# Episode 102 - Interview with Robert Medl 6-11-15

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2015-06-21  
**Duration:** 58m 48s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-102-interview-with-robert-medl-6-11-15

---

## Analysis

Robert Medl, a bingo pinball collector from California/Ohio, discusses his entry into bingo machines through Phil Hooper, his growing collection, and a recent major acquisition of 10 machines from a St. Louis operator warehouse. The conversation covers bingo game mechanics, restoration work, player strategy analysis, and the community of collectors around the podcast.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Robert purchased a Cypress Gardens from Phil Hooper at a California pinball show around 1996-2006 and immediately grasped bingo mechanics within 60 seconds due to background in math and statistics. — _Robert Medl, personal account of first encounter with bingo machines_
- [HIGH] A St. Louis operator warehouse contained approximately 70 machines, with over half flooded in the basement; Robert purchased 10 intact machines from upstairs inventory. — _Robert Medl describing the transaction facilitated by Jeffrey Lawton and Dennis Dodell_
- [HIGH] Ten machines fit easily without stacking in a 6x12 U-Haul trailer, though weight was at or near maximum capacity due to protective armor plating (adding ~50 lbs per machine). — _Robert Medl recounting transport logistics from St. Louis_
- [MEDIUM] Variety was the first moving lines game produced by the manufacturer, featuring three vertically movable lines with two Super Cards that include a 200-point corner bonus. — _Robert Medl discussing Variety machine mechanics and features_
- [HIGH] Phil Hooper sold Robert his first three machines (Cypress Gardens, Bonus Seven, Bounty) and would service them in exchange for sushi and friendly nickel/dime games. — _Robert Medl describing his relationship with Phil Hooper_
- [MEDIUM] Robert traded his Bounty machine straight-up for a Shadow Flipper game because Bounty was export-only and rare. — _Robert Medl explaining why he sold the Bounty_
- [HIGH] Ten machines were transported and set up in four hours with hired help; setup was complicated by special corner brackets required to attach protective armor plating to the frame. — _Robert Medl describing the moving and assembly process_
- [HIGH] Robert acquired: Sun Valley, Cypress Gardens, Carnival Queen, Ballerina, Miss America, Key West, Golden Gate, Circus Queen, Roller Derby, and County Fair in the St. Louis purchase. — _Robert Medl listing the 10 machines purchased_
- [HIGH] Listening to Nick Baldridge's 'For Amusement Only' podcast reinvigorated Robert's passion for bingo machines and motivated him to purchase the large collection. — _Robert Medl crediting the podcast's impact on his renewed interest_
- [HIGH] When playing for money with friends, the reflex unit must be rewound to its most liberal setting after each win to ensure equal odds for all players. — _Robert Medl explaining fair play protocol learned from Phil Hooper_

### Notable Quotes

> "I've always had a passion for gambling. I have a degree in math and a passion for statistics so all that kind of came together in this game here so within five minutes of playing it I said how much for you to bring this to my house"
> — **Robert Medl**, Early in interview
> _Explains Robert's immediate attraction to bingo machines and the mathematical/gambling appeal driving his entry into the hobby_

> "I recently found your podcast. I think Jeffrey had mentioned it to me a while ago, and I just never got around to listening to it. And then I started listening and your passion and information for the games has reinvigorated my passion for the game. So I should send you a bill for about half of these things."
> — **Robert Medl**, Mid-interview
> _Credits Nick Baldridge's podcast with triggering his major machine acquisition; shows community-driven FOMO and passion cycles_

> "When I was putting these machines in, we were loading them up, we were talking about them. And he mentioned, you know, should I take this off or not? And he suggested that if you're not going to redo the cabinet, you might as well leave it on. Because it provides so much stability to the game. And you don't know what's under there."
> — **Robert Medl**, Mid-interview
> _Shows pragmatic approach to restoration influenced by experienced operators like Dennis Dodell; balancing cosmetics vs. structural integrity_

> "Spend more time thinking about what you want to try to fix and what the problem might be than actually taking apart the machine. You'll save many hours if you just think about something longer than just diving in."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Late in interview
> _Core advice on restoration methodology; shows importance of planning over action_

> "Now, when you work on a bingo machine, you know, and you start working on it at 10 a.m. on a Saturday, well, guess what? at six o'clock at night, you know you have fixed A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, and H, and you still have a few more things to tweak. But when I come back the next day, there is tangible evidence that I did actual physical work and got something fixed."
> — **Robert Medl**, Late in interview
> _Articulates psychological satisfaction of hands-on restoration work vs. digital-only IT work; speaks to broader community value of machine ownership_

> "I've been playing that ticker tape pretty much every day. And every game, pretty much, I can make at least a three in a row. on one of the cards and keep my bet going, you know, for a good long while. And I'm starting to make consistently four and five in a row when I could never, ever do that before."
> — **Robert Medl**, Late in interview
> _Shows six-card games improving overall skill development; cited Vic Camp's recommendation_

> "If you own a machine and you have to be able to want to tinker with it or else you're just going to be frustrated and have a big boat anchor in your basement or garage. And if you don't spend hours on Phil's site, then you're not doing it right."
> — **Robert Medl**, Late in interview
> _Shows centrality of Phil Hooper's knowledge repository (bingo.cdyn.com) to the collector community; restoration as essential to ownership_

> "There is so much information there and you can read it again and again and again. And I always pick up something new and maybe that's just me. Maybe some of the old timers out there have gained enough information where they kind of all have it up in their head. But I'm still at the point where I'm learning and I certainly enjoy that."
> — **Robert Medl**, Late in interview
> _Emphasizes Phil Hooper's documentation site as the primary learning resource for bingo collectors; acknowledges learning curve_

> "I was debating and discussing with Dennis, Dennis Dodell, because he's the one who helped facilitate the deal in St. Louis."
> — **Robert Medl**, Mid-interview
> _Dennis Dodell identified as key facilitator in major warehouse acquisition; shows influence of experienced operators in transactions_

> "I will be damned if you didn't stand up and make five in a row in his first five balls right across the top. Are you kidding? No, I'm not kidding."
> — **Robert Medl**, End of interview
> _Shows beginner luck and accessibility of bingo games to new players; illustrates appeal of the games_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Robert Medl | person | Bingo pinball collector from California/Seattle/Ohio area; purchased 10 bingo machines from St. Louis warehouse; plays and restores machines; mathematician and statistics enthusiast |
| Phil Hooper | person | Bingo pinball historian, technical expert, and early seller of machines to Robert Medl; maintains bingo.cdyn.com documentation site; known for generosity with knowledge and service |
| Nick Baldridge | person | Host of 'For Amusement Only' EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; IT professional; credited by Robert for reinvigorating the collecting community's passion |
| Jeffrey Lawton | person | Bingo pinball historian, author, and collector; former operator in New Jersey; lives in Cincinnati (~25-30 minutes from Robert); owns multiple bingo machines (Circus Queen, Golden Gate, Lido variants); facilitator of St. Louis warehouse deal |
| Dennis Dodell | person | Bingo pinball expert and operator; facilitated the St. Louis warehouse acquisition; provided advice on armor plating and restoration; worked with warehouse operators |
| Vic Camp | person | Bingo player who advised Robert that six-card games improve overall bingo playing ability |
| Cypress Gardens | game | Bingo pinball machine; Robert's first machine (purchased from Phil Hooper around 1996-2006); re-acquired in St. Louis warehouse purchase; significant sentimental value to Robert |
| Variety | game | Bingo pinball machine; first moving lines game with vertically movable lines (A, B, C); features two Super Cards that award 200-point corner bonus; Robert owns one and has extensively restored and analyzed it |
| Palm Springs | game | Bingo pinball machine from same era as Variety; features two Super Cards; Robert owns one; less complex than Variety |
| Touchdown | game | Bingo pinball machine with 'magic squares' feature (six numbers per section); triple-deck scoring (yellow, red, green); star section in lower right with four stars; Robert owns one |
| Golden Gate | game | Magic screen bingo game; Jeffrey Lawton owns one; Robert is excited to set up the one from St. Louis purchase |
| Circus Queen | game | Magic screen bingo game with Magic Screen mechanic determining payouts; Jeffrey Lawton owns one; Robert acquired one in St. Louis purchase |
| Bonus Seven | game | Bingo pinball machine with first-two-balls skill shot (total seven); 20-hole configuration; features hopper; Robert purchased from Phil Hooper and later sold |
| Bounty | game | Bingo pinball machine; rare, possibly export-only; Robert purchased from Phil Hooper and traded straight-up for Shadow Flipper game |
| Sun Valley | game | Bingo pinball machine from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Carnival Queen | game | Bingo pinball machine from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Ballerina | game | Bingo pinball machine with unique 1-7/7-1 button feature; from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Miss America | game | Bingo pinball machine with moving horizontal lines that can cross cards; from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Key West | game | Bingo pinball machine from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Roller Derby | game | Magic screen bingo game from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| County Fair | game | Magic screen bingo game from St. Louis warehouse; part of Robert's 10-machine purchase |
| Shadow Flipper | game | Flipper pinball game; challenging gameplay; Robert traded his Bounty machine for it |
| For Amusement Only | event | EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast hosted by Nick Baldridge; credited with reinvigorating collector interest and community engagement; Robert discovered it around 2015 |
| St. Louis operator warehouse | venue | Warehouse containing ~70 bingo machines owned by operator and managed by Dennis Dodell and 'Bob'; over half flooded in basement; source of Robert's 10-machine acquisition |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Bingo machine mechanics and gameplay, Machine acquisition and collecting, Restoration and maintenance, Collector community dynamics
- **Secondary:** Player strategy and optimization, Protective armor plating and structural considerations, Transportation and logistics, Podcast-driven community engagement

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[collector_signal]** Robert credits Nick Baldridge's 'For Amusement Only' podcast with reinvigorating his passion and motivating a major 10-machine acquisition; demonstrates how content drives collector behavior and secondary market activity (confidence: high) — Robert: 'I recently found your podcast... your passion and information for the games has reinvigorated my passion for the game. So I should send you a bill for about half of these things.'
- **[market_signal]** Significant bingo machine inventory (~70 machines) from St. Louis operator being liquidated; Robert acquired 10 machines in bulk transaction; indicates potential supply influx into collector market (confidence: high) — Robert acquired 10 machines from St. Louis warehouse in single transaction; machines were routed/operational prior
- **[restoration_signal]** Operator-routed machines feature armor plating and protective modifications that complicate restoration; special corner brackets required for setup; adds ~50 lbs per machine and creates structural stability trade-offs (confidence: high) — Robert: 'metal frames that you put around the bodies... adds probably 50 pounds per machine... they had special bracket that is installed on the inside of each corner... takes time to finag'
- **[community_signal]** Phil Hooper's bingo.cdyn.com documentation site identified as essential, go-to resource for all bingo collectors; represents critical knowledge infrastructure in the community (confidence: high) — Robert: 'if you don't spend hours on Phil's site, then you're not doing it right... There is so much information there'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Six-card bingo games identified as improving overall bingo playing ability; constraints force better ball control and number selection; Robert reporting rapid skill improvement (confidence: high) — Robert credits Vic Camp: 'those six-card games will make you a better player... I've been playing that ticker tape pretty much every day... making consistently four and five in a row'
- **[design_philosophy]** Robert applying mathematical analysis to game design; analyzing feature profitability across odds levels; showing counterintuitive design insights (e.g., super cards sometimes suboptimal vs. main card) (confidence: high) — Robert: 'sometimes it doesn't make sense to go for the super card because your odds on the main card are so good... I've been doing some Google Spreadsheeting and some analysis'
- **[operational_signal]** Operator split model described: operator takes first X dollars (e.g., $50/month), remainder split with owner; Jeff Lawton confirmed as former operator in New Jersey (confidence: high) — Robert: 'the operator takes the first X dollars and then you split the rest... $50 a month and then we'll split the rest'
- **[restoration_signal]** Collector satisfaction tied to tangible, physical restoration outcomes; psychological value of visible progress; emphasizes planning before disassembly to avoid complexity (confidence: high) — Robert: 'Having something physical and tangible fixed when you're done doing your work is a very satisfying thing' and Nick's advice: 'Spend more time thinking about what you want to try to fix'
- **[community_signal]** Multi-generational knowledge transfer visible: Phil Hooper → Jeffrey Lawton → Robert Medl; Dennis Dodell providing expert guidance on operator-level decisions; tight-knit expert network (confidence: high) — Robert consulting Phil Hooper, Jeffrey Lawton, and Nick Baldridge for repairs; Jeffrey facilitating St. Louis warehouse deal; Dennis providing restoration advice
- **[product_concern]** Variety machine feature (persistent foot-rail knob adjustments) differs from typical rotating-screen mechanics; causes confusion for new players who expect reset-on-game-start behavior (confidence: medium) — Robert troubleshot Variety for extended period before realizing foot-rail knobs maintain position between games; unique among his machines
- **[market_signal]** 10 standard bingo machines fit in 6x12 trailer without stacking; weight at maximum capacity; armor plating adds significant weight; practical transport limits for bulk acquisitions (confidence: high) — Robert: '10 machines will easily fit without stacking in a 6x12 trailer... we were at kind of the maximum weight that you should have'
- **[content_signal]** Nick Baldridge's podcast expanding collector network beyond founding core (Jeffrey Lawton + Steve); driving engagement and content-motivated purchases; Robert direct case study (confidence: high) — Robert: podcast 'reinvigorated my passion for the game'; Nick: 'when I started, I just knew Jeffrey and Steve. And so, you know, now I'm starting to branch out'

---

## Transcript

 What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. And today I have a special guest, Robert Madel, who is a bingo player and collector. Robert, welcome. How are you? Doing great, Nick. How are you doing? Doing well. So, Robert, how did you get into these crazy machines? I bought a machine from Phil Hooper. I live in California from 96 to about 2006, and I went to a pinball show. It was at a strip mall at a playland, like a local arcade, and people brought their flipper games and some stand-up arcade games and whatnot, and I went there. and I came across Phil, and he had one of these machines. It was a Cypress Gardens. And I know I've heard you talk a little bit about the first time you saw him, and it took you a little while to kind of get the hang of it and understand kind of what's going on there. But in my experience, I got it within the first 60 seconds. I mean, I just – Yeah. I've always had a passion for gambling. I have a degree in math and a passion for statistics so all that kind of came together in this game here so within five minutes of playing it I said how much for you to bring this to my house and continue it cool well how old are you? I'm 45 I was about late 20s or so when I saw this And, again, I went there looking for a flipper game. I had no idea these machines even existed. I think that's similar to your experience, that I just had no idea. My very first experience with machines was my grandfather had a Williams Timbuk2 wood rail machine in his basement. And there was a neighbor down the street that I became friends with as a small child between, I don't know, five or six years old and he had a Gottlieb Crosstown. And I would go down during the summers and get in his way when he was out working in the yard. And I would ask to help him do things just with the idea that he would eventually let me go downstairs to his air-conditioned basement and play this machine. And so that was my earliest experiences. But again, I had never even seen a bingo machine before in my life before I saw the one that Phil had. so how many um have you played well i would say my so i've owned the cypress gardens i owned a bonus seven i owned a bounty and then my other experience at playing has all been at jeffrey's house so i happen to live in cincinnati ohio about 25 or 30 minutes from jeffrey jeffrey lawton and uh so i go there once a month or so and and play his machine so um he has Circus Queen and Golden Gate and several Lido. The Magic of Screen Games I kind of gravitate toward because I don't have any here at the house now. So when I go over there, I like to play those kind of machines. So I just, currently I just have a Touchdown and I have a Palm Springs and a Variety. and then, as I think we'll talk about in a minute, I just bought a pile. Variety and Palm Springs are pretty similar in era, is that right? Yeah, that's my understanding. I think the Variety was the first moving lines game they produced. The left three lines you could move vertically one space up or down if you had the Magic Lines award, and it also had two Super Cards. But the interesting thing about the Super Cards is that the Super Cards also include 200 for corners. Really? Yeah. So the Super Cards are awarded left to right, so you can't get two without one. Right. But if you have super cards, you always get included with that four-corner score 200. Now, I've played hundreds of games. I think I might have done it once, but it's a sucker bet. Yeah, the super cards always seem like kind of a sucker bet to me. But the Palm Springs has two super cards as well. And again, the super card is three in line scores is four. but they don't have that 200 scoring for corners on the Palm Springs. And touchdown is a, I thought that was a magic screen game. What's the feature on that one? It's a magic, quote-unquote, squares. Ah, okay. But the different thing here is that there are six numbers per section, hence touchdown, right, six? Mm-hmm. So your A section is your left two columns, first three rows. Wow. Okay. I think it's that. Isn't that it? Yeah. I think that's what it is. Yeah. And then B is the rectangle below that, and C is the rectangle around from that, and D is the rectangle around from that. So the only number you can't move is 16? That's right, but it could be spotted as a feature. Wow. That sounds like a good game. Yeah, and it's triple deck scoring, too. So you have yellow and red and green, with green being the most prevalent of the different lines on the machine, and red and yellow equal in terms of the number of ways that you can make combinations on those colors. and the other feature is a it has a time tree of course but it also has a star section in the lower right corner in C there's four stars that if you have a feature lit I think it's a four star score 200 or something like that so cool that's really hard to get unless you have C which you can rotate and then then maybe you'll have a chance to get it. It's a good machine. It's challenging, and, you know, it's obviously a lot of fun because it has a triple deck. So do you gravitate more towards the ones with triple deck scoring, or two of yours don't have triple deck, do they? Right, you know, and some of it is just the availability of games that you can purchase, right? Those just happen to be the ones around that I could get. And until recently, as in like last week, those were all the machines I could get. So, you know, I, you know, catch as catch can. So those were the machines I was able to get up to this point. Gotcha. So, well, let's let's dive in here. So what's what's the big news? Well, so there was an operator in St. Louis, and he was working with Dennis Dodell and his friend Bob. I don't remember Bob's last name. And they had a warehouse full of machines. And I think Jeffrey might have mentioned this on the podcast he had with you a while back. But they were trying to get rid of their machines. and I'm looking to buy a lot of machines. And so Jeffrey put me in touch with Dennis and we worked out a deal. I mean, they had, I'm going to say, I don't know, 70 machines probably. But unfortunately, over half of them were downstairs and were flooded. And I didn't even bother going down there to look. But they had some upstairs machines. They had several titles. And, well, long story short, I rent, I borrowed my buddy, borrowed my brother's V8 Tahoe. And I went to the local U-Haul and I rented a 6x12 trailer. And I drove eight hours to St. Louis last Friday. And then Saturday morning, we loaded up 10 machines into the 6x12 trailer. And by the way, 10 machines will easily fit without stacking in a 6x12 trailer. That's good to know. To give people a sense of how many can I fit, it wasn't any problem fitting 10 in there. Now, the weight might be a little bit of an issue because I think we were at kind of the maximum weight that you should have. But that might have been in part due to the fact that these were heavily routed machines. I mean, these were on location. These were moneymakers for the owner. And as a part of that, they put, they call it armor on the bodies. Yeah. So these are metal frames that you put around the bodies so that it reduces the possibility that players can damage it, players can break in, things of that nature. So that adds probably 50 pounds per machine just in that weight itself. So these all had the iron cradle, basically? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think maybe all but one did. And they all had these. They didn't have the wooden legs. They had metal legs. which you can't have everything. I prefer the wooden legs just for the aesthetic. But you need these metal legs to support that frame once you put that thing on there. They also had plexiglass over in front of the back glass to protect against thrown beer bottles and punches, I suppose. So many of the machines have that as well. I haven't looked to see how hard that might be to kind of take that off just to have a better, clearer vision of the back glass. Because you look at the back glass most of the game, if you think about it. Yeah. You're looking at that back glass to figure out, oh, what features am I getting? Or might I get a jump in odds? Or might I get this feature? So, you know, you spend a lot of time looking at it, and you want it to be as clear and nice as possible. So I'll have to get into that. I haven't even started on any of the machines. I just got them into the garage, and that's about it. That's a feat in and of itself. Man, you're not kidding. I would not ask a friend to help me do that. You wouldn't have a friend anymore. Yeah, that's exactly right. So here's another tip. If you're going to buy a bunch of machines, hire someone, which is what I did. Oh, that was smart. Yeah. You know, I my neighbor had a guy working in his backyard and he and I are friends. And I said, hey, tell me about this worker. And my friend Dave, who had helped me with one machine in the past. So he knew what I was asking when I said I have 10 of these things. He's like, yeah, this guy's good. He'll show up on time and he'll do the work. And it literally took us four hours to move the machines just from a trailer into the garage, and we set up four machines. The difficulty with the armor is there is an extra bracket that is installed on the inside of each corner, and it takes time to thread the bolt through the leg into this special bracket that reinforces uh the frame and attaches the armor to the machine and so that just simply takes time to kind of finag because you don't really have very good access with your hands in there and you can't see it very well so that took a lot of extra time too so if you if you buy a machine that has the armor on it, be prepared to spend a little more time when you're setting them up because you need to put these brackets on the inside of each one as well. So that was a surprise, but you know, it is what it is and we got through it. So what titles did you get? So I have my list here, actually. So I got a Sun Valley, a Cypress Gardens, which I had to buy because it was my first machine. Carnival Queen. Ballerina. Miss America. I like that just because the idea that you can move lines horizontally that can cross cards. I've never played one before, but the feature seemed interesting. Key West. And then I got four Magic Screen games. Golden Gate, which I can't wait to set that up and play. a circus queen, a roller derby, and a county fair. So those were the titles I got. That's quite a haul. Yeah, well, and again, I think I have you to blame or thank for this, Nick, and I wanted to make sure I said this, is that I recently found your podcast. I think Jeffrey had mentioned it to me a while ago, and I just never got around to listening to it. And then I started listening and your passion and information for the games has reinvigorated my passion for the game. So I should send you a bill for about half of these things. I did want to say, you know, I like what you're doing. And certainly what you've done is reinvigorated my passion for these games. And so I figured if I'm going to do it, if I'm going to drive all that way, you know, I'm not going to buy one or two. Makes sense. Yeah. So we filled up the whole machine. And another thing was is that they had started putting Dennis and Bob, who were selling them for the vendor, had started putting them on eBay and Craigslist and things like that. And so part of the deal was, look, I'm coming out this weekend, and I get to pick whatever I want. So you know I don want to wait a month and then you have sold off three or four or five titles and then it doesn make any sense for me to show up So that was part of the deal And you know we worked it out So but again, keep doing this podcast and keep talking about this stuff and we'll all kind of keep spreading the word. But I really like what you're doing. Well, thank you very much. It's it's been it's been fun to do it and get to know everybody for sure. And, you know, when I started, I just knew Jeffrey and Steve. And so, you know, now I'm starting to branch out and talk to the other bingo collectors. And it's it's pretty enlightening. And especially and you fall in this boat as well. I mean, you and I never played these on route. And it's interesting to hear how other people made money at them. Yeah, I mean, I know Jeffrey was an operator, too. in Jersey. I think the essential deal was, and this is probably true for these machines as well as for any other coin op, if it's a pinball or anything else, it was the operator takes the first X dollars and then you split the rest. Right. So I'll take the first $50 a month and then we'll split the rest or week or whatever it was. And I'm sure that was the deal. But yeah, I'd never played one on location. And although I have, and now have you played them for money against friends, Nick? No, not real money. Well, I have, and it's fun. I'm sure Phil won't mind mentioning it was Phil. So the deal with Phil was, because he sold me all my machines. I live in California. He sold me the Cypress Guards. He sold me the Bonus 70. He sold me the Bounty. and Phil is so generous with his time and knowledge and whatnot and the deal was if I ever had any trouble I'd just call him and he would just show up. He would just show up and fix the damn thing. Now of course I didn't want to take advantage of that so one, we would always go out for sushi because I know he loves sushi and I did too and then the other thing was we'd play for nickels or dimes and So you take his money? I never took a dime from Phil. Never once. There was no way that Phil's skill and ability could have not made him win money against me. So I went into it knowing that I'm going to lose essentially the service call fee in quote-unquote gambling. But, again, it was just, you know. Hey, that's a good way to do it. Yeah, exactly. You know, that was. And here's the thing. Here's another tip for you all and your listeners. If you do play for money against a friend or friends, the only fair way to play is after you win is to go and rewind the reflex unit back to its base. Because if I win and then you play next, now you're playing a harder machine. Yep. So we always made sure that every time somebody won, we'd go in the back and wind the reflex unit to its most liberal so that you had equal chance of losing money or winning money. Boy, that's very fair. Yeah, well, again, Phil could have not mentioned this to me and taken my house, but he's not that kind of guy. So what made you get rid of the initial three machines? Was it moving? Yeah, yeah, it was simply moving. I moved from California to Seattle for a job, and at the time I had a – in addition to the bingo games, I had flipper games as well. and I had, at one point, we had a two-car garage full of machines set up and playing. So I had the three bingos and I probably had seven other flipper games. And when I moved, I simply couldn't take them all. So I had to choose a few to take with me and I took none of the bingos. So that's why. If you happen to cross a bounty, is that a title you'd pick up again? Yeah, I would, but here's the thing. I traded it for, I traded it straight up for a Shadow Flipper game. You know, I really like that game. It's very challenging. I was playing it on location in the California area, and then when somebody contacted me, says, hey, I really want that bounty, I know it's a very desirable title. I think there were very few made, and maybe they weren't available in the U.S. so much. Supposedly they were export only, but I have an eyebrow raised about that. I'm not sure. So, you know, at the time I wanted this Shadow game when he said, hey, look, I'll pay shipping both ways and I'll just trade you straight up. I was like, all right, done. You know, so that's why I got rid of that one. Didn't that have, I think that one had the first two balls. No, that's a bonus seven. the first two balls on a bonus seven, the number, the holes also have a number on it from one to six. Okay. And there's a skill shot in the first two balls. If you can total seven that you then get that award. Huh? And do you have to play for it? Is it like a white button feature? It is a white, it's exactly a white button. That's right. Okay. I think it's, is it totaling seven or is it, Do I have to shoot red, then yellow, then – I don't quite remember. I'll have to look that one up. But I do remember there was a game that had first few balls, you're trying to shoot a total of seven, and the number was different than the 125 number. Every hole had a number from one to six on it. But I don't know if it was one to seven. Yeah, I'll have to look that one up myself. I'm not familiar. I know it's a 20 hole, but that's all I know. That's right. It was, wasn't it? And this one also had a hopper on it. Oh, wow. Yeah. That adds to the weight. It had the base and the weight and the hopper on it. So you only get the heavy ones, huh? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I'm the idiot. I'm the moron who doesn't care if it weighs an extra 100 and a half pounds. So on the angle iron on the cradles, can you reverse that and just put on the metal legs? You mean put on the wooden ones? Well, these machines, well, Sun Valley, I guess, would have wooden legs, but some of those would have metal like the Magic Screen games. Oh, that's probably right. Yeah, just because of the weight of the head and whatnot. Right. So I was debating and discussing with Dennis, Dennis Dodell, because he's the one who helped facilitate the deal in St. Louis. So when I was putting these machines in, we were loading them up, we were talking about them. And I mentioned, you know, should I take this off or not? And he suggested that if you're not going to redo the cabinet, you might as well leave it on. Because it provides so much stability to the game. And you don't know what's under there. So you can take it off and you might have a cabinet that's not structurally sound. Yeah. Okay. But when it has the iron on it, it is. so I'm not one for I'm not one for cabinet cosmetics because the way I have them set up in my house I mean they're side by side by side you really can't see that anyway right so the only thing I don't like is there is armor on the front door but you know you can't have everything so you know maybe I'll look into taking off the armor on the front door but I'm going to leave it on based on suggestions from Dennis who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do Gotcha. And so out of those, which are you most excited to play Golden Gate? The Golden Gate, because it has that golden game. Jeffrey has one and we play that once in a while. I also like the Circus Queen. And again, Cypress Gardens, I have to get up and running just because it was my first game. I played the Sun Valley at Jeffrey's. He says we've played Ballerina, but I don't remember. So maybe he had it at one time and I've forgotten, or maybe it's there and I've forgotten we haven't played it in a while. But I think that has a unique feature on it that wasn't on any other game, although I don't recall what it is right now. I believe so. I want to say it's the 1-7 and 7-1 button. Yeah, that's exactly. But I don't know for sure. No, that's exactly what it is. Hey, there we go. I knew a thing. Yeah, I knew a thing. I knew a thing too. So, well, you enjoy playing them, obviously. Do you enjoy working on them as well? Absolutely, yeah. I think I'm not very good at it, as the e-mails that I sent to you when I was fixing my variety suggested, where, you know, just basic things sometimes went over my head. and the story I'll tell is the fact that on the variety at the foot rail is our three knobs to move up and down the horizontal lines A, B, and C. And when I was troubleshooting this, I couldn't figure out why the start of the game, randomly, to me anyway, the lines would jump up and down. Sometimes they'd go up one or down one or not do anything. I couldn't figure out why. Well, like an idiot, it was because the knobs were in those positions. The knob was at move up on A, and the knob was moved down on B and down on C. So when you shot the ball and it went underneath the gate, sure enough, the lines moved exactly like they should. Now, in my defense, this is the only game I've had where the adjustment that you make as a player is, it maintains itself, right? Normally you hit buttons and it rotates things, right? It'll rotate the numbers or rotate the screen. And then at the beginning of the new game, the screen gets reset and there's nothing on the foot rail that you have to adjust to get back to the base position. So in my defense, this was the first time I had one of these machines, and once I figured it out, then I felt like a complete moron. But, yeah, I do like to fix them. If you own a machine and you have to be able to want to tinker with it or else you're just going to be frustrated and have a big boat anchor in your basement or garage. And if you don't spend hours on Phil's site, then you're not doing it right. There is so much information there and you can read it again and again and again. And I always pick up something new and maybe that's just me. Maybe some of the old timers out there have gained enough information where they kind of all have it up in their head. But I'm still at the point where I'm learning and I certainly enjoy that. And in fact, of the three machines that I have, the variety is currently my favorite because it was the one I fixed. Quote unquote, I fixed it myself, quote unquote. But, of course, by that I mean I asked Jeffrey questions and I asked you questions and I asked Phil questions. But ultimately, I was the guy who actually fixed it. I didn't have to hire Jeffrey to come and fix it. So, yeah, I love working on them. And there's a lot of satisfaction to having it work when you've spent many hours with it. I'm sure you have the same experience as well. Absolutely. Yep. What do you do for a living, Nick? I'm an IT guy. Okay, good. So I'm a computer guy. Yeah. So I think part of the reason why the fixing of the machine resonates with us is that we spend all of our time on computers. And at the end of the day, you turn off your computer, what the hell did you do all day? There's nothing tangible or physical to show that I work today. Now, when you work on a bingo machine, you know, and you start working on it at 10 a.m. on a Saturday, well, guess what? at six o'clock at night, you know you have fixed A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, and H, and you still have a few more things to tweak. But when I come back the next day, there is tangible evidence that I did actual physical work and got something fixed. So, you know, maybe people in other industries where they work with their hands all day or work with physical things, they might get that same satisfaction. But certainly I know that's something for me that because of the fact I spend all day on computers and it's just kind of in the cloud, so to speak. Having something physical and tangible fixed when you're done doing your work is a very satisfying thing. Absolutely. It's our mark on the planet, huh? At least in our house. Well, yeah. So have you had to work on a control unit and, you know, taking it apart and reassembling, redoing the clutches? No, no, nothing that complex. That's not in a not in the mixer unit, not in the control unit. The most complex it's been are just the you know, it's a lot of cleaning. It's a lot of cleaning. You know, you got to clean those discs off and got to make sure you got the right bend on your wiper fingers. and you have to get in there with your small little wood dowel or your dental tool to just kind of tug on wires to make sure you have good connections. You know, it's a lot of that. But in terms of like doing a complete overhaul, oh, man, I would wind up with something for the trash if I decided to do that. Have you had to get in there to that extent Not in depth I take off pieces at a time and then put it back together because I worry about some of the same thing But that said, once you get started, that's really the big roadblock, at least in my mind, is taking that first step. So once you take off the search wipers, you know, it's it's a short trip to take off all of the control unit cams. Well, you know. I'll say this. Spend more time thinking about what you want to try to fix and what the problem might be than actually taking apart the machine. You'll save many hours if you just think about something longer than just diving in. The second thing is make sure you have enough time to take it apart and put it all back together in one sitting. If you don't, then you're in trouble. Absolutely. Yeah. And your first suggestion there is very appropriate. I don't know if you've heard my struggles with the search disk here recently. Yeah, I have. And it wasn't actually the search disk. And if I had taken a second and looked at that schematic closer, I would have seen the selection disk in between and actually saved myself a ton of time. But well, you live and learn, you know, I mean, that's part of the that's part of the. It's I don't want to say that's not really the fun part of it, but that's part of it. Well, it's learning for sure. And that is fun. Well, it'll be fun next time it happens when you say, aha. I know exactly what that is. Yeah, and that's my problem is working on the later games, the magic screens and the 20 holes with the mystic lines. I mean, I know those ones front and back, but not these six card ones, apparently. Now, see, I've heard you talk about them and I've seen them. I've actually never played a six-card game. Well, same here until I just picked this one up. And Vic Camp, I was talking with him, and he said, you know, those six-card games will make you a better player. And I have to say he was absolutely right. I've been playing that ticker tape pretty much every day. And every game, pretty much, I can make at least a three in a row. on one of the cards and keep my bet going, you know, for a good long while. And I'm starting to make consistently four and five in a row when I could never, ever do that before. I guess the idea is that you just don't have the option to, it's almost like your game is constrained a bit more. Yes. Like you have to make these numbers in order to win. You must. There's no extra balls. Right. There's no other features. No moving numbers? Nothing, yep. So the only thing you've got are these six different layouts, and you have to actually wrangle the ball quite a bit more. Now, have you done – so I'm a math guy. Sure. So I like to do a little bit of analysis on the gameplay and the board setup to try to figure out the optimal numbers to shoot for depending on the features that you have lit and the odds that you're at. So one example is, you know, a simple example is on the variety. There is a feature which is main card scores 200 for corners. Now, that makes sense to go for, but not when your odds are at level five or higher, where your five in a row pays 150 or 192 or 300. So at some point, it doesn't make sense to go for certain things because the scores that you have on other things are higher. So, you know, depending on how you weight the value of a three in a row versus a four in a row versus a five in a row, you can do an analysis of, okay, well, which numbers are really the most profitable ones to shoot for at first? so you know i think experienced players have this knowledge kind of implicitly in their head based on the hours and hours that they've played but for somebody just approaching machine like me to just kind of take a look at that that kind of gives me a starting point for okay how can i best approach this machine and not be deceived by certain features that really aren't profitable to go for. And there are counterintuitive things as well. Like sometimes it doesn't make sense to go for the super card because your odds on the main card are so good. And, you know, if you shoot for three in a row, then you might as well shoot for three in a row because then you might get four or five in a row. And you have those constraints on the super card where you can't get anything better than four in a row and that's it. So, anywho, I've been doing some Google Spreadsheeting and some analysis to try to Figure out the numbers to shoot for And I think my wife thinks I'm crazy Ditto for mine Do you play with your wife? I know you play with your daughter Yeah my wife only Really plays one game that I have A flipper game But she doesn't play the bingos Most of the folks That come over you know I wrangle them over to the bingos eventually and get them to give them a shot. And a lot of them come away with an appreciation at least. So, but some, some just don't get it. And you got to let, let them go, you know? Yeah. Darlene and I, we've played a couple of times, but I think there's too much going on for her liking in terms of, you know, you're standing there, you're excited, you're calling out numbers, you know, well, you can get to seven to 12 or the 14 between a row, and then you might be able to get four row, but also the super, you know, and she's just like, dad, let me shoot the damn balls or let me go play my, uh, um, we have those mega touch machines on the bar downstairs. So she likes to play that. So, uh, my other friend, I'm sorry. One other thing about friends coming over to play. My friend, Wade came down, um, when I first, uh, got my Palm Springs. And he hadn't played a bingo before, and I explained to him what it was. He's like, all right, you know, I'm like, here, try it. I will be damned if you didn't stand up and make five in a row in his first five balls right across the top. Are you kidding? No, I'm not kidding. Four, six, 12, 18, four, whatever it is. He made all five of them. And I'm like, dude, you just made all five. He's like, huh, that was the end of it. He didn't, no, no appreciation for it. And I was just like, dude, you don't understand. and you play for hours and you never get five in a row. He's like, well, I did. That was the end of that. Huh. You should have bought a lottery ticket. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, you should have. Yeah. That's the, that thing, going back to the six card, you have the same odds for three in a row on every card. But then they start jumping up when you get to four and five in a row. So what you want to shoot for is ideally five in a row on card six, because that's your best odds. And normally if you get four or five in a row on card six, you also get at least three in a row on one other card in most of the positions. So the six-card games have a double or nothing feature. All of them or just the one you have? Well, many of them. Many of them. I don't know that all of them do, but a good chunk of them do. And that can be quite profitable if you resist hitting it and save it up for your big in-line wins, especially on card six where your max payout is 300 for five in a row. But you can double, double. You can double it to six. But instead of being a nickel, these games are a quarter. so but you still get five five plays for a quarter right no you get one you get one card per quarter i see so you you you get one card per quarter for sure so if yep do you get the first three for the first quarter you have to play a quarter for each quarter for each so it's six coin max all right yeah it's a it's a different kind of game yeah well my touchdown is my touchdown is a little hinky. It's very liberal. Even if I have the reflex unit off, that's never a part of the circuit, which means it's always at the most conservative. There's another adjustment back there. I have it set to the most conservative. But I was having a trouble where I couldn't get the... the machine would cycle, but it wouldn't stop. So it would cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle. The button, all the things would flash in the background, but would never stop. Or it would stop intermittently. And I couldn't figure it out, and Jeffrey and I couldn't figure it out. And so finally what we decided was we just kind of put another jumper wire in place so that at some point we hooked up another switch that we know at some point will get power during the circuit to this relay to guarantee that it stops. but I think it bypasses some of the proportioning units that are in the machine. So it's very liberal. So when I play that machine, I play it as a fixed game. I say you can only put in 8 nickels or you can only put in 12 and that's it. So you decide if you want to put in 4 now and save 4 for extra balls or all 12 now. But that's the only way to make that thing challenging or else you can just stand there and you can put in 24 nickels, you have everything lit, and all of a sudden you're rolling over the register. Wow. So, you know, sometimes you have to make adjustments based on, you know, the game plays that you have and the limitations that it might have. And so that's something I've done on the touchdown is I play it as a fixed coin game, and at least it makes it not wildly easy to beat because you could just beat it. Yeah. So there is an adjustment, which I haven't gone into because, I mean, some of my stuff is technical, but this is highly technical. But on the, I think, mixer number two, you can clip a couple leads together with an alligator clip or jump room, and it'll make it just about as liberal as can be. So I wonder if that's what you've done. Interesting. Yeah, I know. When I was troubleshooting my variety, the odds have eight steps, and the first three or four are fairly easy to get. And then once you get above that, it gets into the mixture units and all these other areas that are going to control whether or not it's going to jump from there. Right. And I know Phil suggested that as I was troubleshooting this to try to figure it out, he told me where on the mixer to jump or to always make sure that if the wires were connected, it should be jumping. So he was able to look at the different mixer units and say, okay, you jump lug seven to nine on mixer two, and no matter what, it should always jump. So if you're troubleshooting, do that so that you know that that's always enabled in the circuit so you can look elsewhere, so to speak. Boy, I wish I had that knowledge. He is a whole other level beyond anybody I've ever talked to. I was stunned when I heard you read out the email interview you had with him that he was done. They didn't have any more machines. Yeah. I was stunned. And then I talked to Dennis, and Dennis said that the last machine Phil had was a ballerina, and Phil sent it to Dennis. Oh, so I'm not sure what the deal was on that. But yeah, I couldn't believe that Phil was out. But, you know, we all, I guess, have had passions and hobbies that we've kind of gone into and out of. And maybe that's what happened with with Phil. But again, he's still very, you know, very helpful. If you reach out to him, I'll try to help you with your technical problems. And and like you said, just a wealth of information that we couldn't possibly ever hope to achieve. Yeah. Or do without. Yeah. And thankfully he's documented so much of it and so well. Yeah. Including stuff that Valley themselves didn't document. I mean, like the mixer units, he has schematics for many of the mixers. It's amazing. Now, have you seen that? There's there's two people that have produced videos on Valley Bingo Repair, right? There's there's I can't remember who they are or where they are. One of them is on physical DVD and the other one you can download it. Have you seen those? I haven't. I've heard that they're good, but I haven't seen them. They are well worth it. Really? There's no question. I have both of them. The older one I think is available through Marco Specialties or Pinball Resources or something like that. And I think it's 50 bucks for a two a two disc set. And. Again, I mean, 50 bucks is the value of the information and it is so much higher. It's not even funny. And then the other one is you can download it. I think it has 11 volumes, quote unquote volumes, but you can just download the whole thing. And I think it might be I think it's cheaper than 50 bucks. It might be 40 or even 30. But again if you do a Google search for Bally Bingo repair video I sure you find them Yeah I know you find the one I think the guy down in Seattle I think the guy who did the one in Dallas Yeah. I hear he is very good as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just. And I've often had my finger on the trigger for those, but never quite pulled it. Yeah, so I got mine because the guy I bought my variety from, He only had this one and only one machine, and he mentioned he had this. I said, well, it's part of the deal. Are you going to burn me a DVD of that? And he said, yeah. So that's how I got it, and I should send the guy $20 anyway for the guy who did it because it's well worth it. So I'll say that. If you're just getting into this or you've been into this hobby for a while and you want some technical guidance, either of those videos I'd recommend for just kind of a general walkthrough and overview and some really good tips and tricks that you just wouldn't even think of it's just wonderful stuff. Cool, I'll have to check it out so do you have any other machines that you'd be looking at in the future? Not now man I figured this will take me at least I mean, this is like a six-month thing each. I can't work on them all the time. They're in the garage. So you're kind of constrained in the winter up here in Ohio. You can't be out there all that much. Hell, even in the summer it gets too hot out there that you don't want to be out there. Unfortunately, I don't know about you, it looks like you have yours in your garage there. Is that where you are now? Yeah. Well, I have a basement. I have a fully furnished basement. and getting a machine, and it's not a walkout, unfortunately. There's stairs. So it's nine stairs down and then a 90-degree turn and then three more down. Ooh. Yeah. So the plan on last Sunday when I had all these machines was we're taking all these things downstairs. We're taking them all downstairs. Well, we got the first iron-clad body downstairs. And I mean, I had had enough already. I'm like, we can't possibly do this. So the other thing was, is that, again, these were heavily routed machines. So they were really, really dirty. And so I thought better of it. And I thought plan B was let's just stand a couple up out in the garage. Let's make sure they're working and really clean because I don't want to bring that. that garbage and soot and dust and cigarettes smoke. And I mean, I smoke, but there's just so much nicotine on the side of these machines. So I thought better of it. I thought let's, let's clean up maybe two at a time, fix up two at a time. And then I'll call, you know, two guys with a truck and I'll make them move them downstairs for me. So, um, yeah, I was, I was hoping to get a walkout basement with the house, but, uh, you know, we couldn't get it. So what are you going to do? Yeah. So in the summer and the winter, do you take your glasses, your back glasses inside the house? No. No? No, I leave them out there. I guess I'm not too concerned about it. I haven't experienced any kind of loss or anything that I could notice from one season to another. Good. And also, interesting, you talk about back glasses. I asked Jeffrey okay what would you do if you were moving these machines in the back of a U-Haul would you take the back glasses out and wrap them in blankets and put them in your cab or would you leave them in the back glasses and he says absolutely leave them in the in the cabinets leave them in the head so that was good to know that I would think that the vibration would be problematic but I guess the way those heads are built and whatnot and the way the back glasses sits in there that you're just better off leaving them in there yeah that's something i've been over in the podcast too because i mean they were constructed to move that way um you know they weren't they weren't made so that you would take them out for transport um you would just leave them in yeah right take it from one bar to the next or one bar to your shop and then back to the bar yeah i guess that makes sense too Yeah. And that's by far the safest place for them. As long as you have your head strapped down so it's not going to flop over and smash. Yeah. When we loaded them, we loaded them kind of face to face. So we put two heads that were the same size face to face. That's perfect. Didn't really have to tie down all that much because of the way that they fit into the space of the trailer. so that saved a little bit of time too not having to worry about that so much we certainly, the bodies that were standing up on their base so that the foot rail was in the air those we certainly tied up because those would sway back and forth on top of one another but the heads pretty much we just put some blankets over them and they didn't move yeah well the bodies are so light in comparison well but with the armor on them they're not that was a problem yeah yeah um you're i think the armor adds about double the weight probably to the to the body now have you ever do you have a trailer how do you move machines around when you buy machines how do you get them do you have a trailer or a truck or how do you get them i just have a minivan okay and are you able to leave the head on with the body? No, I always take the head off. Always. It puts too much pressure on the cab to leave it on. That's another thing. When I buy a single machine, I'll use my father's pickup truck and we'll just take the legs off and slide the whole thing head on the body and then strap it down. You're only driving a couple hours. I don't worry about it too much. Yeah, it's just an extra safety thing. Because if the bolts back out at all or anything, then, you know, it can rip right through that wood that's in the bottom of the head on like a flipper machine. And on a bingo machine, there's just so much weight. I just wouldn't do it. So, you know, I worry about these things being as old as they are. and being as abused as they were in bars and so forth. You know, just one less thing to worry about. Sure, sure. But again, you know, it just takes more time. Well, yeah. And whatnot. And I know, just like me, you're made out of time. Yeah, exactly. Unlimited resources when it comes to time. Yeah. Why not just do it that way? So what's the first machine you're going to fix up, do you think? It'll be either the Sun Valley or the Golden Gate or the Cypress Gardens. I think I'll probably do the Cypress Gardens. I'll probably do them in order of complexity. So, you know, doing a magic squares game, like, or what they call moving squares, I'm not sure, but the Cypress Gardens, yeah. I'll probably do that one and then the Sun Valley is just the same thing with a few more. I think, actually, Dennis mentioned that Circus Queen might already be fixed pretty close, so that'll be my first Magic Screen game I'll get into. And then just because I really like that Golden Gate, I'll probably get into that one next, but But, you know, we'll see how it goes. And, you know, sometimes your interest just takes you from one to another. But the advice, Jeffrey was over here yesterday. Actually, he wanted to check out the stash. Oh, cool. So he was over here yesterday, and he gave me a good piece of advice, which was one at a time. Don't do, you know, don't think you're going to fix everything all at once. Just take one, put it in your workshop, put it in your work section, and get on it. Act like it's the only one you own, get it all the way, and then move on to the next one. Sounds reasonable to me. Do you have a hydraulic lift table? Yes. Yeah, me, oh my lord. If you're going to have multiple machines, buy one of these things. Yep. I don't remember, were they 200 bucks or something like that maybe? Yep. I think it was $200 delivered to your door. and I mean the thing weighs 70 or 80 pounds but it's a lifesaver yeah being able to shrink I don't know if they make different versions but the hydraulic liftable I have it's like two or three inches short of the height to get the head onto the body I think you and I have the same one they do make another one that's slightly more expensive that gets the head all the way up but you know I was too cheap. Well, I'm telling everybody buy that one. Yeah. It would be well worth it. I don't care if it's an extra $200. I'd still do it. Have you seen the one that Jeffrey's got? I don't think so. It's amazing. It's even better than the more expensive one I'm talking about. It goes all the way up and down and it's so buttery smooth to move that thing. It's great. but so I'll have to ask him next time I talk to him where he got that one. Yeah. Yeah. I'll ask him as well. I know he has a whole bingo van. His son hooked him up with, he has a whole Tommy lift on the back and room for all kinds of machines in his van. And it's got a space for his tools and tie downs and all that stuff. So, and it has a picture of his book on the side of his van. So that's kind of cool. And now I'm assuming, obviously, that you've read his book. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was funny. I was born and raised here in the area, in the Cincinnati area. And I moved back here probably, I don't know, eight years ago. I hadn't talked. I knew who Jeffrey was because I had his book. I had never emailed. I'd never called him. Nothing. Well, I looked him up. I called him on the phone. and I said, hey, Jeffrey, my name's Robert, you know, big bingo fan. I just moved back to the area. I see you're down in, you know, five-mile road here off 275. Can I come by? He's like, sure, come on by. So, you know, we got to know each other, and we played bingo that night. And, you know, I probably go over there once every month or once every two months, and we play. But, yeah, just a really nice guy. And, you know, if you've never contacted him or want to talk to him or about bingo, you know, don't feel bad about just picking up the phone and saying, hey, I'm so-and-so, and let me talk bingo with you a little bit, and I'll spend time with you. He's a really nice guy that way, and he was nice that way to me too. He's a super nice guy, that's for sure. And he always brings some nice games to the York show. I think that's, yeah, that's where I met him. And, yeah, I look forward to it every year. I'm considering going this year I've never been to that show before oh it's great it's just a matter of how I can swing it yeah it's well worth the effort to get there now how far is it from you because for me it's pretty York isn't that on the eastern side of Pennsylvania yeah it's on well it's on the southeastern I think yeah so it's pretty close to me it's only like four and a half hours away for you I guess it would be closer to a nine-ish. Yeah, that's a fly me kind of thing there. Yeah. That's when I run a U-Haul and bring back 10 games, but I'm not going to do that again for many years. Of course I say that, and then somebody from Cleveland is going to call me and say, hey, I got a pile of games up here. Why don't you come get them? And I'll be like, all right, well, I have to buy another house first. Who needs space? Yeah, who needs space? Okay, well, good. I think an hour is long enough like I was saying I'm sure your listeners are bored as shit now from listening to me ramble about my passion but it was fun talking to you and good meeting you and maybe we'll do another one one time but again I'll invite you if you're ever out here in Cincinnati you have a place to stay at my house and we can play some bingo and have some beers and have some fun so if that happens you let me know absolutely thank you very much Robert I appreciate you coming on and if you're ever a Richmond way let me know too I'll do that alright Nick have a good one Robert you too bye bye I want to thank my guest Robert Madel for coming on and talking about his passion for bingos and I hope to talk with him soon especially to check in and see how his refurbs are going and all the best, Robert. I hope you get them all up and running here soon. So, thank you again for joining me. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at foramusementonlypodcast at gmail.com and you can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can find me on Instagram at nbaldridge and you can listen to us on our website which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com on our website you can purchase t-shirts thank you again for joining me and I'll talk to you next time

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b61e4902-6531-4fa8-8b6d-58350e9407c8*