ARVIAT - Adult recreational hockey players are smiling in Arviat after being granted two bingo slots this past week.

The granting of the slots came about after the hamlet decided to go back to its old way of granting bingo licences this past January.

The refusal of the former council to allocate any bingo revenues to senior hockey players is viewed as having played a major role in the last municipal election, which saw Johnny Mamgark take the mayor's seat in Arviat. - NNSL file photo

The previous year, Arviat's council announced it would administer all bingo played in the hamlet and distribute the funds among community organizations.

The refusal of that council to allocate any funds to senior hockey players is widely viewed as having played a major role in Arviat's 2006 municipal election which saw a new mayor elected.

SAO Cary Merritt said the new council made the decision to let groups handle their own bingos again once it took over earlier this year. He said the transition back has gone smoothly, despite the fact a number of groups had grown comfortable with the hamlet administering the funds.

"The decision was really a mixed bag as far as how people felt about it," said Merritt.

"While there were a number of organizations who preferred the status quo, the majority of those after bingo slots were happy to see it go back to the old way."

Council also passed a motion to increase the number of games played each week, with Thursday night added to Friday and Saturday's dabbing.

The number was increased due to the number of bingo requests council receives.

Merritt said a number of slots are taken by the hamlet for recreation and search and rescue, among others.

He said once that's taken care of, council meets to discuss the applications and grants the ones it views as the most beneficial to the community.

"Council selects the successful applicants and assigns bingo dates to them.

"The councillors try as best they can to match the dates to the time of year the organizations need revenue.

"You wouldn't, for example, want to assign an August slot to the spring festival committee."

Merritt said the hamlet has tightened up the reporting requirements for those who receive bingo slots.

He said any group that doesn't bring in its lottery statement of account after a bingo won't get another one.

"Council is also going to periodically request different groups to supply information as to what was done with the money raised by their bingo.

"It's important we know the money is being spent on what it was intended for."