. All sorts of bingo favorites like block 9, big X, double bingo, picture frame and others are randomly played each day. You’ll notice some games call for special paper, which we’ll cover later. I’ve also included an example of what the mini-session and regular sessions look like at Bingo Casino.
The “special paper” games listed on the schedule refer to additional games such as Megas, Quiks and Bonanza which cost $1-2 and have even bigger jackpots that run $1000 or more. They are your basic blackout games where you need to have all your numbers called to win. The Mega and Quik games are progressive jackpots, meaning the prize pool increases each day someone doesn’t win.
Other games such as speedball or double dab are also offered during the regular session. The more games you buy the more it adds up, obviously but it also increases your chances to win. I’m the sucker who buys EVERYTHING!
On our most recent visit, they had multiple 4 and even a 5 figure payout. There was a game called Quik which if you got a blackout in 56 bingo numbers or less, the winner took home a cool $7,617. And that night, somebody won it! That same evening, they had another game called Even & Odds. Players got to mark all the odd numbers. The bingo called only called out evens. The goal was to get a black-out in 54 numbers or less, and somebody did it and won $16,229. Over $25,000 in cash prizes were awarded that night.
It doesn’t end there yet. There’s also extra games such as pull tabs which cost $1 each. They are little mini-games that are played during the regular session. You buy a card for a dollar and pull the back tab off, which reveals five numbers (or sometimes free spaces if you’re lucky, unlike me). Then it’s played like regular bingo. There are multiple different pull tab games offered throughout the evening. I frequently buy them even though I have never ever won in all my years of playing. My odds of winning a pull tab are probably worse than the actual lottery.
It does not end there! As mentioned earlier, if you want more bingo sheets but don’t have the hands to mark everything, you can purchase additional bingo sheets that are displayed on a tablet. It’s all handled electronically and buzzes if you hit a bingo. I think my tablets are always broken because it never buzzes.
If you get hungry or thirsty, they have you covered there too!
While bingo certainly draws an older crowd, I’ve seen plenty of younger people start to play. Don’t give in to the stereotypes about bingo. It’s actually quite fun and can be enjoyed if you’re under the age of 85. Perhaps your luck can help you hit some big bingo payouts. If not a big bingo payout, perhaps a beautiful child years down the road, which I guess was the ultimate jackpot.
For more on Bingo Casino, check them out on Facebook or their website.
Good Luck,
Eddy
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