Time is a funny thing. Show a teenager today a retro phone with a dial and they wouldn’t understand it! Tell young adults these days that bingo was once a game for the purple-rinsed grandmother brigade and they probably wouldn’t believe you either! But we’d be telling the truth!
Bingo was once a game for older generations where socialising and dabbing tickets came hand in hand. It was unheard of for a young man or woman to play bingo back ‘in the day’, but as technology and the years roll by, there are more young adults playing now than ever before!
And according to Mecca Bingo, bingo is definitely back after a recent study revealed two in five Brits enjoyed playing bingo at their local (online bingo wasn’t included in the study) instead of venturing out with friends. The research also revealed that 41% of young people (Millennials) now prefer to play bingo games to clubbing with almost a quarter of them in one area (Hull) admitting to being huge bingo fans!
Catrin White, retail marketing director at Mecca Bingo, said: “Bingo has a long history and it’s great to see it’s still as popular as ever with Brits from all over the UK. We’re seeing a resurgence with millennials favouring the classic game, and our research also indicates that plenty of Brits enjoyed bingo throughout lockdown driving a renewed passion for the pastime.We’re proud of our heritage and want to look back and celebrate the last 60 years of Mecca and collect memories from across the country.”
The Survey Says
The poll included answers from 16 to 29-year olds whereby some 40% of answers showed a preference to bingo games over playing darts, snooker and even boozy nights out with pals. Traditional bingo games and pastimes are now seen as cool, retro and hip!
Bingo has certainly come a long way since it was created back in Italy in 1530, where it started out life as Gioco del Lotto d’Italia. Italians are famed for love and romance, so it’s no wonder a fifth of young people here in the UK admit to have taken a potential partner for a date at a bingo hall! It was the French who stumbled upon the Italian game before renaming it Le Lotto and shortly after, the number gams landed on UK shores and was widely played across industrial towns and cities.
Mecca began its bingo journey back in 1961 and they are asking people to share their treasured memories with them on social media with the hashtag #MeccaMemories. Do you have any photographs, anecdotes, stories or memorabilia to share?
Source: “Young People in Hull Prefer Playing Bingo Than Clubbing”. Hull Live. August 6, 2020.
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Comments (1)
TinTinn
08/17/20, 06:08:25 AM
As a thirty-something female, my friends could never understand me wanting to go play bingo from the age of 18 instead of going out, so for me it’s definitely not something new...
