A former supervisor at a Minnesota casino told the Hillsboro Economic Development Corp. that the nonprofit could rake in big bucks by adding bingo to its charitable gaming sites in Hillsboro.
Vicki Bender, who worked as a bingo supervisor at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minn., for 15 years, told HEDC’s board of directors Monday that bingo has taken off in bars in the Red River Valley.
“Four years ago, bingo wasn’t a very big thing in North Dakota,” Bender told HEDC members meeting Monday inside Goose River Brewing in Hillsboro.
“But now a lot of charities in North Dakota are copying the program I used in Minnesota … and some of them are paying out $100,000 jackpots.”
Terry Sando, HEDC’s board president and the owner of Goose River Brewing, suggested in November that the nonprofit organization revisit bingo as a form of charitable gaming in town.
Sando asked Bender, who manages bingo operations for the West Fargo Rural Fire Department, to stop in Hillsboro to discuss a framework for offering bingo in Hillsboro twice a week.
During her presentation, Bender said she helped introduce bingo and blackjack as a form of charitable gaming at Bar Nine in West Fargo.
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