Once a month in Lake Highlands, dinner is served early, chores accomplished, and families left to fend for themselves as women gather together for an evening of fun, conversation and food. It’s Bunco time and whether you spell it Bunco or Bunko, this game of dice, luck and prizes is catching on all over Lake Highlands with new Bunco groups starting up all the time. Very popular with busy women, they see the game as a way to keep in touch with friends.
“It is just an excuse to get together with a group of women you don’t get to see on a daily basis,” says Susan Solomon who has been with a Lake Highlands Bunco group since it started nearly seven years ago. “We don’t see each other during the month. I think that this (Bunco) is what has kept us together.”
Julie Alexander, another one of the group’s original players, explains that the women they share an evening with are typically not people they see any other time.
“It is almost like a friendship between 16 strangers who are friends,” says Alexander.
When her family had to move to England for two years, Solomon was so firmly hooked on the game, she made sure her substitute knew that when she returned, the substitute player was out and Solomon would be reclaiming her rightful spot.
Like many of the women, Alexander sees it as one of the few times she can put aside the responsibilities of family and work for an evening.
“Sometimes people don’t take time for themselves,” says Alexander. “I know for a fact that once a month, I have somewhere to be and it is just for me. This is my one night out for the month and I’m going!”
So what exactly is Bunco? For starters, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment — three die and a score-keeping pad per table along with one hand bell and you are in business. Typically made up of 12 women, with four at each table, the number can vary with each group and occasionally couples will play. Each member pays $5 a month for prizes for the winners and losers — or for the Booby prize for the worst loser.
Bunco evenings are held at a different house each month and the hostess is responsible for refreshments and prizes.
The object of the game is to reach 21 points, which are earned when the rolled dice match up with the designated number for that round. If the designated number is a three and a player rolls the dice and gets all threes, the player gets an instant “bunch” and twenty-one points. More likely, the player will only get one three or none and earns points accordingly.
Everyone tries to earn their way to the “Head Table” where they want to be simply because it is the head table. The head table is also the keeper of the bell, which is rung when a team at the head table reaches 21 points. Appropriately enough, this Lake Highlands group doesn’t have just any bell.
“We have a cow bell and it is loud,” says Solomon.
While game rules will vary from group to group, everyone agrees the game is almost ridiculously easy to learn and, frankly, the players make no excuse about its simplicity.
“I used to play in a bridge club and I stopped simply because it stopped being fun,” says Diane Lowy, another member. “It became too intense. You don’t have that with this game. No skill is involved. It’s a game of chance.”
Which leaves lots of time for socializing and catching up on neighborhood news in a relaxed, stress-free setting. While four people play at each table, this changes often, giving everyone a chance to talk to every person there.
“You change tables every five minutes or so, and so you are sitting with three different people all the time,” says Alexander.
“It is so easy,” says Solomon. “There is really no talent to it whatsoever. In less than five minutes, you know how to do it. If you can roll dice, you can play.”
Any attempt to add a more competitive edge is usually rebuffed.
“We have had some people in the past who wanted to be more serious about bunco,” says Lowy. “We just ignored them!”
Even when someone can’t make a meeting and a substitute can’t be found to replace her, they have a contingency to deal with it.
“We do have what we call a dummy,” says Lowy, who adds they really don’t like having to deal with a dummy.
“Someone has to roll for the dummy so it get confusing,” says Lowy. You have to pay attention and we just don’t want to have to think that much!”
Though hard-working and certainly law-abiding citizens play the Bunco game of today, most players will be surprised to learn that it wasn’t always the case.
To see how this craze really got started, you would have to go all the way back to England in the late 1800s where Bunco was originally known as 8-Dice Cloth. The World Bunco Association (www.worldbunco.com) reports that it was unknown to the United States until it was introduced to San Francisco in 1855 during the Gold Rush by a crooked gambler.
The swindler made some changes to the rules of the game and renamed it Banco as he traveled from the East to West coast with numerous stops at the gold fields. Here he found many men with easy money to squander on gambling. A few years later, the name was changed again to Bunco or Bunko and was frequently played at numerous gambling locations known as Bunco Parlors. Soon, the game earned a very shady reputation as a confidence game, and was associated with scams and swindling.
By the end of the century, the game had returned to respectability as a family game and was played in many homes. But not for long. During prohibition and the roaring ’20s, gambling parlors starting popping up all over the country and Bunco gambling parlors resurfaced. The most infamous speak-easies and Bunco dice parlors were located in and around Chicago, Ill. And while many present Bunco players may not realize it, there really was a Bunco Squad made up of detectives who raided those bunco playing parlors! Not to worry, though. After prohibition, this unsavory kind of bunco playing declined and not much was heard until the early 1980s. Since then, the game has returned to the neighborhood scene as a popular outlet for social interaction.
And what about the men in these bunco playing households? Most have the attitude that it is a good thing for their wives and some take the opportunity to do a little socializing themselves.
“What’s kind of cool for us guys is when the women are out playing Bunco, we will go out to dinner and see a movie,” says Skip Alexander. “Usually something they wouldn’t want to see.”
Even if a movie is not in the plans, though, he does try to stay out of the women’s way.
“When she has bunco at someone’s house, she leaves,” says Alexander. “When she has bunco here, I leave.”
Once introduced to Bunco, it is not unusual to find that many players join more than one group or will substitute for a number of groups — some far outside the confines of Lake Highlands. And while it is usually an evening of camaraderie, some groups do get very serious about the roll of the dice. At some of the more competitive gatherings, it can get downright dangerous. In those cases, when someone gets Bunco, each woman at the table gets a change to grab —or rather lunge — for the dice and win the points. Battle wounds of scratches from long fingernails are not uncommon.
Alexander says she has heard of such groups but it is not the case with their group though she does come to win. When the socializing before the game starts goes on a bit too long for her, Alexander takes command.
“I am very competitive with bunco. I will say: Ladies, get to your tables. Roll the dice. I want to play!”
And while Alexander admits that sometimes the parties may get a bit loud with the laughter, shrieks and loads of conversation as they catch up on a month’s worth of news, she says that it is all good clean fun. Since most of the women only see each once a month and don’t know each other that well, there is not even that much gossiping going on.
“We really don’t gossip that much,” says Alexander laughing. “Gossip is kept to a minimum because you really don’t know who knows who!”
