Talk:Bingo (British version)

Out of touch?
This article is somewhat out of touch with the state of modern bingo in the UK and does appear from my point of view not to reflect an international meaning of the words "housie" and "bingo". The word "housie" is out of common usage in the mainstream bingo industry in the UK. What American English speakers appear to refer to as housie (3x5 ticket bingo) is no longer referred to as such in any part of the UK, and the majority of bingo halls use "bingo" to refer to this and other forms of bingo, including what is commonly understood in the UK as "American Bingo". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madeinsane (talk • contribs)
 * I agree. Some of the associated 'nicknames' seem to be a bit dated too. And where are the blinds? It's common in the clubs where my mam has played bingo, for them to say 'blind' before a number ending with zero.--Jcvamp 18:56, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation Page
I feel that due to the cultural ambiguity of the word "bingo" as shown above, the best solution would be that all solutions for the word bingo are presented with a disambiguation page. I am not sure how to go about this though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madeinsane (talk • contribs)

Housie?
Where exactly is this game called Housie? Everywhere I've played it here in australia it's called Bingo. Rissole 09:34, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * This point definitely deserves some thought. If the 15x3 game is known as "bingo" internationally, then this may be further evidence to support the Housie article's merging with the Bingo (US) article (See talk:Bingo (disambiguation)). I do however still think that the two games are distinct enough economically, culturally etc. to be discussed separately. Madeinsane 19:13, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Even though the games are distinct, it seems strange to name the article 'Housie' a term which, if it was ever used, is now never used. It would be better to call the article 'Bingo (UK)' (or 'Bingo (Non-US)' to include other areas that play this version of bingo).--Jcvamp 05:31, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I've changed the article's name to Bingo (Non-US).--Bruce (talk) 15:19, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I have never heard the term housie used in Australia in 41 years. It is called bingo. You know, bee eye en gee oh! We played it in school in the 1970s, it was called bingo. Format (talk) 08:05, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

Mechanised Cash Bingo
I'd be curious to see more information on exactly how mechanised cash bingo differs from regular Bingo/Housie play. Kickaha Ota 19:03, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I know from having worked in a bingo hall in the UK that it differs quite considerably. However I'm not sure I'm that technically- and legally-minded to be able to describe the significance of this. Maybe there's someone a bit more experienced than me that can? Madeinsane 19:18, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Mechanised cash bingo is very different to regular bingo in the UK. The game was pioneered in the early days by Mr Jimmy Thomas who went on to manufacture the equipment and later became a major bingo operator in the UK. His manufacturing firm was eventually sold off to the management who no longer manufacture the units but still manufacture and service change machines. It is important to give credit to this equipment as this is the main revenue stream for the modern bingo club in the UK. In fact if it was not for mechanised cash bingo, it would be unlikely that commercial bingo would even be viable. The reason for the mechanical aspect often now referred to as mecash or mechi, is that the equipment has coin slots to opt in on a game by game basis. The variations of wins is usually any line across, down, diagonal or 4 corners to win the game and larger staked games tend to be a full house. Some clubs offer a free square (the reason for this is that bingo companies abides codes of conduct that a bingo combination had to have at least 15 numbers, a 4X4 board had 16 numbers so some used a free square to bring the combination down to 15.) It is also referred to as parti bingo, and electronic cash bingo. Games of bingo last around 30 seconds for a line game and just over 2 minutes for a full house game. Some clubs can play around a hundred games parti bingo during the course of a session. New developments in mechanised cash bingo technology allows numbers of clubs to join together to play simultaneously for huge cash prize pots.--Bingosupermarket (talk) 15:03, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Bingo calls
Not everyone knows that there is a kind of tradition on the bingo game. This tradition is the- bingo calls, which means that every number have a nickname that gives another fun side to the game. Although the bingo calls sometime consider a little bit cheesy and silly, almost all of the top online bingo sites use the bingo call 'dictionary' on their games.Here is nice place to hear the bingo calls. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noamelo (talk • contribs) 09:10, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Merge with Bingo (US)
What's really the difference between US and Commonwealth bingo, apart from the shape of the bingo ticket?! I'm no expert but to me it's exactly the same game, just played differently in certain regions. In my opinion this warrants a single page, not multiple pages, since they surely have a common origin.Gymnophoria (talk) 13:10, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Even if they are different, I think there can be one page called Bingo (game) and sections for U.S. version and Commonwealth version. Plus I'm not really sure why this needs to be called Commonwealth as it seems more international to me. werldwayd (talk) 16:59, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Etymology?
Of much interest, is the origin of the name "Bingo", which is as much as a describing term as it is a title. From what I can tell,"BINGO" was used in the US from the 1920's on and the rules and board setup are regionally determined. One page for the US Version of "Bingo", as well as, regional pages for the different variations of these game are warranted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.124.198.84 (talk) 16:56, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

shown here
missing a link? ThomasHarrisGrantsPass (talk) 06:18, 10 May 2017 (UTC) perhaps http://bingorules.org/img/bingo-2.jpg would show the device and the full card? ThomasHarrisGrantsPass (talk) 06:23, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Buildings
It would be nice to have a paragraph on the premises used as bingo halls. After the decline of live theatre, and later local cinemas, bingo played an important role in preserving the incredible wealth of historic theatre buildings now still existing in the United Kingdom (in cultures without bingo, such as the rest of Europe, redundant auditoriums weren't of much use for anything commercialy viable at all). While bingo use was certainly not the greatest time those venerable buildings saw, they at least weren't gutted and converted to shops or office or parking space. Now with the decline of U.K. bingo, what next? If anyone has access to any literature to quote from, a few sentences would be most welcome. --Anvilaquarius (talk) 21:03, 27 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Randomness
None of these articles notes that there is any randomness in the gameplay, other than that the sequence of called numbers is supposed to be random.

Aren't the numbers printed on the card somehow random? And how, in mechanized cash bingo, are the numbers on the card changed?

Isn't there a race to shout? Even if no two people have the same card, it's possible for two players to complete on the same call. But the article doesn't mention this race.

I've never played bingo, as you can tell. MrDemeanour (talk) 20:44, 8 December 2023 (UTC)