Bingo Gets a Boost With $250 Limit in Gardena

The stakes in Gardena bingo games got higher this week after the City Council voted to raise the prize limit to $250 per game, the maximum in most other South Bay cities that allow bingo.

There was no opposition to the change, which the council approved Tuesday by a 4-0 vote. Councilman James Cragin was absent.

The amendment to the city’s current ordinance permits a $100 increase to the maximum value of cash or other prizes awarded at bingo games in the city.

Mayor Donald L. Dear, who noted that state law sets a $250 maximum, said the increase “brings us even with other cities in the area.” The higher limit will take effect Oct. 13.

Regular Gardena bingo players such as Cathy Cacioppo say they higher limit may bring back players who have left in recent months for more lucrative games in Carson and elsewhere.

‘Draw More People’

“A lot of people did go to other cities; they . . . go to Carson,” said Cacioppo, who plays at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Gardena every Friday night. “They’ve got games over there where every game is $200. It might behoove Gardena game operators to increase their prizes. It would probably draw more people.”

Al Defilippo, who organizes an annual bingo festival at St. Anthony’s, said the $250 limit will make games at the church more competitive. In addition to Carson, South Bay cities that permit bingo are Lomita, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles.

“We definitely were losing players,” said Defilippo, a former Gardena city councilman. “I know people who used to come to St. Anthony’s and they don’t come anymore. They tell me, ‘You’re games aren’t high enough.’ ”

Councilwoman Gwen Duffy, who proposed the change, said the higher limit will help Gardena church groups and other nonprofit organizations. “We were hearing they were losing customers,” Duffy said. “We’re a little behind some of the other cities.”

Duffy said the increased limits will not be a threat to the city’s card clubs because the games appeal to different audiences.

“I don’t foresee there will be any problem with it, since the whole effect of these permits is for nonprofit groups, and their purpose is for the community and for special charities,” she said.

‘We Wish Them Well’

Blaine Nicholson, a spokesman for the Normandie Casino, said the club’s owners do not expect the $250 limit to draw away customers.

“I don’t think there’d be any appreciative effect at all,” Nicholson said. “They pull people in from the community, but we get people from all over Los Angeles County. There would be very little overlap. We wish them well.”

Herb Grapin, head of Elks Lodge No. 1919, said the Elks plan to distribute a flyer throughout the city to publicize the higher limit. Attendance at last Monday’s weekly bingo game was 133, down from an average of 200 a few years ago, he said.

“A lot of people are professional players who go from community to community, from game to game, and the masses of them go where they derive the biggest payoffs,” Grapin said.

The Elks contribute money raised in its bingo games to Gardena Human Resources Commission, to the city’s drug awareness program and to a statewide Elks fund for children with cerebral palsy, Grapin said.

Other bingo games are sponsored by the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and various churches and other nonprofit groups.