New York City, NY – With baseball season over in New York, and the Yankees having missed the playoffs for the 2nd time in 19 seasons – and with the Giants and Jets both off to miserable starts in the NFL season – New York sports fans are getting geared up a bit early for National Bingo Day. Always a joyous occasion for sporting and gaming fans alike, the October 19th event can’t come soon enough for a city pulsing with a need for entertainment.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had this to say on the upcoming holiday: “While National Bingo Day has consistently garnered attention across the country for the past decade or so, the holiday has come to be a unique event for the fine citizens of New York City. This October, in addition to the Bingo In The Park festival held along 5th Avenue at Central Park East, we’ll also be opening up Madison Square Garden for live tournaments beginning Friday the 18th and lasting through Sunday the 20th. Major sports networks will be covering the event, which includes both qualifier and professional players.”
But these two highlight events aren’t the only ways for New Yorkers to cash in on National Bingo Day later this month. Clyde Salisbury, an online bingo champion and native New Yorker, prefers the digital gaming scene that sprouts up around the city this time of year. Residents and tourists all over the city post up in sports bars, Starbucks, and just about anywhere else where one can sit comfortably to log into Betfair and engage in online tournaments with players from all over the world. The site is active 24/7 all year, but Salisbury says the buzz is different during the weekend of National Bingo Day.
“You’d think it was the Super Bowl, only with a broader audience,” Salisbury told our Dylan Porter in his scratchy, upstate drawl. “I’ve found places I can’t even get in the door, but downtown – around the NYU area – it’s pretty easy access. The young crowd respects veteran players.”
Mr. Salisbury will be one of many wily veterans looking to gain an edge in a few weeks, when National Bingo Day arrives. But the eclectic mix of players, both at in-person events and in digital environments, has come to be a perfect sporting representation of a city better known for its big league activities. And with the Yankees and Mets at home, and the Giants and Jets going nowhere fast, Bingo is King this fall in New York.
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