IRVINE : Federal Smoking Ban Clouds School Bingo

Irvine High School bingo boosters will plead with school board members Tuesday night to help save twice-weekly bingo games that raise between $15,000 and $30,000 a year for the school’s music programs.

Parents say new federal laws, which will outlaw smoking at public school buildings by the end of the year, will also drive away most bingo players.

The bingo games at Rancho San Joaquin Intermediate School raise nearly $50,000 a year for music programs and equipment at the Irvine Unified School District’s three high schools. But the U.S. Department of Education’s Goals 2000 program bans smoking in public schools, libraries and buildings used for child care.

“We need to somehow come up with a solution,” said school board President Mike Regele, “because the schools are going to lose some serious money.”

School district officials say they are looking for a low-cost space to relocate the games. But high school boosters fear the cost will cut too deeply into profits.

Most of the nearly 200 bingo players attracted to the games on Wednesday and Saturday nights are smokers, bingo operators said.

It seems like movies without popcorn, Regele said. “Smoking is virtually a prerequisite for bingo players,” he said. “It’s just part of their whole social life.”