Bingo has seen something of resurgence in popularity in recent years. Doom merchants began to predict that it would disappear in light of a number of factors; the breakdown of working class communities based in industrial towns, the smoking ban and the worsening economic climate.
But in spite of all this bingo has become more popular than ever in recent years with a new generation discovering the attraction. The relatively simple rules together with no requirements for any special equipment or attire make it accessible to almost anyone. And of course there is money to be won!
Bingo has its origins in various other games of chance, some dating back 500 years. Early examples of Bingo related games can be seen in European countries such as Italy and France and in Germany it was even adopted in the education system as a way of teaching children.
For anyone who has played bingo its attraction is obvious. As with all games there is an element of wanting to win. Combined with the fact that bingo is a game of chance and therefore in theory any one player has as much chance of winning as another (no need for expert knowledge or a fitness regime) and the reason it is so obvious becomes clear.
Perhaps one of the reasons it has continued to thrive and become as popular as it is though, is the communal element to playing. Most card games for instance involve only a few players whereas any one game of bingo can be played, literally, by thousands of people at any one time. Psychologists and philosophers have long argued that a shared experience is as important to human beings as oxygen.
The name derives from an incident in America in the early part of the 20th century when an excited winner called out ‘Bingo’ instead of the proper name ‘Beano’. The name stuck and the rest as they say is history.
Bingo thrived in post war Britain. It was the perfect antidote for the austere circumstances that many people found themselves in. I provided a much needed dose of excitement while the country struggled to find its place in the new world.
At the same time industry in Britain started to see improvements. The car industry, textile industry and coal industry all became more important than ever in building a post war Britain. The knock on effect of this was that new communities sprung up around the centers of industry and a new social network developed.
These new towns, villages and societies needed all the obvious things like houses and roads but they also needed entertainment and places to relax. Clubs started to be built that catered for this need and almost all of these places featured bingo as an important part of the week.
This carried on for several decades but cam under threat with the dawn of the internet and online gambling. Many predicted that the popularity of being able to play games like poker and bingo online would signal the end of those games being played in clubs and pubs. In fact the opposite has happened.
Online gambling has broken down the stigma of gambling and made the industry more acceptable to a whole new generation of players. The people who use the internet to play are also the people who are visiting casinos and bingo halls to play.
With big name celebrities like Robbie Williams and Bono admitting to a fondness for the game and adding to its improved reputation it seems that Bingo will be with us in its traditional form for some years to come yet.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the bingo industry.
Find out more about Bingo and the gaming industry.
The game of Bingo has been an easily definable genre of entertainment for nice housewifey types with a blue rinse, beige tights and probably a floral hand knitted cardigan. It evokes memories of a lost generation of pre war babies who were stay at home mothers that baked cakes and cooked up a hearty stew on a cold winters evening. On a Tuesday, the routine changed a little, it was time to slap on a bit of lippy and light up a Lambert and Butler then go meet the girls down the bingo hall to win a bit of spending money, new tights or a tin of beans for the pantry.
Hall based Bingo games were an opportunity to socialise and have a bit of fun; gambling was just a cherry on top of the fun. Halls would be in town centres, on seafront piers and makeshift games would be set up in community centres nationwide. It was a social hub of entertainment and was the girls night out before the rise of the ladette lager drinker. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Stella swigging sub culture that swept Britain, Bingo fell out of fashion as a past time, and halls struggled to keep the customers coming through the doors. The game had to undergo a serious upheaval and re-brand itself.
It was in the late nineteen nineties that the first online version of the game hit the internet; using the digital platform, the game managed to ditch it’s connotations of smoke filled rooms with dusty carpets being frequented by old age pensioners. Instead, the game took on a glam and glitzy new look in line with the hype of the turn of the millennium. Halls were so last century, the internet was so the future. The new style Bingo was able to attract a younger generation of computer savvy, money hungry players and the number of people that could play any one game was huge in comparison to hall based nights.
The consequences of this were the large payouts that were made possible by so many people taking part and paying for score cards. But where did this leave the social networking that was so much a part of the previous generations? Had online Bingo moved into an arena of pure online gambling? Investigating some of the more popular sites that offer nationwide participation, it can be seen that the networking between gamers is still thriving through the member’s forums. It appears that close knit communities are forming, tipping each other off about possible big wins, sharing experiences about new games that appear online and offering to share a win in return for tips.
These friendships are forming and thriving across the country and overseas into Europe too; and it appears to be the younger generation of former ladettes that are getting in on the action. There are references to parties and nights on the town, so there is a local socialising network forming too. There was a danger that these online relationships could have killed what little social life was left to have at a local level by encouraging staying in and only ever communicating through a keyboard. The reality is different though and Bingo has managed to reclaim a generation of enthusiastic gamers. Thankfully, it’s not just about the gambling after all.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the gambling and entertainment industry.
Find out more about Bingo and join other gamers on the forums at UK Bingo.