From the San Jose Raiders Color Guard to the Italian Men's Club to a group of tightly knit women friends, the 16th-century game still brings people together who shout out the now infamous word when all the numbers line up—BINGO.

Those who play agree that it's more just the prize money, it's the camaraderie, the socializing and the fundraising that draws the players to the weekly games.

The San Jose Raiders Color Guard and Dance Team holds weekly bingo games to benefit its youth activities. Located at 1525 lmaden Road, the large building serves as a practice studio and bingo hall on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

Bingo Manager Tracy Garces says she tries to cater to the mainly senior crowd, approximately 250 players who are regulars, but she has noticed younger people getting into the game, which she credits to the increased availability of slot machines.

"It's its own culture," Garces says. "People feel comfort and a sense of belonging. Most live on fixed incomes and it gives them a social outlet."

She says about one-third of the people have been coming for 20 or more years.

"It's like your own neighborhood," she says. "Most bingos have regulars."

The youth on the color guard and dance teams help sell tickets, verify a winning bingo, staff the snack bar and chat with the regulars. The income from the games pays the building's rent, and the youths'—ranging in age from 5 to 25—travel expenses to tournaments. The San Jose Raiders won the Color Guard World Championships from 1990­94 and again in 2003.

"A few seniors come to the shows," Garces says. "They're real clear on what they're supporting."

The San Jose Raiders began as a drum and bugle corps called the San Jose Knight Raiders in the 1970s, says business manager J.W. Koester. The group switched to color-guard teams because the drum corps required renting more buses, says longtime volunteer Efrain Cantu. Bingo has been the organization's revenue source for 27 years, Koester says. They use the profits to fund $225,000 worth of programs a year.

Garces, who has had four children go through the performance teams, says she likes bingo as a fundraiser because then the youth are "not out there trying to sell candy bars."

Cantu's son joined the drum corps in 1978 and has since moved on, but Cantu, 65, has been the bingo caller for 26 years and doesn't plan to leave.

"I love it," he says. "I know everybody."

Being a good bingo caller, he says, requires understanding how to work the different machines and having a sense of humor.

"I joke with people if they make a mistake," he says.

The bingo games are also a safe outing for senior citizens, especially those who might be alone and don't often leave home.

"If they win, that's great," Cantu says. "If not, they still came here." He adds that seniors begin arriving at 9 a.m. on Sunday although the game begins at 1 p.m. They arrive with tote bags carrying the colored-ink daubers that they use to mark off numbers and sometimes play cards and share snacks before bingo begins.

"This is the best place there is," says 75-year-old Rita Newman, who's a regular.

Other than going to bingo two days a week, Newman says she doesn't go anywhere.

She started playing 30 to 40 years ago in New Jersey, where she used to be a caller, she says.

She says seeing her friends is the most rewarding part of the activity.

"Most of the gang I know come in and say hello," Newman says.

She adds that she received 12 Christmas gifts from her bingo friends, "more than anybody else."

Minnie Rocchio, 93, says she's been playing bingo for more than 20 years because it's relaxing. Rocchio won $250 on a recent Sunday and says winning feels good.

But the game isn't just for old-timers, 22-year-old Parker Hoogesteger says he comes and plays with his grandparents because the first time he came he won.

His grandmother, Kay Messina, says she likes the friendly people, and her husband, Sam, says the Raiders bingo has the most reasonable prices. Two sheets of 20 games each only costs $15, and three sheets costs $20. Bingo winners receive a $250 cash prize.

But it's not just the reasonable prices that bring players and volunteers to the weekly outing.

"I've grown up with these people," says Kristin Franzino, 22, who has danced since she was 11. "It's a positive thing coming and spending time here."

But after years of being the only game in town, a dramatic change may be encroaching on the San Jose Raiders' bingo tradition.

With the legalization of Indian gaming and its California casinos, local bingo halls may be threatened, as crowds shrink and revenues are reduced.

"It's so disheartening that casinos pull crowds from youth organizations," Garces says. "Smaller games have had to close. We've maintained, and we're hoping to stay competitive."

She says seniors have typically preferred bingo to slot machines because "you know you have 20 chances and you get to talk to people."

Another factor that poses a challenge for the San Jose Raiders organization is the sale of its Almaden Road building.

The property has been sold three times, and the organization is waiting to hear when it needs to vacate before the building is converted to subsidized housing, Cantu says.

"It's sad to move," he says. "It's a good neighborhood, close to buses and the train. People come from Gilroy."

Location and socialization are the primary elements of bingo and are why the Italian Men's Club of San Jose continues to hold its Monday games at the Elk's Lodge at 444 W. Alma Avenue.

For Willow Glen residents Carmie Martin, Helen Kouretas, Dollie DeFranco, Rose Britton, and Lanis and Angie Price, going to play bingo means a chance to see one another.

The six women—four best friends and two of their daughters—can't even agree on when they started coming for Monday lunch and bingo at the Italian Men's Club.

Monday bingo is only one of their weekly gatherings, but the women look forward to the home-cooked Italian meal and a chance to see friends and to win a few bucks, while supporting charities.

"I thought when I retired I'd be bored," says 72-year-old DeFranco. "Now I don't know how I ever had time to work."

Work was ironically how DeFranco met Martin and Britton. Through Martin's mother, Louise Re, DeFranco "heard about Carmie and Rosie" during her coffee breaks and later met them at St. Christopher's Church in 1963. Lanis Price met the women while she worked as parish secretary and jokes she became "Italian by osmosis" by spending time with her Italian friends.

DeFranco says the seniors who attend the lunch and bingo game are predominantly Catholic and mainly Italian, but the event is open to anyone in the community.

The six friends' bingo date has become a ritual that includes saving the same table for their group of friends, joking about everything, swapping stories about family members and discussing upcoming church events.

The bingo phenomenon of friends socializing is replicated at every table.

"My grandmother's here with her clique," Kouretas, the former owner of Zorba's, says, adding that her 17-year-old son asked to come, which would have represented four generations of her family playing bingo together.

"When one person is missing, we feel it," DeFranco says.

The longtime bonds come from sharing the same heritage, church, hometown and bingo tradition.

Club treasurer and bingo manager Phil Zizzo says the club has hosted bingo for 16 years and adds that it provides an opportunity for members, their wives and friends to socialize. He says approximately 300 seniors come for lunch and 100 stay to play six rounds of bingo.

"I got so sick and tired of being at home," 88-year-old Re says. "I like to get out."

Price says the games provide companionship and a chance to visit outside of church.

"I especially like this organization because it does so much for seniors," Price says.

Much of the club's revenue comes from Monday bingo games at the Elk's Lodge, Zizzo says. The lunch round costs 50 cents a card with a $20 prize and $50 for blackout—covering all the card's numbers—with lunch provided for $4. The evening round costs $12 for the $250 cash prizes and dinner is served for $4.

And the proceeds from the game go to a number of charities. The Italian Men's Club members gave $1,000 to a hospice program and $1,000 to St. Christopher's School's outreach last month, Martin says.

For Martin and DeFranco, bingo is a big part of their week. The two also attend Wednesday bingo at the Willows Senior Center, where they both volunteer as bingo callers. DeFranco adds that the odds of winning at the senior center's bingo are better because they have a smaller crowd, usually fewer than 60 people.

Twelve games of bingo are played between 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the senior center for $5 a pack. And cash prizes range between $50 and $99.

But for the players, no matter where the game is held, it still doesn't get any sweeter than when they can shout, "BINGO!"