New take on popular Mexican bingo turns shopping into a neighborhood-wide game in San Francisco

A popular Mexican bingo game named "La Loteria" is a new initiative by the city of San Francisco to get people over to the Mission District to shop.

You need a Loteria board to start! The boards are free and can be found at any of the 29 participating businesses in the Mission District.

Inside Fiesta Bowls, which opened a month ago, you'll get a taste of all the Mexican fruit snacks along with a sticker for the Loteria board, after purchase.

"We top it off with granola, coconut and cereal," said Fiesta Bowl owner, Jose Mendoza while holding the $7.50 fruit bowl.

Mendoza is no stranger to La Loteria, he grew up playing it.

"My cousins and I would play with frijoles (beans) and those were the ones you would put on your cards," said Mendoza.

Ok, but how does this take on the Mexican bingo game work? Diana Ponce De Leon with the San Francisco Workforce Development Office explains it's to get more shoppers to come to the Mission District.

"You can connect a line on the game board or fill the game board and then you can submit it for raffle tickets," De Leon says. "Every second Saturday of the month we will be raffling great prizes in the next 6 months."

So far, 29 businesses are participating and the SF Office of Economic Workforce Development is hoping more businesses join the campaign.

"Just along Mission Street and 24th Street we have over 700 small businesses that support our local families and jobs. We wanted to highlight that in a unique fun-filled way," said De Leon.

The Loteria board was designed by three local artists. Ivan Camilo Lopez, co-owner of the Artillery designed: La Pinata, La Catirna, and La Mission.

Lopez says "it bridges businesses and has people get out of their house and go and explore the neighborhood."

This third place we visited was la joyeria or the jewelry, represented by Jaimes Jewelry.

"It gets the community to visit different places, familiar places," said Aracely Guevara behind the Jaimes Jewelry counter. "You are gonna see different businesses and it's so fun."

The campaign started over the weekend but Guevara says she already sees the impact in this community.

"I started my own board and visited several businesses already," Guevara exclaimed.

To see the list of participating businesses click here.