Floating bingo halls

One time in Mississippi, my parents and I stepped on board one of those so-called floating casinos just to see what it looked like. I will never forget one woman at the slot machine looking at us, like we were going to invade her space and take her quarters. I couldn't wait to get off, and my parents never stopped to play a game, either.

Certainly the idea of a floating bingo hall would have come in handy this week in Walker County, where we got 4 inches in 24 hours. The Warrior River area was flooded bad enough, but there is one bingo hall, Mega Bingo, that was built in a low lying area. I mean very low. To the side of Highway 78, the land just drops off deep and there at the base is flat land that someone decided would be great for a bingo hall. I always thought runoff might be a problem there, and noticed what a nice, large building it was.

Well, runoff was not the word for it. On Monday, the Argo Fire Department evacuated 70 people from the place.

“The water was rising fast and they couldn't get their vehicles out and they couldn't walk out,” said George Lane, the fire department’s assistant chief, in talking with the Daily Mountain Eagle. “It was a pretty large operation with that many people involved.”

Then they had to return early Tuesday morning because the rains kept coming and a dozen workers had stayed behind. By then a boat was needed to get people out. By Tuesday afternoon, all you could see were the tops of cars. One fireman walked the wrong way and went completely under water. And to top it all, the owner of the bingo palace (understandably) suffered chest pains and had to be examined by paramedics.

This would seem whimsical if dozens of people were not put in this position by the crazy position of this hall. I don't know if it is officially a flood area that is designated by government or insurance officials, but it certainly looked strange enough from the beginning that one would have to know some type of problem would result even with less rain.

It is not the first time the electronic bingo hall owners have put people at risk. Four bingo halls were closed last month by the fire marshal because they did not have the proper number of sprinkler systems installed for the occupancy. They were VFW No. 1 and 3, Dreams Come True Charity Bingo and...why, it's Mega Bingo! Imagine that.

That name sounded even more familiar. Then I recalled that eight operating bingo halls in the county missed a Dec. 1 deadline to pay their business licenses without a penalty, based on information from the county’s Office of Gaming Compliance and records from the Probate Judge's Office. They included Caring Neighbors, Highway 13 Charity Bingo, Valley Bingo, VFW No. 1, VFW 2, VFW 3, Walker County Bingo and...say it with me, children...Mega Bingo.

In other words, Mega Bingo has been causing Mega Problems from the beginning. It would seem like it is time to start clamping down on this operation, as it is symptomatic of the problems that some of the bingo hall operators cause by putting up unsafe structures and not following the rules.

Then again, maybe they could get a used riverboat and sail up and down the Warrior with bingo machines singing in the background. And old man river, he just keeps rolling along...