Inuvik (Apr 17/06) - Just once a year for the past six years, TV bingo fans get a chance to see Lizz Gordon.

Well, okay, they get to see Gordon's fingertips as she holds up each of the bingo balls to the video camera and calls out the number.

"N-40; N-four-zero."

She's been the baroness of bingo for games played on the hamlet's cable TV during Inuvik's Muskrat Jamboree weekend.

It's just one of the many tasks she takes on as part of a legion of volunteers who have made the four-day festival a success for the past 49 years.

"G-56; G-five-six."

As anyone who spends more than a week in the North knows, bingo is huge.

Inuvik players have a TV channel to watch as they keep their lucky charms close by and aim their favourite dabber - a large-tipped marker pen to the uninitiated - at the next number they need in order to win.

Nights to sponsor bingos are fiercely contested.

The Legion, minor hockey and various societies pick nights to use the games to raise funds.

It's a whole-year type of game, with Wednesday and Sunday as the only days bingo isn't on, and a break for Christmas.

"I-16; I-one-six."

There are three ways winning cards are verified: what is shown on TV, and two machines at "the Dome" - picture a three-storey-high golf ball overlooking Inuvik - at Gordon's elbow where the TV bingo is broadcast to ensure players' numbers are bang-on.

"G-53; G-five-three."

As soon as the sound of the letter-number combo is past Gordon's lips, the phone rings.

The first game of four is complete and the winner will collect more than $2,000.

How big the prizes get is determined by how much the bingo sponsor wants to raise and how many cards are sold. One factor feeds the other.

The Muskrat Jamboree bingo's final game had a $5,000 prize, but this was chump change compared to the bingo the night before.

"Someone won $10,000," Gordon said. For a few seconds, Gordon and helper Claudine Kisoun pause to think of what magic could be created with a fast 10-grand in the hand.

But there's not much time to dream.

The game is afoot:

"O-69; Oh-six-nine."