Underground High-stakes Resident Bingo Ring Busted
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Underground High-stakes Resident Bingo Ring Busted
After several months of intense investigation, the underground high-stakes resident-run Bingo game at Hospital Woeisme has finally been uncovered and disbanded. Originating with the ED residents, the game was initially just for fun. The game turned serious, and illegal, when players began paying to join in. The reported payout could be thousands of dollars, depending on how many residents played and won each week.
Bingo cards, available for $25.00 apiece, featured a grid with boxes specifying items such as, ‘Patient here 4+ times this week,’ and ‘Patient with more tattoos than teeth.’ Whenever a resident met a square’s criteria they would check it off, with the goal of completing the entire board. The surgery residents joined in soon after, tweaking the cards to fit their own specialty, with boxes such as ‘ED consult for non-surgical issue’ and ‘Pawning consult off on an intern.’
Additional specialties rapidly joined in, raising the potential winnings drastically. Across the different services, each card had a box for ‘A med student who only tripled my workload’ and ‘Patient cursing at or threatening me.’ To keep the game fair, the completed bingo cards were sent to a secretive group called “The Chiefs” for confirmation. The Chiefs verified each player’s cards by comparing them against the hospital’s electronic medical records.
For years, no matter how many times the residents were searched, no one was ever caught carrying Bingo cards. Finally, an undercover investigative reporter discovered the truth – the med students were being used as Bingo card mules. In exchange for good reviews at the end of a rotation, med students would covertly transfer the Bingo cards and winnings between the players and The Chiefs.
In an exclusive interview with Dr. Benji, one of the now-busted Chiefs, she laughed, “You think med student’s white coat pockets are packed with study notes and flashcards? Nope. Their pockets are stuffed with bingo cards and winnings.”
The elaborate hospital-wide game ran for nearly seven year before being shut down. As the ex-Chief walked away, the corner of a card with visible letters that looked suspiciously like ‘N’, ‘G’ and ‘O’ could be seen sticking out of her back scrub pant pocket.
Perhaps the game isn’t entirely over?
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