The traditional image of a bingo hall is a cracked, smoky concrete block that has somehow stayed rooted in the 70s, oblivious to the world around it. But the world of online Bingo has, in fact, revolutionised the game’s image, and thanks to the likes of Tasty Bingo you can even play along with the whole family.
Bingo is one of the few gambling games that is considered family friendly. After all, we have all played the traditional game at Christmas with a few game cards and pens and kids love the simplicity of the game. Bingo is one of those activities that doesn’t tax the grey matter too much and there’s no skill required – it’s all down to luck. Of course children love the colourful nature of the game, too. Give a small child one of those old-fashioned tumblers and watch them just roll it round for hours.
Italian origins
Suprisingly for such a British institution, Bingo is thought to come from Italy and traces its roots all the way back to the 1500s. It came to England and the rest of Europe in the 1700s, but it has become a favourite on these shores and is also popular in the US, which plays a slightly different version with 90 balls against our 75. Of course either one works when you’re at home with the kids, there’s no money at stake here…
A typical Commonwealth Bingo ticket contains 27 spaces with nine columns and three rows with each row containing five numbers and four blank spaces. Each column usually has up to three numbers. That means you don’t even need ready-made cards at home, you can make your own with a little time and effort. Indeed it can add to the fun if your family has an artistic bent. You don’t need the fancy tombola full of balls, too, you can simply write them down on scraps of paper and draw them from a bag.
Do what you want
Of course you don’t have to follow the rules like a slave. Bingo is effectively a large game of snap. So you don’t have to stick to numbers, you can use animals, food, words, photographs or whatever else you want. If your family leans towards the scientific end of the spectrum, you could play bacteria bent if you so choose. It would be weird, but you can.
There’s literally no end of options and there’s always a way to keep Bingo fresh. So you can rest assured that the game will stay with us for the next 500 years, in some shape or form, and that the Bingo of tomorrow might be a world away from the traditional game we all know and love. G
