Across Va., Bingo Calls Big Spenders to Pony Up

Dysfunctional relationships, financial problems, even chronic pain all quickly fade when the daubers and the pull-tabs come out, Franklin said. "You get a massive dose of escapism when you're playing," she said.

Franklin doesn't propose a bingo ban, but she notes that Virginia does not require operators to post Gamblers Anonymous information at bingo halls.

Each locale has its high rollers as well as its tempered regulars. "If I kept track of how much I spent, I'd probably kill myself," said Jill, a 52-year-old Burke resident playing at a firehouse in Burke who requested her last name not be used because she is a federal contractor.

"Some women spend $500 on a purse," she said. "I do this. I look at it as my entertainment." The early bird round was not yet through, and she'd already forked over $80 for pull-tab cards.

Two years earlier, a friend persuaded her to play at a Dale City bingo night. "At first, I said I didn't want to go, that it was for old people," she recalled. "That night I won $1,000. I've been hooked ever since."

Soon Jill was playing every night of the week, but she has since scaled back, she said.

Still, for her, bingo is simply the most convenient and accessible way to gamble in Virginia. "As many times as I've gone to Vegas," she said, "I've never set foot in a bingo parlor there. I'd rather play blackjack or roulette."

Her friend Joan Haar of Springfield sat across the table with rapt anticipation, a leprechaun-shaped dauber in hand. Haar, a retired bus driver and former bingo caller, said she loves the game for its own merits. "It's that rush," said Haar, 74. "The suspense. The adrenaline. You get your heart going thump, thump, thump. When I'm waiting for that $1,000, I can feel it."

A few years ago, Haar's longtime bingo partner died one night in Annandale, right in the middle of a game, and that, to Haar, seemed like as good a way to go as any.

"She went as many nights as she could," Haar said. "She died happy."