Glenbrooke News

Bunko was one of the first Glenbrooke Community Association (GCA) approved groups.     It  apparently started in this community before the Arbour Lodge was even built.    The players rotated houses and hosted the games.

Along came the Lodge and the games were moved there on on the third Thursday of the month.  The game was very popular and quickly filled to the  capacity of the card room.   So,  even though we are only about half built out,  there was no room for anyone to join the Bunko list unless they wanted to add their name to the substitution list.

Don't dispair, if you would like to play bunko (or learn to play bunko)  there is a new group forming.     They are looking for 12 players to play monthly.     This bunko group will again rotate houses and with twelve people, you would only have to host once a year.    Sound interesting?   contact Linda Stockton at NorCal2@comcast.net.      Still not sure,  read the interesting history of the game  from Wikipedia below  to see why it has survived for centuries.

History of Bunco

Bunco was originally "8-Dice cloth", a dice game in 18th-century England. It was imported to San Francisco as a gambling activity in 1855, where it gave its name to gambling parlors, or Bunco parlors, and more generally to any swindle. After the Civil War the game evolved to a popular parlor game. During the 1920s and Prohibition, Bunco was re-popularized as a gambling game, often associated with a speakeasy. Law-enforcement groups raiding these parlors came to be known as "Bunco squads". Bunco as a family game saw a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s.^[1].

Renewed popularity

Although re-released in 2005 with a tagline reading "The game that's sweeping the nation," sales were initially low though senior citizens and young adults alike have found interest in the game.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 21st century, the game has seen a resurgence in popularity in the United States, with a reported 27 million people playing regularly in 2006^[2].