The roots of bingo can be traced back to Europe in the 1500s. From then, it grew steadily more popular and became one of the main ways for charities, churches and organisations to raise money. The United Kingdom in particular experienced a huge boom in bingo halls after the world wars, with hordes of excited women heading out ‘to the bingo’ on a weekly basis. Bingo halls represented a safe and a sociable place for groups of friends to socialise in, and no town was complete without a grand old bingo hall. And then, our great tradition of bingo received a double whammy. The first was in the form of the smoking ban. Many bingo players loved to spark up and puff away while the numbers were called a smoky atmosphere was pretty much a part of the furniture. As soon as the ban came into force, bingo halls claimed their revenues were falling as people stayed away.
The second was the advent of online bingo this gave players all the thrills, spills and social aspect of playing bingo at home, but they didn’t have to leave the house and get dressed up, and that they could smoke until their heart’s (and lung’s) content. However, the growth of online bingo has surprised everybody. Nobody could predict that in 2010 there would be around 250 online bingo sites, with two or three opening up on a monthly basis.
The online bingo phenomenon has swept Britain and it is now the most popular group past time for females in the UK. It’s a players’ market with so many sites battling for supremacy, the cash bonuses, promotions, incentives and jackpots just get bigger and better. Players are undoubtedly spoilt for choice after all, each bingo site has a variety of rooms to play in and when you factor in all of the side games, you can see how the average online bingo player could easily spend a lifetime working their way through all of the games available.
The social aspect of bingo still remains and while you can’t see your fellow players, or roomies as they are called, face-to-face, the bingo chat rooms remain a vital and vibrant part of the game. Many bingo players are stay-at-home-mums, and connecting with like-minded people around the world can offer much-needed friendship and communication to people who need it most. And of course, the ever-increasing speed of Internet connections makes playing games super smooth and easy. The growth in the UK online bingo industry doesn’t seem to be slowing down where on earth will it end? The market has to reach saturation at some point, but currently, the only way is up. To number 90 – the top of the shop in fact!
This news post was written by Tracey Trevors on August 3, 2010