Angered at their loss of bingo, a group of Richmond seniors are planning a protest at City Hall at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
"We want to get bingo back, but also we want to get rid of Eva (the seniors' centre coordinator) and have a proper seniors centre," says Georgina Hamilton, an organizer of the planned protest.
On Feb. 6, the Minoru Seniors Centre Bingo Committee sent a letter to its bingo players advising them that they would be cancelling bingo as of Aug. 31, citing a major drop in participation. However, a tip from the public led to the Gaming Policy Branch and Enforcement investigating the situation, finding that the Minoru Seniors Society was
in fact operating without the required licence, as set out in the Gaming Control Act, resulting in the program being immediately cancelled.
The required license the seniors centre required for a series of games with gross annual revenue under $5,000 would cost $10 and take up to three business days to process after an online application.
Hamilton said that the bingo program had been running without a licence since 2004, without any problems.
Kathleen Holmes, president of the Minoru Seniors Society, said calling for the job of coordinator Eva Busich-Veloso unfair, as "it was not the city or city staff 's decision. Eva had nothing to do with it.
The Richmond Seniors Society board decided to cut the bingo program."
"It was not an easy decision, my heart and my mind were torn between it, but when you make a decision you have to make a decision for the good of the majority," says Holmes.
Holmes points out that even with the proper licence, there were not enough volunteers to run the bingo program, and participation had dropped over the years so that use of the large room was no longer warranted.
"One of the reasons is we don't have enough volunteers to run bingo. We put a call out last year for volunteers and no one answered."
Holmes added that the room used for bingo holds approximately 80-100 people, but on the last check at bingo, only 16 people were in attendance, and there is a waiting list on the room for other activities.
