Communicated Content – In the UK, Bingo has a long history. It has been legal since about the early 1960s. What is interesting is that Bingo in its forms (traditional hall games as well as online games) has contributed to the UK economy more than most people imagine.
However, it would not be complete if we discuss Bingo’s contribution to the economy without knowing the essence of the game itself.
Bingo is a game that involves quite a several people in a room. They compete en masse for BINGO! The pattern of the Bingo game is based on searching for a certain number of patterns before being preceded by others.
This pattern can be five digits arranged horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Or it can also be in the form of a predetermined arrangement of digits. Usually in the form of a certain motif.
A mechanical number generator is commonly used and its function is to generate random numbers. What Bingo has in common with several other casino games is the involvement of several elements of chance simultaneously.
Bingo has been known in the UK since the early 1900s but it wasn’t until the early 1960s that the Betting and Gaming Act revolutionized the game, transforming it from a simple game into a complex game that offered many prizes to the players (the winners).
In 1960 law, Bingo was established as a legal form of gambling in the UK. As a result of the issuance of these laws, there were hundreds of Bingo halls created in the following years. We are talking about physical Bingo facilities because back then there was no Internet.
In the mid-’60s, Mecca Bingo, a well-known Bingo operator reported that it was catching no less than 150,000 players every day. In 1963 alone, the total number of members of Bingo clubs in the UK had reached more than 14 million people! With a total UK population of 53 million, it can certainly be concluded that 25% of the UK population at that time were Bingo players.
Bingo’s popularity among the British
There is no denying that Bingo has always had a place in the hearts of the majority of British people. Even this game is quite popular among children and teenagers. It seems that Bingo has been ingrained in the DNA of some Britons. In the span between April 2019 and May 2020, the total revenue from Bingo games in the UK reached £910 million. So fantastic!
Today the trend is dominated by online games
According to the current trend, in the same time frame, now the total amount of money played in online casinos increased by 0.9% and the total amount of money played in physical casinos decreased by 5.7%. This trend shows that online casinos have been at the forefront in terms of revenue. In other words, there is a tendency to migrate Bingo players to online platforms like 888 ladies bingo.
In 2018, 3% of the online gaming market in the UK was contributed by Bingo, and by the end of last year, that value had doubled. We will see what will happen later this year but most predictions point to an increase in the amount of money played on Bingo games, especially in online casinos.
Spotify and Netflix’s combined turnover last year surpassed £750m but Bingo has more revenue at £1bn. Every year in the UK, more people play Bingo regularly than the total number of Amazon users and music lovers at Apple. In general, online Bingo operators in the UK pay up to 21 percent of all profits, whereas physical Bingo operators only pay around 10%. One of the things that explains why the Bingo industry is booming in the UK is the fact that most Bingo platforms are exempt from paying VAT.
If we have to answer about how much influence Bingo has on the UK economy, the numbers above can answer that. Very large! Bingo contributes enormously to the UK economy. Not only is the percentage share of the total profit but also in the number of Britons recruited by Bingo operators as labor.
If we estimate that 10% of Britons are now active Bingo players, we can assume 1% of them are working Bingo operators. From this data, we can estimate that the number of active Bingo players in the UK is 7 million people hence the number of people employed by the operators there are around 70 thousand people. The amount is quite large, especially in the UK’s economic situation which tends to worsen during the great war between Ukraine and Russia.
It can be concluded that Bingo is no longer one of the common casino games in the UK. It has become a popular pastime, and more importantly, it has become a very reliable source of income for the British Government and some British people. Hopefully what has been discussed above has given you enough knowledge about how much influence Bingo has had on the UK and the people in it.
