The bingo haul

There's a lucrative betting game going on in Milton, and it's pulling in more than $1 million a year. Poker? Horse-racing? No. It's bingo.

Milton bingo enthusiasts spend more per capita than any other Massachusetts community. The town's two licensed bingo halls -- one at St. Agatha's church/school, and the other in Temple Shalom -- are among the busiest in the state. Together they generated more than $1 million in gross bingo receipts in 2006, according to figures kept by the state Lottery Commission.

Bingo is thriving in Milton, and in a few bigger places such as Brockton and Quincy, even as the game is declining in the rest of the state. The glory days for bingo, in the 1970s and '80s, are gone. Over the past 20 years, weekly game attendance has dropped from 200,000 to fewer than 50,000.

Organizations such as Plymouth VFW Post 1822 and Scituate Knights Of Columbus Council 3716 stopped hosting games. Between 1984 and 2006, bingo licenses in Massachusetts dropped from 916 to 280.

"Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have taken a big bite of bingo," said Ed Sullivan, grand knight of Scituate Knights Of Columbus council. "You need to have a certain amount to make it exciting and enticing for the players."

Milton manages to provide that. The reason is, in part, because Milton has become a bingo destination in the area. Players come from Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, and Dorchester. Getting to Temple Shalom is easier than getting to the only Thursday-night bingo session in Boston -- at Sacred Heart in East Boston.

More players means more buzz, and more bets.

Milton also is rich in bingo history. A Globe article once dubbed St. Agatha's school "the Caesar's Palace of Massachusetts bingo." That was back in September 1986, when 500 people or more showed up to play every week. In recent years, St. Agatha's bingo night has drawn crowds of 275 people -- a smaller but still sizable crowd -- and bingo remains the biggest fund-raiser for the Catholic school.

At Temple Shalom, a recent Thursday night drew enough players to pack two halls. Among the players was Warren Alessi, who has been helping out at Temple Shalom's bingo games for the past 10 years.

"It's my Thursday night thing, you know?" he said. "You get used to seeing the same people, you get to know exactly what they buy. . . . There's a social aspect to it. It's fun."

More people are showing up to play bingo at Temple Shalom because some of the other bingo games shut down, he said. "This one picked up the slack."

Devotees such as Peggy Zaremski and Kim Coleman have been attending bingo night at Temple Shalom since the 1980s. Every week the two Dorchester women sit at the same table, where they chat with their fellow players.

They are among those known to practice little rituals during each game, just as a superstitious baseball player might adjust his batting gloves and tap home plate. Some bingo aficionados play the same number of cards every time; others wear good-luck charms; some even bring portraits of their grandchildren and knickknacks to the hall, to decorate their space at the table.

Zaremski puts a little elephant figurine in front of her cards for good luck. Coleman sets up a miniature Buddha statue and family photos in front of her cards. She also brings packets of Domino sugar.

"I sprinkle sugar on my cards for good luck," said Coleman. "I've been doing that for years." She and other players pay $1 for three cards.

Besides the excitement of the game, Coleman and Zaremski say they enjoy bingo as a night out, and a way to catch up with friends. "It's hard to win," said Coleman, "but we keep trying."

State officials wish more people shared Coleman's determination. In an effort to boost attendance, the Legislature made some important changes seven years ago, and increased the sizes of bingo prizes: $100 for single games, $500 for special winner-take-all games, and $3,000 for progressive games.

In spring 2004, the Lottery began issuing one-day bingo licenses.

Last summer, the office of state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci suggested raising the $3,000 prize cap even higher, and allowing for-profit businesses to operate bingo halls as long as they distributed a percentage of the proceeds to nonprofit groups. Any of those proposals would require a change in the current laws.

The state collects a 5 percent tax on the gross proceeds of each bingo night, in addition to an annual fee of $50 for each license.

Temple Shalom, on Blue Hill Avenue, usually draws 160 to 180 people at its Thursday-night bingo games. There was a noticeable increase in attendance after the state increased bingo prizes in 2000, said Paul Etkind, president of Temple Shalom.

But the future of the traditional bingo hall is facing new pressures. Bingo halls must now compete with casinos and games on the Internet. There's even a new game show on TV called "National Bingo Night," which premiered last month on ABC. Viewers can register online, download and print out bingo cards from the show's website, and then play along at home, and win prizes. As bingo players get older, and membership in social organizations declines, it also becomes more difficult to get volunteers to run the games.

"It's not a young person's game," said Dan Sullivan, who helps run the Monday-night bingo games at St. Agatha's.

On the other hand, St. Agatha's and Temple Shalom keep picking up more players as other local halls close. "The options for bingo players are diminishing," said Etkind. "I guess that's helped us continue to have a healthy bottom line on it."

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeny@globe.com.