Bandwagon Hall

I came to Saturday night bingo tonight and am very disappointed. Ive come on other days during bingo and never had an issue. The old lady who calls bingo on Saturday is rude and nasty and prejudice. NEVER AGAIN

If you’re looking for Bingo around St Louis, this is the place to do it. It’s a very large building, fully focused on Bingo. They have games most (maybe every?) nights of the week that support different non-​profits. They have a snack bar with food and drinks (alcoholic as well as non-​alcholic), so they don’t allow any outside food. It is, though, definitely not for beginners. The players and workers are all hard core. They aren’t exactly the most welcoming, and you’re left to figure out things on your own. Luckily, it’s BINGO, so everyone can catch on relatively quickly. When we go, it’s to have fun, so we don’t do the electronic Bingo cards that seem to be all the rage. I mean, when you’re going to lose money anyway, why not at least go through the fun of figuring out on your own that you’re about to lose?!? It is of course Bingo, so it’s not like the casinos where you might win every once in a while. That’s always a bummer, but again, if you’re there for Bingo, you know that going in. In addition to the lack of friendliness, my chief complaint is that apparently they are exempt from the county’s smoking ban. The smoking section is partitioned off from the non-​smoking side (and you don’t have to walk through the smoking side to get to the non-​smoking porition), but it’s still pretty smoky, and when I got home my clothes of course smelled very strongly of smoke.

This is the real deal, folks — authentic Bingo in the heart of South St. Louis. Bandwagon Hall features bingo 7 days a week, I believe, with both smoking and nonsmoking sections, a food counter (try the hash brown casserole), and plenty of electronic and paper bingo games to play. When you play at Bandwagon hall, you’re supporting a number of local groups that fundraise through the Missouri Lottery Department (or maybe it’s the Gambling Commission), so it’s for a good cause.
The place has seen better days — the carpet is stained and the walls show their age — but it doesn’t matter to the bingo regulars, who have clearly been playing here for a long long time.
(Disclaimer: I am a member of the Compton Heights Concert Band, an organization that collects revenue from bingo games on Friday and Saturday nights. I have no financial interest in Bandwagon Hall.)