Our Story
Early in 1987, the St. Cloud Times published an extensive article on the charitable gambling operation called The Bingo Emporium Bingo Hall in St. Cloud, Minnesota. After reading the article, the Administrator of St. Benedict’s Center, a long-term care facility in St. Cloud, met with the management of The Bingo Emporium Bingo Hall to explore the possibility of the Nursing Center sharing in the proceeds or opening its own bingo hall operation.
Following further research, it was decided that the best opportunity for raising charitable gambling funds would be to open a bingo hall in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. St. Benedict’s Center contacted St. Therese Home, a long-term care center in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, to see if they would be interested in being a partner in a Twin City Bingo Hall operation.
The Building
After receiving approval from the organizations’ Boards of Directors, a search was conducted for a location with adequate parking, suffiicient square footage, convenient location and other characteristics necessary for its success. A lease was signed for a location in Brooklyn Park, and upon acquiring the necessary approvals, work began to remodel a 9,000 square foot location on State Hwy 81 just north of Interstate Highway 694.
Carousel Bingo opened its doors for charitable gambling February 5th, 1988, in what was the old Cub Building. Once remodeled, the space no longer resembled a hollow, cavernous warehouse filled with groceries. New carpet, ceilings, freshly painted walls, brand-spanking-new bingo machines, and bowtied, suspendered and arm-banded bingo workers thrilled, assisted, and paid out winnings to thousands of patrons.
Our Success
The ties, suspenders, and arm bands are long gone, but you can still see the familiar faces that have been with the hall since its inception or sometime thereafter: David, Martha, LJ, Lori, Faye, Cindy, Dan, Sandi, Megan, Mark, Betty, Rachel, Mike, Ann, Marilyn, Leroy, and many more.
Pulltabs were introduced to the local gamblers along with the original version of Carousel’s Club Card. Very different from how the Club Card game is now played, four numbered balls were drawn from hand-cranked, wire baskets. If the number drawn matched a patron’s card in the hall, they’d win a cash prize. Periodic week-long special promotions included discounted packages, giveaways of TVs, life-size bears, grills, trips to Las Vegas and many other fun locales. Carousel sponsored the fireworks for a number of Brooklyn Park Tater Days celebrations, and participated in the annual parade.
Carousel saw the introduction of the automated bingo machine and computer verification of winning bingo cards. Today, Carousel boasts not only state-of-the-art verification systems, but Electronic Bingo as well. The hall runs several different versions of sessions, Carousel remains a seven-day-a-week operation.
A number of charities have benefitted from collaborating with Carousel Bingo. At its inception, St. Therese Nursing Home (New Hope) and St. Benedicts Center of St. Cloud partnered with Leisure Time, a consulting group from St. Cloud, to get the hall off the ground. A couple years later, Brooklyn Park’s Church of St. Gerard joined, allowing the addition of extra sessions throughout the week. For some time these three charities were able to contribute substantial sums of money to their various causes. In 1996, Carousel expanded again, and added the Minnesota National Guard Youth Camp. In 2002, Brooklyn Park Babe Ruth came aboard, and is now the sole charity for the hall. Babe Ruth makes it possible for youth, age 13-18 to participate at reduced rates in area baseball programs, as well as donations to local area food shelves, scholarship programs and to families in need.
Carousel Bingo still runs many different promotions, from ½ off days to Sports Nights to Birthday Bingo the last day of every month. There’s something for everyone: regular paper bingo cards or electronic bingo excitement for the techno savvy, pulltabs and great food. Carousel invites new players to try their luck, and a huge thank you goes out to Carousel’s regular customers who have remained faithful year after year. Without these devoted customers there could be no Carousel Bingo. With 12,000 square feet of bingo, pulltabs, and concessions, there’s plenty of elbow room for everyone. Come on in and Explore the magic!
Carousel Bingo continues to thrive today, building on more than twenty years providing a magical experience to our loyal patrons.