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SEPTEMBER 2023

Serial Number Snafu

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Dear Aunt Bingo,

Recently I went to Bingo and won on the last game, a quickie. When the worker gave the caller my card number, the caller said it wasn’t a good Bingo because the number 26 hadn’t been called. I looked at the sheet and told him 26 wasn’t on there and that he must have picked up the wrong number. He took the number again and got the same results. He then told the worker to bring the sheet to the caller’s stand. I grabbed my things and went also.

After the caller got the sheet, he said it didn’t contain the right serial number and wanted to know where I’d gotten the sheet. I told him that it had come from the pack of playing sheets I’d purchased there. He sent for the woman who was in charge of the session. She came, took the sheet, and carried it to her office. When she returned to the floor, she said the sheet in question didn’t bear one of her listed serial numbers, and the caller continued to call the game. Someone Bingoed on the next number called. I told them that wasn’t right, because I was playing on a sheet I had bought from them.

Then, to their surprise, two ladies came forward—bless their hearts. Their sheets contained the same serial number as the sheet I’d hit Bingo on. I told the caller and the session lady that I’d had Bingo first and that the Bingo should be mine. Anyway, they paid me, but only after having made me look and feel like a criminal. Chances are good that I would have been banned from the hall had those other ladies not come forward.

I don’t intend to enter that hall again, even if the packs there are the cheapest ones in town.

—M.I., Portsmouth, Virginia

 

Dear M.I.,

One of the benefits of computerized Bingo is the ability to verify, through serial numbers, that a card was legitimately purchased at a specific game and that when someone gets a Bingo, they are the rightful winner. Before computer verification, there was always the risk of someone cheating by bringing in cards they’d purchased elsewhere, thus depriving a hall of sales revenue and honest players their rightful winnings.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you fell victim to what is supposed to keep the games honest—verifiable serial numbers. Someone either mixed your sheets in with the correct ones or failed to record your serial number. Either way, you ended up embarrassed.

On the upside, I commend you for sticking to your guns, and congratulate you for being able to prove your case. And eventually I hope you will reconsider boycotting that hall. They made an honest mistake, and did pay you your prize money. —Aunt Bingo

 

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