Kupuna from across island turn out for annual Casino Day

The booming voice of the Bingo caller could be heard far from Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium on Friday as excited kupuna arrived for the annual Casino Day event hosted by Hawaii County’s Elderly Recreation Services.

About 400 people over the age of 55 filled the home of the Merrie Monarch Festival, which had been transformed into a mini local Las Vegas with multiple tables offering craps, roulette and black jack.

One hundred seats were set up for Bingo, but less than half an hour into the three-hour event, people had overflowed to nearby tables, where they sat studying their Bingo cards and munching on mochi donuts from KTA Super Stores offered at the refreshments table that played 1980s rock music.

Though the activities were spread out widely enough to allow guests to comfortably enjoy the games with their mobility-assisting devices, the gamblers packed tightly around the craps tables to eagerly try their luck. Arms were raised in the air and breath was held as one pair awaited their fate during a spin of the Wheel of Fortune, while one lucky winner dance-walked away from a lucky game of Plinko right beside them.

“A lot of seniors can’t go to Vegas,” said Kalen Koga, the program manger for Elderly Recreations Services who has been putting on Casino Day since 2021. “We try to make it as Vegas-themed as we can.”

The event welcomed elders from around the island, offering transportation for an extra $3 added to the $12 registration that provided players a bag of 150 chips upon arrival.

Herlani Herkamto, 67, utilized the offered transportation all the way from Kona as she has the past three years. Selecting a photo of heart-shaped glasses on a stick as the perfect accessory for her annual photo booth shot, she said she would choose Casino Day over a Vegas trip anytime.

“I don’t like Vegas,” she said. “This is my Vegas, because I don’t like to use real money.”

Barbie Rehak, 71, from the Pahala Senior Club also loved risk-free gambling at Casino Day, because her two trips to Vegas were “how I spent the whole $200 I allowed myself to have,” she said with a laugh as she gave roulette a try. A group of seniors from the club in Pahala all commuted together and wore the same vibrant purple T-shirts with the word “Togetherness” on the back over an ‘ohia flower.

Rehak said her favorite game is Bingo, which is where three of her friends — 88-year-old Loretta Lorenzo, 75-year-old Lucy Makuakane, and 90-year-old Pauline Enriques — were enjoying the game like pros. Their club in Pahala is big on Bingo, the women said excitedly, except games there are called Nutrition Bingo and come with dissolved fruit and veggie prizes from the local grocery, ‘Ohana Foods, Makuakane said.

In one corner of the event, three of the many staff and volunteers running the games for the seniors each held cartoon photos of fruits in spaces separated by walls. This year’s newest addition was called ‘Fruit Fortunes,’ where the volunteers rotated the images as music played until the senior playing tells them to stop. Two or three matching fruits on this human slot machine earns chips, along with loud cheers and a siren from the game’s emcee.

Attendees eagerly waited for the new game in a line that was at one point 12 people long. But Jeanette Fukuda — a 72-year-old from Hilo who attended with her mother, Kay Fukuda, 89 — said the wait wasn’t long as a childlike smile brimmed on her face when she received a voucher for 20 chips for her two-fruit match.

Casino Day prizes included donations like jars of local Just Honey and bags of 100% Kona coffee from Waiaha River Coffee Co., alongside gift boxes from Big Island Delights.

Item winners chosen through lucky number drawings and those with the most chips also received an additional door prize of hand-crafted walking sticks from the “Make Your Own Walking Stick” class offered at Kamana Senior Center.

The top five grand champions with the most chips of the event won a large rubber ducky wearing a a gold chain, fedora and black sunglasses.

“I’m going for the duck!” said Jose Archuleta, 73, of Hawaiian Paradise Park. This was the second year Archuleta attended Casino Day with his wife, and decided to try last year’s new game, Mega Ducks, where players fished rubber duckies from a pool to reveal how many chips they won, blindfolded.

“This is so fun,” said Archuleta, 25 chips richer from his duck hunt. “We’re gonna come every year.”

Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.