Bingo: 3rd Hammond video bingo parlor opens

HAMMOND -- The city's third video bingo parlor, Bingo Alley, opened Friday, owner Brian Depaula said.

Bingo Alley, which shares a building with Tangi Lanes Bowling on Thomas Street, had a quiet bingo opening Friday, Depaula said.

Video bingo is much like video poker in that users insert money into machines to play the bingo games.

However, video bingo machines are used by sponsoring charities for fundraising purposes and are regulated under laws other than those controlling video poker.

There are six charities that have signed up to use Bingo Alley, Depaula said. Those charities are the Hammond Fraternal Order of Police, Hammond Strawberry Fields, Louisiana Bowling Association, Hammond High School Football Boosters, and Kappa Alpha Fraternity Alumni Association, Depaula said.

The sixth charity he listed, the Hammond Association of Firefighters, has been licensed by the state but won't start using Bingo Alley until completing training through the Louisiana Office of Charitable Gaming, Depaula said.

Depaula said that he understands some Hammond residents are concerned about children using the bowling alley being exposed to video bingo. However, Depaula said, his video bingo parlor is in a room separate from the bowling alley, and users of the bowling alley cannot see inside the video bingo hall even when a door connecting the two rooms is open.

For the most part, bingo patrons will enter and leave the video bingo hall by its street entrance, Depaula said.

The advent of a third parlor in Hammond has been an unwelcome development in the view of some residents, who are now collecting signatures in an attempt to place a proposition banning video bingo before city voters in the Nov. 4 general election.

Organized as the Citizens for a Better Community, the group is about 160 signatures short of the 1,604 needed to place the matter on the ballot, according to a written statement from Hammond lawyer Douglas Brown, a member of the group.

The citizens group has until May 22 to collect enough signatures to meet the 15 percent threshold.

Brown says in his statement that the group would hold its final drive for signatures today, and added that the outcome of today's drive could determine the success of the petition drive.

Written by Debra Lemoine