Bingo hall becomes church

We have reported many times on how the decline in land based bingo has led to bingo clubs closing down and the buildings being used for new purposes, and in America, the bingo situation is no different.

Alabama has had a huge crackdown on gambling, leading to many empty bingo halls scattered around the state. One hall though is having a makeover at the moment and has become a church.

James Gardner is the pastor of the Jasper Christian Center and was in the same building for more than 20 years. In this time his congregation grew and so he and his wife started to look for a new building. He said; “Most people in the community think it’s about bingo. But for us, it’s about revival. We started driving up and down the road. We saw a for rent sign on this one, so we leased it for a few years so we can grow.”

The church have been holding services for a few months and began whilst they were still painting and cleaning the building. “It’s a funny irony,” Gardner said. “We have people who say they’re no longer going to shout ‘Amen’ they’re just going to shout ‘bingo.’ We have people doing that. We’re glad bingo’s gone. We’re against it as a congregation. But this wasn’t about us defeating bingo, legislation and prayer did that before. We’re just here because it was an available building and we needed space.”

From the sounds of things, the congregation objects to the community spending money to play bingo. Opposing views to this line of thinking clearly believe that it is our right to spend money on playing bingo games as we see fit.

Related bingo news:

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2. Wetherspoon’s have axed their Bingo Hall plans
3. Richard E Grant fighting to save film set Bingo hall
4. Bingo Caller gets an Award
5. Bingo hall fighting to open