The St. Paul and District Club Bingo Association held its last bingo on Friday. The doors of the West End Bingo are now closed for good. The hall raised over $7 million for local non-profit organizations since it opened in 1996, according to Michael Zacharko, treasurer for the association.
“With two bingo halls in the same town, there is just not enough people to support both,” said Jackie Reszel, president of the association. There is no point to keep the hall going if it is not making any money for the charities, she said. “We were making a profit at one time but not any more.”
Attendance at the bingo hall had declined to the point where it was not generating enough money to pay the bills, said Zacharko. The average attendance 15 years ago when the hall was built was over 200 players per night and now it has fallen to around 60 players.
“The bingo hall is not in receivership, it has not been seized by creditors,” said Zacharko. “It’s just a prudent decision made by the board to shut down the bingo association.”
The building and land is now up for sale and Zacharko said some of the money from the sale will be used to cover the outstanding amounts in the equity fund. The remaining funds will then be divided between the non-profit member organizations according to how many bingo events each was assigned. If there is $500,000 remaining after the sale of assets, then the $500,000 will be divided by the total number of bingo events per year, said Zacharko. If a club worked five bingos per year they would receive five times the number.
“So there is some money at the end,” said Zacharko. “But it will only be a one time thing where as the operation of the hall meant that you were getting something every month, but that is a conscious decision they made.”
On Sept. 10, a special meeting was held with 38 of the 40 members in attendance. A special resolution to close the bingo hall was put forward, which required 75 per cent of the vote to pass but the special resolution received only 70 per cent, said Zacharko.
“The special resolution did not pass but the message was clear to the board of directors, who met after the meeting of the members and at that meeting a vote was held and the directors decided it was time to pull the plug,” said Zarcharko.
Around 40 non-profit groups will be affected by the closure and will have to seek other fundraising opportunities. These organizations sent volunteers to work the bingos and then were paid a portion of the profits from the games.
“It’s sad because a group of individuals as diverse as you can find got together and built this fine facility but now we have to shut it down,” said Zacharko.
The St. Paul Elks is one non-profit community group that will be affected by the closure. The Elks was one of the founding members of the St. Paul and District Club Bingo Association 15 years ago, said Len Kryzanowski, the bingo representative for the St. Paul Elks.
“Bingos aren’t making money anywhere and it got to the point where our losses are greater than our profits and a decision had to be made,” said Kryzanowski, who was a member of the bingo association board until a few years ago.
The Elks are a service club and donate half of the money they raise to other non-profit community groups such as the St. Paul and District Hospital Foundation, the cubs, scouts and girl guides. At one time, the Elks depended solely on bingos as their major fundraiser but five or six years ago when the profits started to fall off the group started searching for other options. The Elks are fortunate to have signed up with a casino in Fort McMurray and will be able to continue to their work in the community, Kryzanowski said.
The bingo hall also employs around 25 workers, mostly part-time, who will soon be out of a job.
“The management, the people who clean the building and the part-time workers who sell cards will now be out of work,” Zacharko said.
Not only has attendance gone down but costs for utilities, taxes and other expenses have increased.
Each of the member clubs has some funds in equity with the St. Paul and District Bingo Association. Throughout the years, each time a club received funds from the bingo a portion was set aside until the club had about $5,000. When the bingo first started losing money a few years ago, they voted to take the loss from the equity rather than write a separate cheque for the loss, said Zacharko. So the clubs have all used up a portion of that equity, with some clubs only having about $1,000 remaining. Some clubs that joined the bingo association only a few years ago may actually have a negative balance in the equity fund.
“The bingo association, through its own financing, has been allowing the clubs to continue but they will have to pay up whatever they owe to the bingo association,” said Zacharko.
