Progressive bingo becoming increasingly popular in Michigan

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2000 | 8:59 a.m.

Since March, the chance game has injected money and life into Michigan's foundering charitable bingo games, which had been on the decline since the proliferation of casinos in the Detroit area and progressive bingo jackpots in Canada.

State charitable gaming officials say they won't know the full impact until bingo license holders submit annual reports at the end of September. But some officials who run bingos for charitable organizations report revenues are up at least 25 percent to 30 percent during the first five months since the law was changed.

The new money will enable the Knights of Columbus in Fraser to make larger donations to the charities it sponsors, including several programs involving the mentally challenged in Macomb County, Grand Knight Bob Barner said.

St. Margaret Catholic Church in St. Clair Shores used the money it raised for a big repair bill.

"Progressive bingo is saving the church bingos," said Bill Ellsworth, who runs the game for St. Margarets.

A half-filled bingo hall used to be considered a success, but, Ellsworth said, "attendance now reaches capacity of more than 300 when the jackpot gets big."

Kronner said bingo sales have hit $410,000, compared with $360,000 for the entire year of 1997.

"I expect we will hit $500,000 this year," he told The Detroit News for a story Tuesday.

The St. Margaret Catholic Church bingo expects to almost double its groups profits - from $60,000 last year to nearly $100,000 this year. The big profit was timely. St. Margaret has a $65,000 bill to repair a church wall.

The number of charitable bingo licenses in the state dropped about 25 percent from 1993-99 - from 2,127 to 1,601. But the advent of progressive bingo is changing that, too.

"We have new ones coming in," said Bob Blessing, licensing director for the charitable gaming division of the Michigan Lottery. "It looks like we have at least stopped the bleeding. It looks like it has stabilized."

A problem with the old bingo format was that the most any organization could award in prizes was $2,000 a session with a single-game jackpot of $500, Blessing said. Many bingos in Canada have jackpots of $2,000 each session and pay about $5,000 for the entire session. Canada also has a progressive bingo, called SuperStar, linked to all 200 bingo halls in Ontario in which jackpots have hit $600,000 and routinely reach $200,000.

There is no limit on the progressive bingo jackpot, which is a separate game from the regular session. It still pays $2,000. Progressive bingo starts with a $500 jackpot and rolls over each week if no player completely covers his card in the prescribed number of calls. The number of calls starts at 50 and increases by one each week until someone wins. If the jackpot isn't won, consolation prizes of $100 are awarded.