Comments (0) BEST BINGO - 2006

Arizona Italian American Club

Whenever we get to missing Grandma, we head down to the Italian American Club, where the smell of simmering red sauce wafts over us as we dab hot-pink ink all over our lucky bingo cards, just like Nana used to do. The friendly folks who run this game offer both Power Bingo and good, old-fashioned "Paper Only" Bingo, and we get 21 games for just $18 (with the last three games paying $299 each!). The Italian bingo barkers promise $3,475 in prizes each session. The "Coverall" game alone is worth $1,000, and no regular game pays less than $100 in prizes. And while these big bingo cash prizes may be what draws a crowd every Monday and Friday at 6:30 p.m. and every Sunday at 1 p.m., we go for the fun, funky atmosphere, the snack bar, and the jovial guy who calls the numbers — just like we remember from the church basement bingo of our childhood. We always get cozy in the large, comfortable non-smoking room, which seats up to 100 players, although we noticed on our last trip that the club's main hall features a state-of-the-art air-purification system. Bingo!