It can be hard for some games and forms of entertainment to keep up. With even independent cinemas closing all over the UK these days, let alone traditional venues like theatres, you\’d be forgiven for thinking that bingo wouldn\’t be able to keep on going for much longer. But actually it\’s gone from strength to strength in recent times. So what\’s the secret to bingo, and why has it continued to capture people\’s interest and excitement into this new century?

The internet has changed a lot about the way we do things. It\’s meant that shopping has been revolutionised, and that marketing and socialising are all shaken up too. People look to the internet for entertainment on a scale that hasn\’t been seen before. While young people like interactive games that immerse them in a virtual experience, more mature people like things that are familiar and easy to dip into, while having an exciting purpose. By chance, bingo fits the bill perfectly. You can pick up and play without any need to learn new skills, and when you win you get real cash transferred straight to your bank account, so you get a sense of achievement from it too.

Bingo is an old game, but that actually began to work against it in the later half of the twentieth century. The problem was that a lot of younger people saw bingo as the thing their grandma did, and didn\’t want to be associated with it themselves. Key changes were needed to tackle this, including a general revamp of major bingo chains, and a lot of advertising to show young women having a good night out gambling together.

Finally there have been some subtle changes in one of the old institutions of bingo – the \’bingo-lingo\’ used by callers. These are strange combinations of rhymes and references which help the player guess the number before it\’s called. Legs eleven is the most famous of these, but other variations such as \’Tom Mix – six\’ were a little to obscure for people. Instead they\’ve brought in things like \’David\’s – Den: number ten\’ to make sure the calls are up to date.

It seems like bingo has just as much to offer today as it ever did, with literally millions of people playing all around the world.