Thousands of Manitobans are doing their utmost to collect as many tickets as possible ahead of the Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo on Saturday — but some are going to extreme lengths to do so, the service organization says.
It is the highest jackpot ever for the weekly televised bingo game, at more than $640,000.
One winner will receive half of the lottery jackpot. A minimum payout of $20,000 is guaranteed and can go up to maximum payout of $50,000. Final jackpot will be HALF of the ticket sales revenue. Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo November 21st 2020. Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo November 21st 2020 players can watch this YouTube replay anytime this weekend, and call in a winning bingo before noon Monday! (Or Tuesday if it's a long weekend) Play live every Saturday at 5:30pm on CTV-Winnipeg or YouTube Live! A handful of local folks will soon be at least $20,000 richer following the announcement of 32 winners in the televised Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo’s biggest-ever $640,000 prize on February 1.
'Never in my almost three decades of hosting this show have I ever seen a city and an entire province go this bingo crazy,' host Kathy Kennedy told the CBC's Carol Off on As It Happens Wednesday.
Part of the problem is that the club can't print more tickets very easily, she said. They are printed in the U.S. and shipped to Manitoba.
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The Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg, which runs the event, said in a social media post Tuesday that some especially bingo-crazed people were seen chasing the group's courier to get their hands on the scarce bingo cards.
'We have hordes of people driving dangerously FOLLOWING our courier driver like paparazzi and putting him in danger.… We will continue deliveries secretly at a later time,' it said.
The Kinsmen Club donates profits of the bingo game to various charities and organizations in Winnipeg and Manitoba.
The weekly game — which airs every Saturday — is selling a record number of cards due to the massive jackpot.
On average, the club sells between 6,000 and 8,000 cards per week, but now it's up to about 50,000.
Deb Mukherjee, owner of Bergie's convenience store in Beausejour, said his customers are calling after hours to see if he has any tickets.
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'We are in bed and then you get a phone call at 3 and 4 and 5 and you wake up quickly. This kind of problem, you know, you get kind of stressed out,' he said.
Those who come in person want more tickets than he can provide.
'People came, 'Oh, I want 10 tickets, why aren't you selling me 10, 20, 30?' I said, 'Well, we do not have. We only got 100 tickets, that's all. We do not have much tickets.' That was a big problem,' Mukherjee said.
The Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg added in its social media post that players are calling the office to harass staff over cards.
If you are going to call our office and yell and swear at our staff accusing us of hoarding cards and playing favourites, I'm not going to share information anymore.- Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg social media post
'If you are going to call our office and yell and swear at our staff, accusing us of hoarding cards and playing favourites, I'm not going to share information anymore,' the Facebook post said.
Kennedy said says she's excited about Saturday and to 'end the madness.'
'Everybody relax and remember, this is a game for charity and raising incredible funds for charity,' she said.
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'It's bingo everybody. It's just bingo.'
The Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg, and Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo, have committed to spending up to $100,000 on merchandise with a retail company. These funds will be used to match funds spent by the public of up to $100,000. The hope is to raise the full $200,000 to serve the greatest needs of Manitoba?s communities.
The purpose of this project is to fulfill the needs of a number of larger Manitoba organizations. These may include The Ladybug Foundation (homeless shelters), Child and Family Services (CFS), The Manitoba Association of Women?s Shelters, and Winnipeg Harvest (food bank). The intention is to create separate gift registries for each of these organizations which they will then add items to based on the needs that they hope to fulfill. Items may be specified for the Christmas season or could be used to fill a year round need. Items could include such things as toys, clothing, books, and any other necessities that will help underprivileged children feel like kids again.
We will be advertising this project throughout the province of Manitoba, appealing to the public to purchase items on these registries. It is our hope that the general public will make purchases either in-store or through a website. At vital times throughout the year, our organization will be evaluating the purchases made by the general public and matching donations dollar for dollar in a way that best meets the needs of the organization in question. We are very excited about the potential that this project has. We hope that it will benefit the communities of Manitoba as much as we think it can.
If you know of an organization in your community that could benefit from such a program, please contact the Kinsmen Jackpot Bingo office at 204-233-6365