If trends continue, bingo players will contribute more than $500,000 to Bell County by the end of this fiscal year - and all that money is earmarked to benefit youth events.

“Bingo allows us to hold the youth fair at the Bell County Expo Center,” said Dirk Aaron, Bell County extension agent.

In 1986, when Bell County commissioners agreed to bring bingo to the county, they imposed a 2-percent tax on gross receipts from the games.

The proceeds have continued to grow every year - and the past two years the county spent only about half the money.

The unspent funds are never mixed with other funds, said Richard Cortese, commissioner for Precinct 1. He said the funds are stored in an account and used for more expensive purchases.

This year the county paid out $96,927 for the weeklong youth fair, which included rent for the Bell County Expo Center, labor and security.

Within the past several years, bingo money has helped the county pay for $118,000 in panels; $20,000 in bucking shoots and hog pins; and $22,000 for a lift truck - all items utilized during the fair.

“This is a benevolent source,” Aaron said. “Whoever saw that resource saw the big picture.”

On Thursday, the noontime crowd at the Highland Park bingo hall in Killeen seemed more interested in their luck rather than their benevolence.

The players listened intently to the rapid-fire reading of bingo numbers that only stopped when a winner shouted “bingo.”

Robert Whitney, a 74-year-old retired military man, may have been one of the more benevolent people in the bingo hall based on his frequency of playing. He said he plays seven days a week - even eating dinner every night at the bingo hall snack shop.

“This is what I do,” Whitney said. “It’s my entertainment. I don’t smoke or drink.”

Whitney said he spends about $50 a day playing bingo in Killeen. And most of the players in the room with him were regulars, too, he said.

“We’ve been having a dry spell,” Whitney said about the recent luck of him and his wife. “It’s been about three months since we had anything.”

A pole sign in the parking lot outside the bingo hall says the string of halls in the strip mall paid out more than $13.6 million to players last year.

Bell County’s share of bingo proceeds is only a small part of the pie. A minimum of 35 percent of adjusted gross receipts, or the total sales minus prizes and the cost of goods, must be paid out to charities, according to state law.

The 62 bingo halls in Bell County distributed $3 million to charities last year.