Is bingo as a school fundraiser unethical?

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

You know the drill. School team or band wants to raise funds. They setup shop at a “bingo hall” where not only bingo but pull tabs are played.

Should schools not participate in these activities based on ethical concerns?

Some of these bingo halls are found in parts of towns where:
- buy here, pay here
- rent-to-own
- pawn shops
Etc

Are found. Is this feeding on the avarice of desperate people?

 

[Ron Mehico]

Man, you know we in a society are in a great place when people are so comfortable and have so much free time they actually think of shit like this. Enjoy this time fellas, there’s never been a better time to live!

 

[KyCatFan]

I don't have a problem with it. Took my mom a couple of weeks ago and we left with like $600. Most came from those pull tabs. They use the state lottery to go towards education so what's the big deal?

 

[WildcatFan1982]

I like playing blackjack at church picnics.

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

Man, you know we in a society are in a great place when people are so comfortable and have so much free time they actually think of shit like this. Enjoy this time fellas, there’s never been a better time to live!

Build the wall

 

[BigBlueDave]

Most came from those pull tabs.

My sons have been on good travel ball teams where everybody paid their way and ball teams where we fundraised. One team worked a bingo hall. By working, that meant walking the room selling those pull tabs that always had a double entendre names that you would bark out as you weaved the tables. The team had so many books of tickets it had to sell before we could call it a night.

You learned quick who the whales(haha) were and kept pushing.

The same clientele that are regular lottery ticket buyers overlap with the bingo hall. Smoking was allowed at the hall we worked, so you always smelled really fresh at the end of the shift.

Our team had to staff it so many nights per week for two weeks or a month. It's been ten years ago anyway. At the end we received $1500. If you didn't want to work your shift, you found a replacement or paid the house $50. < I did that a lot.

 

[Wesley91581]

You know the drill. School team or band wants to raise funds. They setup shop at a “bingo hall” where not only bingo but pull tabs are played.

Should schools not participate in these activities based on ethical concerns?

Some of these bingo halls are found in parts of towns where:
- buy here, pay here
- rent-to-own
- pawn shops
Etc

Are found. Is this feeding on the avarice of desperate people?

What about churches then?

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

What about churches then?

I agree. Personally I think it’s worse

 

[55wildcat]

Nothing scarier than to be sitting next to an old lady with a cig hanging from her mouth, have burnt down with ashes hanging on, cased for three calls then you yell bingo. That glare of fire she throws on you will melt your eyebrow hairs

 

[JumperJack]

I’ve worked them for youth sports.

They absolutely prey on people who shouldn’t be pissing their money away. Needless to say, all the teams fought over who would get to work the first week of every month.

It’s a free country but on the other hand, it’s how poor people stay poor.

 

[DreadLox]

Back when the kids were little, we helped out at a Bingo fundraiser for a school orchestra. You have never been around as much cigarette smoke. No bar, party, or wake compares. Bingo ladies were half diesel engines.

It wasn't always that way. I remember when I was a kid, a maiden great aunt of mine lived with us on a rotating basis. She loved Bingo and would take one of us kids with her. And I vaguely remember the time I was her companion. The ladies with 12, 15 games in front of them. The smoldering concentration. The frenzy of their "Bingo!" screams. My memory says it was in the lunch room at Trinity High School, but we're talking almost 70 years ago.

Bingo may or may not be unethical, but it definitely is strange.

 

[JonathanW]

Many states use lottery proceeds to help fund education. How is bingo different? It’s not.