Viewer alleges Kinsmen TV bingo game was one ball short

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This article was published 19/11/2018 (2859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Under the B…a bungled bingo?

That’s what Manitoba’s gaming authority is trying to determine after evidence surfaced that Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo may not have been playing with a full complement of bingo balls last Saturday.

The Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority (LGCA) is investigating whether the largest jackpot in Kinsmen Bingo history was missing a single ball — B2.

That’s left the supposed winner or winners holding their breath. The LGCA has instructed the Kinsmen to withhold the $372,220 jackpot until its work is complete.

The bingo show aired Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on CTV.

The long-running Kinsmen show uses numbered balls that are slotted in an egg carton-like tray. The trays are then emptied into a bingo machine that mixes the balls around like a hot-air popper. The balls are retrieved one by one until a cardholder wins in 50 balls or less.

But a viewer noticed during the telecast that one of the trays had an empty slot. Jennifer Cooke then made a video recording from the TV to back up the claim. It was determined the missing number was B2.

Cooke said she plays Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo every Saturday. It was her husband who first noticed the missing ball. They phoned in the information while the show was on the air.

In a statement on social media, Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo said it became aware of the mistake too late in the 30-minute broadcast to correct it.

However, it is confident none of the 75 balls was missing. All the balls were accounted for after the game, it said, “which means that we believe one of the balls was already in the machine before the game started.”

The organization referred interview requests to the provincial gaming authority.

Bingo host Kathy Kennedy, responding to Cooke on social media, insisted all the balls were there.

“It was in the box, Jennifer,” Kennedy said. “When I loaded the balls tonight (with the help of others), we missed it. It was left in the box so that when the balls dropped it was mixed in.”

She added, “There is nothing fishy about this.”

But Cooke would like to see some evidence. “What’s to say the ball wasn’t found on the floor somewhere and put in there,” she said. It also could have been stuck in the bingo machine and never mixed in.

“There was a lot of money at stake. To me, it wasn’t handled in a very professional way.”

Someone needs to go over the video frame by frame to find proof the B2 ball was blowing around inside the bingo machine, Cooke said.

Comments on the Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo page on Facebook favoured redoing the bingo.

“This is a misdeal in my eyes,” said one commenter.

Another person said the licensee has always had to absorb the loss in previous mishaps. That would see the money awarded to the winning cardholder and the jackpot kept in play, he said.

The Kinsmen would be out nearly $400,000 under that scenario.

Another social media poster wrote, “Any bingo caller always asks or at least checks that the balls are all in place before dropping them… this is a huge blunder.”

Still another person pointed out that signs in casinos state that a “machine malfunction voids all plays.” Another posting said the Kinsmen could be subject to legal action.

The Great Bingo Ball Mystery falls under the responsibility of the gaming authority, which regulates gaming in the province as well as liquor and cannabis sales.

There was no public complaint. The Kinsmen informed the LGCA of the discrepancy, spokesperson Kaylee Maslowsky said.

Maslowsky confirmed the investigation will be reviewing the video of the broadcast and will conduct interviews with bingo staff.

It could take anywhere from two days to two weeks to complete the investigation, she said.

There could be more than one winner, she added. She would not say what actions the LGCA might take if a ball was in fact missing.

In its statement, Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo said it will be reviewing its policies to ensure this never happens again.

In the meantime, it is starting a new jackpot for its Nov. 24 game and will “move forward as normal until otherwise directed.” The new jackpot starts at $15,000.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca