Palace Bingo

I remember as a kid going with my grandparents to play bingo on Saturday evenings. Some good memories I have are standing around a table with a mound of bingo cards in front of me. I would go through them and pick out two cards with what I thought would be the luckiest numbers. Well I guess bingo has changed a lot since I was a kid. Now you buy a packet of bingo cards on paper that are color coded to the game you're going to play. You take this Dobber, which essentially is a container full of ink with a sponge on top, and when your number is called you dob out the number with the ink. You must go to Walmart and buy your dobber before you go. But your in luck, there's a Walmart not even half a mile down the road. My daughter wanted to go to this place when we were in town for a soccer game. My wife and I took her and found it to be enjoyable for the evening. My daughter was excited thinking she was going to win, and win big! Spoil alert, she did not win. They don't play as many games as I remember and the patterns are a little bit more complex than a straight line. If you don't like the paper, they will rent you a little computer that plays for you as you watch. I don't see how that could be fun but some people seem to like it. Also the money you can win is a lot larger than the $10-$25 I remember. Now it's more like $125-$500. The concession was a full restaurant. Dinner plates, hamburgers, hotdogs, Frito pie, popcorn, pickles, candy, homemade desserts, and the list goes on. We had popcorn, a pickle, one of the homemade dessert which was chocolate pudding whip cream with a cookie on top and a hotdog. All the food smelled good, and I have no complaints with my concession stand food. The place is pretty clean, as are the bathrooms. The staff is friendly and will explain the games and how things work if you are new to bingo. Although we had a very enjoyable evening, some things I did not like. These have nothing to do with the business. There was a change from the old style cards that you would slide over a tab that would cover your number and the amount of games being played, which are far less. One of the good things though is at the end of the night when you stood up to walk out you didn't have to stay hunched over because of the bank of smoke that would be pushed down from the ceiling till it was 3 foot off the floor from all the chainsmokers. So if you smoke, sorry you have to go outside to the front of the building. All in all if you're looking for an evening that would be different than your usual evening this is a pretty good idea. We liked it!

If you want to play pull tabs, sit on the Upper level as you walk in. The runners will sell 90 % of the tabs there. You will not ever buy tabs for most games if you sit in the middle or lower portion.Your night will be an exercise in frustration. Tonight, I've been here since 5 PM, one young runner has come to the bottom Section. Three are selling to the top section only.The snack bar has a unexpected number of options and the runners who have been here for years are nice folk. Don't expect a smile from management.Good luck.