bingo facts page

More than three million people play bingo regularly in the UK.
In 2004 more people attended bingo than football matches in both UK leagues.
Online bingo participation is roughly 80% female and 20% male.
There are 699 licensed and operating bingo clubs in Great Britain. Around 500 clubs link together to play the National Game every day, except Christmas Day.
Total prize money won since the National Bingo Game started in 1986 presently stands at £725,179,338.

Bingo is now the most popular leisure activity in the UK for women between 20 and 25 years old, at least 30% of bingo players are under the age of 35.
90% of players are below the age of 50, dispelling the myth that bingo is for the older generation.
85% of online players are women and still only 1% of UK land-based players played online, showing that many have still not made the transition to on-line bingo.
Many celebrities like to play bingo, including Denise van Outen, Elle MacPherson, Damon Hill, Mariah Carey, Bianca and Jade Jagger.
Research shows women are much happier playing bingo, and 15% say they engage in bingo for socializing and companionship.

Bingo Facts - Karl Seth

The average speed of a British bingo caller is 23 numbers per minute.
An average British game of bingo takes between four and four and a half minutes.
The number one reason for playing bingo is enjoyment - winning money comes in fifth. More than two in three people go to bingo for social, rather than financial reasons.
95% of bingo players have won money at some point playing bingo.
Castle Bingo in Canton, Cardiff, was the first purpose built Bingo Hall in the UK.
60% of bingo players are smokers.
All bingo halls in the UK participating in the National Bingo Game must adhere to the somewhat more strict rules on calling numbers because of the overwhelmingly large prize money (sometimes up to £500,000). This includes a double repetition of every single number, in the format, "Fifty five, both the fives, fifty five".

In America alone a staggering $90 million is spent on bingo cards a week!
Bingo received the second highest number of votes to be the national past time of Belgium.
Mathematically there are 1,474,200 unique bingo card variations.
Players often arrive two hours before the game starts, to enjoy a meal or chat with friends. Every year, 15,000 tons of chips, 10 million hot drinks, 130,000 breakfasts, 4 million pints of lager and 47 miles of jumbo sausage are consumed every year in the United Kingdom by bingo players!
The bingo industry employs over 20,000 people from callers, and change givers to cleaners and accountants.

Many bingo players have superstitions and play bingo in their lucky seat. They often have lucky numbers, lucky days and times to play bingo, lucky charms, clothes and daubers.
In a survey Joe was found to be the luckiest name for men who play bingo, or the most common out of male winners – depending how superstitious you are! Women with the name Margaret were found to win more often than any other name.

One of the first attempts to bring Bingo to the computer screen was made in 1993 for the Super Famicom - a Japanese games console known to us as the Super Nintendo.
In Bing! Bing! Bingo could be played while sky diving, through a slot machine, on a Pirate Ship and even with Santa Claus!It was never produced for the west though, as video games were only popular with young males wanting sport, action and violence.
Bing! Bing! was not online either, so no chance of any fantastic bingo prizes!

Outside of the game of Bingo, it's also well known as a dogs name, probably from the old song - and for Americans, the dog on boxes of Crackerjack.
A female British rapper "M.I.A" recorded an entirely different track with the same name. M.I.A. stands for Missing in Action - maybe she was off playing Bingo!
Bingo is also a province in Japan, the name of a Hobit in "Lord of the Rings" and the title of a book, a play about Shakespear and a few films one about a dog.