Bingo players adjust to smoke-free halls

BELFAST – The smoke may be gone from the bingo halls of Belfast, but there’s still plenty of fire in the eyes of the players.

On Sept. 13 a new law went into effect prohibiting smoking at all bingo parlors in Maine. With the only exemption being seven super bingo games at Indian Island, bingo players across the state have been forced to snuff out their smoking materials.

Gone are the days of large, smoke-filled parlors filled with puffing players. Gone, too, are the separate rooms for smokers and nonsmokers that some bingo halls had in place. With bingo halls liable for fines of up to $100 for each violation, the smoking ban is total – no ifs, ands or butts about it.

To say that smokers are angry about it is an understatement. To say they will quit playing bingo, forget about it.

Gamblers apparently love gambling more than they do smoking. While some have suggested boycotting the bingo halls, others are resigned to their fate. They don’t like losing the freedom to smoke, but when it comes to a choice of smoking or giving up the game that many play seven days a week, most choose bingo.

“I don’t like it and think the whole thing is ridiculous,” said Doreen Snow of Belfast. “The largest majority of the players smoke. I don’t like losing my rights, but what can you do? I like to play bingo. It’s no different than at work, I guess. You have to go outside and smoke there, too.”

It’s not just the players who are affected. The people who work the floor, sell bingo cards and staff the concession stands also are prohibited from smoking. No longer can workers slip into a back room for a quick smoke or walk among the tables with a cigarette between their lips.

“I don’t like it, I think it’s wrong,” Gerald “Buttons” Hews, a Belfast bingo worker, said Saturday. “Ninety percent of the bingo players are smokers and they took their rights away. People are going to catch cold this winter having to go outside to smoke.”

Folks in Waldo County can head to Belfast to play bingo six days a week and many do. The Tarratine Tribe International Order of Redmen offers games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. The Frank D. Hazeltine American Legion post puts on a game on Thursday and the Randall-Collins Veterans of Foreign War post has a game on Saturday.

Becky Gibbons of the American Legion Auxiliary, who is chairman of the post’s bingo game, said that despite the ban, the number of players at the Thursday night bingo game has remained steady. The legion averages about 70 players a week, and on Thursday, 73 showed up to play.

“A few people have said they wouldn’t come, but I think they’ll be back,” Gibbons said during a break in the action. “And then you get the people who don’t smoke who, hopefully, will start coming. Our numbers were down a little last week, but they look good tonight.”

Jackie Manuel of Searsport is one of those who plays bingo six days a week. She observed that while people may be addicted to smoking, they also are addicted to bingo.

“People have to play,” Manuel said while setting up her table at the American Legion. “This is my down time, it’s the way I relax. I look at it as no different than spending your money going out to dinner or a movie.”

It costs $20 to buy a set of bingo cards for the two dozen or so games played each night. Each sheet has 12 separate bingo cards. People dab their cards with colored ink dispensers to keep track of the numbers. Many play more than 12 cards per game; some can keep track of 36 cards while the caller reads off the numbers. The games carry different prize values, ranging from $40 for a single winner to winner-take-all games at the end of the night that can net the winner up to $2,000.

Bingo halls have adjusted to the smoking ban by taking short breaks every three or four games and stationing ashtrays outdoors. On Saturday, large crowds of smokers at the Redmen hall were huddled around the receptacles, blowing smoke rings in the dark.

One of them was Roxanne Staples of Fairfield. Staples said the prohibition on smoking was not enough to keep her from enjoying a night out on the town. Staples, who usually plays in Augusta or Waterville, was at the Tarratine Tribe’s club in Belfast on Saturday to play a few games.

“It’s an inconvenience, but I think it’s probably a good idea,” she said as she puffed on a filtered cigarette. “It works fine for me as long as they have a couple of breaks. Gamblers like to smoke, it’s that simple.”

Eleanor Fowlie of Rockland plays bingo seven nights a week and also enjoys a smoke or two. Fowlie was at the Redmen hall with a group of women from Knox County, none of whom was pleased with the new regulations.

“It’s an infringement on my rights,” she said. “What I don’t like is that the people who complained the most were the ones in the bingo halls. And you know what? We go out to smoke and they come out and talk to you. It’s going to be bad in the winter. You’ll have to wear your long undies.”

Tarratine Tribe member Doug Frost manages the Redmen bingo game. Frost said he saw a slight drop-off during the early part of last week but that Saturday’s crowd of 118 players was larger than average. Frost estimated that two-thirds of the largely female crowd of bingo players were smokers. He said people were frustrated but predicted that their love of bingo would keep the tables full every night of the week.

Frost said a couple of women attempted to smoke indoors last week but put out their cigarettes when told to do so. He said smoking and bingo go hand in hand for some players and many found it difficult to stop.

“There haven’t been too many complaints because they know it’s not our fault, it’s the law,” Frost said Saturday. “The smokers feel they’re being discriminated against. They figure they should have rights, too.

“We might lose some of them, but on the other hand, a lot of people were irritated about the smoking. We used to have a no smoking section just so people wouldn’t be blowing smoke in your face. I really feel that over a period of time, for the ones you lose who smoke you’re going to gain the nonsmokers,” said Frost.

Loren Van Ness of Belfast is a regular bingo player at city venues. Van Ness said the nonsmoking law was long overdue. He said people were often bothered by smoke even when seated in the nonsmoking areas. He said a smoke-free environment will make it a lot more enjoyable for all bingo players.

“I’m just glad that it happened,” he said.