Friday Night Bingo via Canlis

Canlis raised eyebrows when they first announced that they were converting to deliveries - just a week after the quarantine went into effect. This was shocking since they have always been known as a fancy dining establishment where you have to make reservations at least a month in advance to get past the front door. They made even more headline news when they decided to bring the entertainment to your living room, as well as with live stream bingo. 

You heard right, live stream bingo at Canlis. 

What is more surprising is how easy anyone can participate. The most common way is to order any meal or cocktail from the restaurant and you’ll be given 4 or more bingo boards. There is a small card with your meal that details the rules and how to play. If you aren’t able to buy a meal from the restaurant but still want to play, you are in luck - all you need to do is contact them with a home address and they will mail you bingo boards. 

How to Play

The official start time for bingo is at 8:30pm PST. It is broadcasted on their YouTube Livestream, however, every time I have tuned in to play, the first ball to be drawn isn’t until 9pm. For the first 30 minutes or so, the host will read letters sent by fans to the restaurant or do casual banter with the guest musician they have on set. I was a little annoyed that Canlis doesn’t start the game immediately at 8:30pm, but the more I played, the less I cared about the start time. What is interesting is the host reading letters from fans and realizing that Canlis’s reach goes beyond just Washington State. One night, several families from Wisconsin reported to be playing, and a few actually won from several states away! 

Once the stage has been properly set up, the fun finally begins as they draw the first number. The rules to play are simple and standard for bingo. Each time a number is drawn, mark your board, and a winning combination is when you get 5 numbers across horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The host takes their time in between drawings to ensure that everyone who is playing gets a chance to mark their boards, but there are times they take too long to read the next number. I swear, there were times it was 8 minutes between each number drawing before a winner was announced.

Pro tip: Don’t permanently mark your boards during each round. I was sneaky and used cut up strips of post-it notes to mark my board, and if I got a winning 5 number combination, I would use a sharpie to cross out the numbers. 

Getting a winning combination is the easy part, confirming your winning board is the hard part. In order to cash in on winning bingo, you’ll need to text a photo of both the front and back of your board showing the numbers crossed out with an X, as well as your name. Sounds simple, however, you have to be extremely fast when you get a bingo since there are on average 700 - 800 other people competing across the country. I cursed myself at one point for not playing earlier in the month (as I would have a better chance compared to now), but it is still fun to participate.

Officially, there are two rounds each Friday with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and the prizes vary each time. The most common prize is a gift card to the restaurant, with the 2nd and 3rd being a Canlis T-shirt. The most unique prizes come from their sponsors, like Porsche of Bellevue, who was giving away a free 2020 Porsche Taycan...for the weekend. When the host first announced that prize, he was being a little deceitful and kept repeating - ‘you’ll win a free Porsche!’, but 15 minutes later he finally corrected himself and said it was only for a weekend. 

If playing, you have to be quick when you get a winning board, because the last time I participated (on May 22nd), each round had over a dozen winners come forward at once. It was maddening to realize how many people were playing along with you, and even more frustrating that every time I played, I was only one number away from winning before 13 others shouted ‘BINGO’ first. 

Gov. Inslee will soon be lifting the shelter-in-place order at the beginning of June, so there are only a few weeks left to play. If you are interested in participating, you can go HERE and request multiple boards for free, no purchase necessary. 

I haven’t won yet, but I have a good feeling that lady luck will be on my side on the last bingo night…or maybe you will beat me to it? The only way to find out is to grab a board yourself and tune in on Fridays at 8:30pm for a chance to win!