News - Saying Bingo Could Get You Arrested

Written by: ava carson on 25/03/2013 10:30

Bingo players are a serious lot and there is no joking around claiming a bingo when you don’t have one. Just ask Austin Whaley, 18 of Covington, Kentucky who got himself in a heap of trouble for saying Bingo.

It happened at the Pike Place Bingo hall when the teen shouted “bingo” in during a game as a joke. The game came to a halt thinking someone had won and it had the bingo players rip roaring mad!

Whaley was instantly arrested facing 90 days in jail and a $250 fine for causing a ruckus and yelling the no-no word as a prank.

Richard Webster the arresting police officer said: “This caused the hall to quit operating since they thought someone had won. “This delayed the game by several minutes and caused alarm to patrons.”
The bingo players were not laughing at the off duty security guard who was working detail at the hall when he pulled the prank.

“When they realized it wasn’t a real bingo, they started hooting and hollering and yelling and cussing. People take their bingo very seriously” said Webster. After he refused to apologize he was hand-cuffed and charged with second degree disorderly contact.

Webster commented: “Just because it’s a public building doesn’t give you the right to run into a theater and yell ‘fire. He seemed to think he could say whatever he wanted because it was a public building. I tried to explain that that’s not the case. You can’t go into a ballpark and yell ‘out,’ because people could stop the game.”

In court the judge had leniency and told the teen that he couldn’t enter a bingo hall or say the word “bingo” for six months.

1 Comment

by: okinman over 5 years ago

Oh my, what seems lenient to some could be horribly difficult to others. I don't think that I could go for six months without uttering the B word. I hear it so much not only playing online, but on TV it is becoming a very commonly heard word. Not only in the game aspect, but as an exclamatory statement as well.

It may not have been meant to cause so much of a commotion, but you know this fellow knew that there would be a big reaction to his statement, otherwise what was the point of calling bingo? Surely as a security guard he must have had some training in crowd or mob mentality, but perhaps not. Often times what starts out as a joke goes horribly wrong, even in such an environment as a bingo hall.

I think the key here is that Mr. Whaley not only perpetrated the crime, but it appears that he could have come out of it untouched had he just had the decency to apologize to the patrons and hosts for his misdeed. That just makes it seem as if he was happy that the game was interrupted and that the players were stirred up. When dealing with people and their money, you can't just joke around. The players all got that feeling of disappointment, some may have never gotten back into the bingo playing mood after that incident. What was this guy thinking, anyway?