CYPRESS : Bingo Extended After Trial Called a Winner

After a yearlong experiment, bingo games at a local shopping center have won City Council approval and raised thousands of dollars for school and youth activities.

The council voted unanimously to allow the Cypress High School Athletic Booster Club to continue using rented facilities in the Cinnamon Square Shopping Center in the 6100 block of Ball Road.

Moreover, the council dropped a previous requirement that the bingo parlor’s permit be renewed annually.

In November 1994, the Athletic Booster Club asked the City Council for a permit at the commercial shopping center.

Club members said they wanted to relocate the games because a new federal law restricts smoking in schools. Many bingo players are smokers, they said, and the club feared losing its clientele.

City Council members said at the time that allowing bingo operations in a shopping center would be unusual. Nonetheless, the council granted the booster club a one-year permit on a trial basis.

This month, Chris Kelly, city community development director, told the council that the one-year experiment has been successful. She recommended renewing the permit.

“The occupancy of the 9,800-square-foot lease space for the use as a bingo operation has proven to be a compatible neighbor within the existing commercial center,” Kelly said.

Louie Giampapa, spokesman for the booster club, said: “It’s worked out well for us and it’s also helped the other businesses.”

He said the booster club is just one of five charitable groups that share the rent for the bingo parlor. Each group sponsors bingo games on a different night.

The booster club alone had raised about $48,000 for Cypress High this past year, Giampapa said. Other groups using the facilities also raised thousands of dollars for their youth-related charities, he said.