It has been six months since Bingo World opened and since the Optimists began running a bingo game on Friday nights. On Friday, the Optimists will hold a Player Appreciation Night. Optimists will give each player a coupon worth $5 to purchase pull tabs.
They have two progressive games: One has a jackpot of $3,250 for the player who has a coverall in 52 balls. Friday, the Optimists will raise the consolation prize for both progressive games to $1,000. Therefore, there will be a minimum of $5,600 given away in bingo prizes and maybe $7,850. They have pull tabs with large winners.
For example, there will be $1 pull tabs with four $1,000 winners and 25-cent pull tabs with top winners of $500.
This event will be a special fund raiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The Optimists promise to give "Jerry's Kids" $10 for each player over 200 who attends.
Larry Loos, chairman of the Optimist Bingo committee, says Optimists hope to set an attendance record for Bingo World. "If we can get 650 people there, we will give MDA the extra $2,000," he said. "Thus, instead of $4,500, the donation to MDA will be $6,500, if we can break the old record," Loos said.
"We want as many people as possible to come on Friday, March 8, and join the celebration and help raise money for MDA at the same time," he said.
Speed ball games
Bingo World is at 823 N Clark, two blocks north of Broadway, between the Cape Girardeau Public Library and the Senior Center. Doors open at 3 p.m. On Friday there are two "speed ball" games that are played shortly after 6 p.m.; the regular games begin at 6:30. The entire session should be over between 9 and 9:30.
Bingo World is one of the few bingo halls designed and built expressly to play bingo. There is a glass partition that separates the non-smoking and smoking sections. The air circulation system is designed so that non-smokers can play bingo in a smoke-free environment. Players like the hall so much that some come from Poplar Bluff, Mo., to the south or Ste. Genevieve, Mo., from the north.
"We have many players who drive from Illinois to play bingo there," Loos said.
The Friday night bingo games are run by four area Optimist clubs: the two Jackson, Mo., clubs and two of the four clubs from Cape Girardeau.
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