The modern version of Bingo was created in 1929. The origins of the game date back to 1530. (Image by Abbey Hendrickson.)

I missed this smart November 28 article about the last Brooklyn bingo parlors that N. R. Kleinfield wrote for the New York Times, but thankfully Longform pointed me to it. Fun fact from the piece: New York State law requires bingo games to be run for charitable purposes. An excerpt about veteran bingo devotee Cynthia Klivan:

“Ms. Klivan, a companionable retired parole-board clerical supervisor, usually comes to Nostrand Bingo Hall in the Midwood section of Brooklyn six days a week. Nostrand is one of the enduring relics of a fading game long cherished by those long done working. Play happens twice a day — at 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. — but not on Sunday mornings.

Ms. Klivan is a day player. Bingo is her fixation, her delight, the center around which her 74-year-old life rotates, as is true of thousands of believers who gravitate to the remaining commercial halls in the city in pursuit of human interaction and a little extra money.

Bingo has been a rite for Ms. Klivan for 30 years. To understand its galvanic pull, one need only rewind a few years, to the day her sister picked her up from the hospital after cancer surgery and asked, ‘Where do you want to eat?’ Ms. Klivan told her she didn’t want to eat. And her sister, looking hard at her, said, ‘You’re not thinking the bingo hall?’

Oh yes, she was.

And when she shambled in the door, surgical drains still in place, everyone had to chuckle. They told her: ‘Cynthia, you’re pale as a ghost. What are you doing here?’

Ignoring them, Ms. Klivan bought her cards and began marking the numbers.”