How 101 Brazilian Bingo Players Won a Jackpot
People in Brazil like to play bingo too, and some of them were quite lucky recently. There was a bingo game recently with 101 players and all of them managed to win the jackpot. Yes, you read that right. All of them got lucky or did they?
The prize in this bingo game was 1,000 Brazilian reals or around $184. It wasn’t much because it was a local game held in a venue near a motorcycle shop. Its owner was also a participant and managed to hit the jackpot, or what was left of it. The winners were made to share their winnings due to an error.
Just a Regular Bingo Game
Mauricio Façanha was in charge of the bingo game for over 20 years, and the next day seemed like another regular day for bingo. He managed to get the cards and set up everything for tomorrow’s game. All that was left for him to do is wait for tomorrow to come.
Finally, the day was here and the contestants turned up. Some of them had a single ticket while others had more. They took their seats and the numbers started coming in. They marked them as the game continued and then came the jackpot number, number 49.
Mauricio was stunned as to how many people had yelled bingo or jackpot. He was surprised that this had happened, but upon closer inspection, he found out what had caused this result. There was a printing error. Time was running out and a solution was needed. The Jackpot got a lot of winners, and Mauricio found a solution to the win.
An Error in Printing
The inspection revealed that a lot of cards had the number 49 printed on them. This caused 101 bingo players to be excited and yell the right words. But none of them would go empty-handed because Mauricio made them share the jackpot.
It was a compromise that the winners had to take. So, 75 of them split $73 and 42 others split $54. The winnings weren’t enough for some, but they had to do. Omar Saldanha, the owner of the motorcycle shop next to the venue, had bought 3 tickets. He had never won a bingo game and was excited when he got the right numbers, but was disappointed when a lot of others had them too.
He was made to share his prize just like the other winners. So, his first win is a bittersweet experience that he’ll remember. On the other hand, Mauricio apologized for the mistake and made the best out of a delicate situation. In other words, it was a win-win scenario.
Conclusion
Bingo operators are human and are prone to making mistakes just like anyone else. This is what happened to Mauricio and instead of 1, the jackpot got 101 winners. But he solved the problem by making them share the jackpot prize. A compromise was necessary and fair to the contestants after a bad print job.
