Bingo, Our Chance At Happiness

I played Bingo this weekend.  It was my first time.  I did it because there was a big flashy sign that told me “Happiness is Shouting Bingo” as I walked down King St.  Who doesn’t want happiness?!  Not me, so I gave it a try.  I wanted to see first hand what this happiness looked like. It turned out to be unhappy, at least for me.  If I could rephrase the Bingo slogan it would say something like, “While happiness may be experienced for the one person shouting bingo, there is no happiness to be found for anyone else playing.” Put that in your dabber and stamp it. 
I know quite a few people who would find my critique offensive because Bingo is near and dear to their hearts and if that is you, please know I mean no harm to the hopeful bingo player.  My words go out to those who wish to examine both sides of the bingo card.  While there might be some convincing arguments for the temporary pleasure found in Bingo Culture, is there not also some measure of pain?  Bingo is a $6 billion Industry in North America.  I'm curious as to why that is.  What's the hook?  

Upon arrival to the Bingo Hall, I asked how much it would be for a bingo book that I overheard the people in front of me order and the reply was $35.  $35?!  I didn’t have that much money to spend on luck so I bought one card for a twoonie, and I was generously lent a bingo ink dabber as I hadn’t come equipped with my own.  I immediately felt at a disadvantage.  To make matters worse, I forgot to bring my lucky charms!  Doh!  There goes my chance at happiness.  This $35 charge was due to the “Big Win” that happens on the first Saturday of each month of $100,000.  I had an interesting conversation with one gentlemen who was playing next to me.  He looks forward to the big win the first Saturday of every month and will sacrifice a portion of his social assistance check to do so. That's $35 of his monthly $585. 
I was immediately not buying into this ideology of happiness.  Ideology is very sly you know. It contains a measure of truth masked in untruth.  It takes us to a place we ache to go.  It paints a picture of security, of pleasure, of the things that are currently lacking from our everyday lives.  What it fails to offer is the reason why these things are lacking in our lives and conceals the reality that most of us will never attain what it promises. In the example of Bingo, that one ‘lucky’ person might be happy yelling bingo, but the majority will remain completely isolated from it.  I think the downtown core of Hamilton doesn’t need an illusion of luck, lurking over us on King St.  We don’t need fairy tales and dreams of the good life, we need something entirely tangible, that will carry us out of such toxic ideologies.
My mom told me the Bingo Hall I went to used to be called Kresges, which was a big department store of some kind with a bakery and other such things.  Maybe that’s a step in the right direction.  Maybe that’s only a more appealing ideology.  I’m more interested in what is being done to counter-act the products of mass culture.  If people enjoy a friendly game of Bingo once in a while then they are welcome to it, but what alternatives are being offered to the people who aren't happy playing bingo but have come to view it as a last hope, or as a cycle of addiction?  How is greater awareness being brought into the public sphere that gives us a true sense of moving forward?  What are we consenting to with the choices we are given?  Let’s create new choices for ourselves, new places of vitality instead of operating in these old culture hubs based on mass standardization.  The answers are here, hibernating within each one of us.
Curious about Bingo Culture? Click on this link: http://www.bingothedocumentary.com/clips/whatsabout.MOV