THUNDER BAY -- Superior Shores Gaming Centre opened its doors 16 months ago.
On Friday the charity bingo centre celebrated hitting the million-dollar fundraising milestone, money which in turn has been given back to 69 local organizations.
Without the centre, many local groups would struggle to find the money to help them keep going,” said Albert Aiello, executive director of the city’s Boys and Girls Club.
“It’s important to note that one characteristic we share is that we are all non-profits,” Aiello said Friday at a ceremony marking the milestone.
“To have an available funding stream to help us do the work we do in the community is very, very important.”
Without the bingos, it would be a much different landscape, he added.
“The smaller organizations would very much struggle because they don’t have access to funding grants that the Boys and Girls Club would have. It’s very vitally important to them. For us, it’s another imporatn stream and it allows us to expand our services and do greater good in the community.”
Formerly known as Thunder Bay Community Bingo, the organization formerly operated out of the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition’s Auditorium building before moving to its current Memorial Avenue location in 214, part of a province-wide revitalization of the bingo industry.
Privately owned, the centre operates in partnership with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, one of 31in the province.
Superior Shores Gaming manager Iris McCoy-Slongo said the revitalization seems to have worked, bingo’s heyday coming in the early 1990s.
But the new location, combined with a willingness to expand beyond just gaming is starting to draw back customers.
And they’re not done yet, Mccoy-Slongo said.
“What we’re trying to do is make it a new source of entertainment,” she said.
They’ve added electronic bingo to the mix and also plan to bring in local entertainment to add to the customer experience.
“We’ve even got pool tables and dart boards,” she said.