Bingo halls transformed the lives of the Florida Seminoles. In the 1980s, bingo hall revenue allowed many community programs, reinvestment projects, and services to flourish in the reservation communities. Lopinot was an intern for the National Geographic on assignment at the Big Cypress and Brighton Seminole Indian Reservations at the time. Lopinot took this image in September 1987. They have markers and paper chips, and are most likely playing a game of bingo. This week, learn how Seminole bingo exploded in the 1980s, and how it set the stage for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s continued success.īelow, a group of children sit under a chickee, playing with a laminated card with pictures of animals on it. Building on the legal successes seen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Seminole bingo begins to cement the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s fiscal stability throughout this decade.
Welcome back to our series on Decades of Seminole Tourism! We are focusing on the 1980s, where Seminole bingo began to boom big in the Sunshine State.
