THANKS to the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board, one of the Herald’s longest-serving and most valuable employees is seriously considering a late-life name change.
Virtually the entire South Coast knows him as ‘Bingo’ (Chetty). Few know that his actual name is… ‘Ruben’!
Herald editor, Colleen Haggard, speculated that he was given the name ‘Bingo’ because his parents thought they had hit the jackpot when he was born. A former editor, Linda Hooper, said that it was because he always dished out the money for the Herald’s crossword puzzles (and still does). Can that be construed as a type of bingo?
From the horse’s mouth, Bingo (now Ruben again) says he came to the South Coast in the early ’60s and managed to find a job helping out at a Port Shepstone shop. He really can’t remember why, but the owner insisted on calling him ‘Bingo’ and the name stuck.
His colleagues tend to agree with Colleen’s idea. The shop owner… and then the Herald… ‘hit the jackpot’ by employing a really good guy.
Anyway, Judi Davis reported in last week’s newspaper that the game is a ‘no-no’ if money is involved.
Now Bingo is concerned that his number might come up in the Gambling Board’s war room… along with countless people who dare to wager a fraction of their pensions while playing at retirement villages.
One suspects that the ruling was actually aimed at the proposed bingo halls at various shopping malls, but where does one draw the line?
The up side is that there will probably be a few job opportunities for ‘Bingo Bobbies’ in the offing, but the Board has yet to advertise for recruits.
For the record, bingo is a direct descendant of Lo Guido del Lotto d’Italia (the Italian national lottery) which was introduced in 1530.
It soon spread throughout the world and today the game even features in Sesame Street and the Muppets, aimed at children between the ages of three and six years to teach them to count and recognise numbers in a fun way.
The English spiced up the game for adults with colourful puns for numbers like ‘legs 11’ and ‘knock at the door’ (rhyme: ‘number four’) which are probably some of the better known ones.
At the risk of being accused of inciting older people to break the law, here’s one that the bingo caller might like to use: ‘Doctor’s Orders’ (Number nine was a laxative pill given out by army doctors in World War 2).
