Gretna Bingo Palace

First thing... schmokey. Not smokey... but schmokey! But that doesn't happen until almost game time at 8pm. The the low hanging cloud forms. Your eyes will burn, your hair will stink and you will develop a death rattle by end of the game but its fun! Just drive home with the windows down and strip in the garage and hit the shower immediately. Second, there is a non smoking section but that area is no fun. Avoid it seriously unless you have horrible allergies. But seriously, just suck it up and sit in the smoking section. This is why you are coming.Third, actually a decent restaurant inside with items up to prime rib. The tater tots are yum. They sell beer and some little wines but nothing to get excited about. Pro tip coming.Fourth, the people/ regulars watching is top notch prime 1000% awesome. I'm talking funny ass shit funny. Comedy club funny with occasional outburst when someone is getting close to a bingo or if someone just won. (F! or that bitch was lucky, or wtf was that sound? or F this S) all said by women in late 60s - 80sFifth, the game itself. Bingo, but not just any bingo. I am talking fast paced bingo! But sooo fun. Its not good for anxiety at the beginning but after a few cards in, the hang of it comes. You will get comfy enough to actually look up and see the screen showing the next ball and keep up instead of trying to search for the last call on the giant lit bingo board. But its not that easy... the announcers , can sometimes make Mush Mouth from Fat Albert sound like James Earl Jones in comparison. B 70 sounds more like fee sebindy. O 23 like Mo beddie free. Awesome. Now mix in during the game of bingo, there is walking staff also selling pull card games like cherry bells at school fairs. IN the middle of the numbers being called, B 9, O 64, G 44, there will be a random outburst " Black Jack Picture Frames" ... it is sooo confusing but it also makes my group laugh every time because we get frazzled and the regulars are playing 3 games at once, talking and keeping up with no frazzle. No more counting. Getting hard to write like that. The staff is wonderful. So my group , not very familiar with the process... again this isn't grade school bingo, its grown up bingo, did not realize the game switched from fill in the regular bingo to simultaneously turned into Black Out or the correct Gretna Bingo Palace term is "Cover All" game. A employee walking around with her own dauber leaned in and started marking up our cards with the missed numbers (it moves fast fast!) and she told us to mark everything because they will switch to Cover All after Bingo is called. Man that was sooo cool of her. When you first walk in, the newbies are spotted immediately. Blood in the water if you will. There is a frequent player program like at casinos at this bingo hall, so when anyone new walks in, get ready to get approached by a old lady with her keys on a lanyard. She will want you to use her player card when you buy your bingo card. It cost nothing extra but making a old lady smile. My last old lady was sweet enough to see we had no daubers and she went to her Gretna police officer friend behind the counter doing detail, and had him provide us with 4 daubers for free. We had to return them to him after but it saved us a few bucks.So no outside food or drinks. Meh kinda. There is no one checking bags at the door so if you are discreet, have someone pack a big purse and bring your goodies in. I have a cruise ship clear flask I fill at home and I buy a big drink at the bingo hall and fill up. The beer selection is poor so unless you can sneak in a few cans, the flask option is easy. There is a slot machine room also, actually way less smokey than you would expect.They have games all day, there is a online calendar, but for example, the games we usually hit is the 8pm game. It may start on time, or 20 mins late. No matter what, it will be finished by 9pm. It seems like no way they are gonna call it that fast but it is fast fast and fun fun fun!Get there early too. Grab you a table with friend, order food , have some drinks and have some laughs and make friends before hand. Seriously a fun hidden gem. And the fun multiplies if you are drunk or loaded in anyway. Not to mention there is a chance you could win big money. Imagine that!

BEWARE..... Bingo is addictive as F@#! Always just one square away! Lol. Came here on a whim. There are rules that the novice can't understand, but fun all the same! Very smokey in here, and the staff is definitely friendly and very very helpful. "No food or outside drink" yeah right. Lol i brought a little something to drink to make it more interesting maybe a bad idea, but that's how i roll. Lol

It's my first time going to bingo. I spent $54 total on the games and won $0. Hopefully, I win next time. I'll never buy food from them again though. I'll bring my food because their food isn't all that to me, but some may like it. They have cheese fries, burgers, fried okra, etc. They have a non-smoking area which is a plus because the smoking area has my eye's burning and my throat itching.

I was not fully aware that this was a speed bingo place. Man, they call the numbers fast! And to my disappointment, they closed early without much notice, so we spent a lot of money and time to get there, only to play 1 of the 3 games.

This place gets the job done for a bingo parlor. The main room of this place has one of the strongest smells of cigarettes that I have ever encountered, but they have a non smoking room that is more more pleasant. For a low budget player, it is almost impossible to win any of the games, as you need to buy in at a high price to give yourself a chance. The place is well run and the games run on time but the place itself is somewhat run down and could use a renovation. I will return periodically to this place from time to time but it is nothing spec