![]() ![]() "We only put in $5 a month, and by the end of the year, we still always have money left over," said Thornton, who works as a data technician for the Sonoma County Office of Education. Each member pays in a small monthly amount to cover food, drink and prizes. ![]() "Our children were all in grade school when we got started, and now we all have grandchildren in grade school," said Carol Thornton, 65, whose Bunco circle in Santa Rosa is in its 28th year.Ī Bunco club typically has a dozen members, taking turns as hosts of the monthly parties. No spats or sleeve garters - trademarks of the classic "crap games" shown in movies - are worn. Then one of the women at the party thought the officers were really male strippers that somebody had hired as a joke."įortunately, the misunderstanding was resolved without anybody's mom spending a night in the pokey.Īt most Bunco parties, the players are wives, mothers and grandmothers with everyday jobs as teachers, nurses and office workers. "I guess the neighbors heard screaming and thought somebody was getting beaten up, so they called the police. "We get pretty loud," said Rossotti, 62, a retired City of Petaluma administrative assistant. The modern version of the game is benign, and less likely to spark a scandal even than a low-stakes rec-room poker party.īut Jolene Rossotti of Petaluma, who co-founded a rotating monthly Bunco party that has lasted 33 years, does recall a night 10 years ago when four policemen showed up at the door. The term "Bunco Squad" was coined for the police detectives who raided illicit dice parlors during the 1920s. A San Francisco gambler introduced the game during the Gold Rush, originally dubbing it "Banco," which was later corrupted to "Bunco" (sometimes spelled "Bunko.") The words "dice game" conjure an image of shady characters crouching in a dark alley trying to throw sevens, not women who live on cul-de-sacs, sharing neighborhood news between rolls of the dice.īunco, a dice game played in suburban social circles across the country for decades, has a long and periodically disreputable history dating back to the 1800s, according the website. ![]()
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