Have you ever thought about working in the bingo industry?
When we take a trip to our local bingo hall or log on to our favourite bingo site, we probably don’t give much thought to the bingo jobs available there, despite the fact that we interact with bingo employees throughout our time playing the game.
Sometimes, these staff members can even become friends, which is especially true for players who go regularly a few times a week, and a real rapport can develop – it’s not unheard of for bingo hall staff to be invited to birthday parties and weddings and the like!
If you have ever fancied working in bingo, there are two main routes you can take; working in a bingo hall, or working in online bingo.
The bingo jobs available in each side of the industry are wildly different though, are for the majority of people, the work available in a bingo hall will be the only option.
Here are some of the bingo jobs you can expect to see advertised on job sites and the like.
Jobs at Bingo Halls
Not all bingo halls run in the same way, but broadly, you will get the same job roles at all of them – although the job titles may be slightly different.
Outside of the big bingo chains, all bingo brands have their own personalities too, so the tone of the sessions might be slightly more showy or upbeat at one venue, or a little more calm and comfortable at another.
That said, all bingo halls will need the following members of staff.
Bingo Caller
Everyone knows what the bingo caller does, but very few people have the right combination of professionalism and natural charm to pull it off.
As I found out with my interview with a bingo caller, the job goes much further than simply calling numbers.
The bingo caller, also known as the presenter or main stage host depending on where you go, is in charge of running the games and really bringing them to life.
They need to know how the technology works too, so they can operate the machine that draws the virtual balls, make sure the microphone is working, stop and start the game as claims are made, etc.
It is also their job to make the session entertaining, but this doesn’t mean putting on a show (unless it’s a special night, perhaps). A quick remark here and there is fine, but a stand up routine is not what is wanted.
They don’t just call of course, the caller will often help out in other areas when needed, so they can’t be too precious about being the star of the show.
Perhaps most importantly, a bingo caller needs to get to know their regular players and create a bond with them – that’s one of the things that keeps people coming back after all.
Bingo Hall Manager
There is often a small management team at a bingo hall, not just a single manager, although there will always be one person at the top of the pile.
The General Manager may have an deputy/assistant manager or two helping them out, but they are all ultimately responsible for the same thing: the smooth running of the bingo hall on a day to day basis.
This includes managing the staffing rota, hiring and (ouch) firing people, making sure all of the takings are properly accounted for, even structuring and overseeing marketing campaigns.
The level of autonomy with promotional campaigns and seasonal marketing will differ between the big chains who are controlled more from the head office and the smaller independent clubs where the general manager has more involvement in the direction of the business overall.
In both cases though, the general manage is not a backroom role.
The managers will be front of house a lot of the time, so they need to be capable of building relationships with customers just like all of the other staff members. It’s still a customer facing role.
Customer Assistant/Host
Some bingo halls have designated cashiers in the slots area, designated assistants in the bingo hall during the game, designated staff to work on the door selling tickets, etc.
Often though, people are employed as general team members and do a little bit of everything.
This creates a nice family atmosphere where everyone pulls together to get things done, and it makes the role more varied and interesting too.
Like almost every other job role in a bingo hall, the general team members (or customer assistants or hosts, whatever the employer calls them) will have to be good at creating rapport with the customers. They will need to be good with people.
After all, their responsibilities will include selling the bingo tickets, changing money and paying out money, checking claims, perhaps getting drinks for more elderly players – it’s all customer centric stuff, so you need to like the people you are serving.
Shift patterns might be flexible with this role too, so evening and weekend work will be required, and if you end up working in the slots area you might even learn how to make basic repairs on the machines.
Catering
Not all bingo halls serve hot food, but they all at least have a bar or cafe facilities, and while team members might end up helping out in this department sometimes, it’s more usual to have dedicated staff members.
This is because specific qualifications and/or training is required to work with food, especially in a kitchen serving hot food.
Some bigger halls even have professional chefs preparing meals, while others might only serve pre-prepared light lunches, cakes and snacks.
Other than the cleaner, this is probably one of the least customer facing roles (assuming you are in the kitchen), but those serving the food and taking order will obviously get to know people who come in regularly.
It’s not a job that really requires much bingo knowledge either, but for a bingo fan with kitchen experience, is there a better job to do?
Cleaner
While all staff at the bingo hall will spot clean throughout their shifts – if drinks are spilled or someone makes a mess in the loo (gross) – many halls have their own cleaners that work either before or after the sessions too.
Sometimes this job might be brought in via a 3rd party, but there are plenty of cleaners hired directly by bingo halls.
The cleaners will often be working when no one else is in the building, not even the staff, so it’s a much more low key role (although there are afternoon shifts between sessions too), but also one that comes with a lot of trust as they may have keys to the building.
The role is essentially making the venue look clean, tidy and welcoming ready for the next wave of customers coming in to enjoy the next bingo session.
Even though bingo players aren’t tearing about the place causing a riot (not usually, anyway), a large group of people all in the same place are going to make a bit of a mess, and the cleaner is employed to make the place look like it did before anyone turned up.
Business Owner
Ok, this is not exactly an achievable job role for most of us, but in theory at least, anyone can set up a bingo hall and grow that business to become a successful brand, perhaps even opening additional venues over time.
People have done it in the past, with loans or investment or capital if they have access to it, and as a bingo fan, could there be anything better than owning your own bingo hall?
The benefits here are many, but most importantly, you could create the venue you had always dreamed of, you could run your bingo hall in the way that you think bingo should be run.
As the owner, you would have ultimate responsibility over the business, hiring the management team and ensuring the accounts are accurate and up to date, managing cash flow and forecasting future earnings, sourcing materials and stock and signing agreements with the providers of those things, etc.
The owner of a bingo hall will likely work longer hours than anyone else, spending a lot of time in the office rather than front of house, but they will still need to find time to hit the ‘shop floor’ to make sure things are running as the are supposed to.
A bingo hall owner with any sense would also make an effort to talk to their customers too.
Jobs at Online Bingo Sites
Things are very different in the online bingo world, because the vast majority of the roles available are not customer facing.
This is the total opposite of the job roles available in bingo halls, which are mostly all customer facing, which just goes to highlight the difference between the two types of bingo.
These job roles are also much more specialist on the whole, with very specific skill sets required that take a long time to learn, so they are less likely to attract bingo lovers and more likely to attract tech professionals who aren’t really interested in the game itself.
Customer Support Agent
One of the only customer facing jobs in online bingo, is the customer support agent – and most of the time it’s a job done completely over the internet, so it’s not even face to face.
A customer support agent is responsible for helping online customers over live chat or email, or sometimes the phone.
They might just be answering simple queries like how to claim a bonus, or which payment methods are available, or they might be helping to process verification requests or looking into account anomalies that have caused an issue for the player.
They might need to deal with complaints too, so they will need to be sensitive and respectful to the player’s situation.
The job might include liaising with team members in other areas, such as a compliance or marketing for example, in order to get the answers the customer needs.
Bingo Chat Room Moderator
This is probably quite a fun role, because as a chat room moderator, or chat room host, your job is basically to make the online bingo experience as entertaining and engaging as possible for the players.
Hosts can do this by asking questions and starting conversations, running quizzes or competitions, and even giving out small prizes to stimulate activity in the chat room.
It’s no coincidence that the most fun job role in online bingo is also the most customer facing.
Again, there is no face to face one on one interaction here, but at least you will be talking to real people and directly communicating with the players.
Chat room hosts may have their photos and bios up on the website too, so that customers can feel like they know a little bit about them, so it’s not a role that would suit the shy and retiring type, even though it’s all managed online.
Technical
There are loads of jobs in this broad area of the industry, but it could get pretty complicated if I talked about them all individually, so i’ve bundled them together.
The technical team are responsible for the smooth running of the platform, and in some cases even for building it in the first place.
They work with code and can make the website or the bingo games do whatever they need to do, fix any bugs or other issues that might be causing problems, and are generally computer geniuses who make the whole thing work.
Why does pressing the ‘Buy Tickets’ button add bingo tickets to your account for the next game? Because the tech team made it that way. Why does each ball that is drawn show up as a graphic on your screen? Because someone in the tech team designed it like that.
Everything you can see and do is in some way created or maintained by someone in the technical team.
This is not a job you can do without a lot of deep knowledge and training.
Compliance and Risk
In a bingo hall, the staff can see the people playing the game and spot anyone who might be under age, under the influence, or struggling with addiction.
Online, that is much more difficult, which is why the compliance team exists.
They will look out for red flags in the system that indicate someone is possibly gambling more than usual, or in a way that is suspicious, and then they will look into these instances and step in if necessary.
That could mean making contact with the player to request financial information such as proof of funds, or just checking they are alright, and even contacting the authorities if money laundering is suspected.
On the other side of things they also have to make sure their own website and marketing campaigns are compliant, and don’t promote gambling in an irresponsible way or to people who might be deemed as at risk.
This extends to their advertising partners too, so it really is a beast of a role.
The job requires expert knowledge of licensing requirements and regulations, good communication skills, and a degree of technical knowledge too.
Finance
As with the sections above, I have bundled a lot of specific finance jobs into one broad category here.
The finance team are responsible for paying their own staff, managing payments and withdrawal requests from players, and potentially communicating with payment providers too.
Day to day tasks might involve payroll, paying invoices, general accounting and filing for tax purposes, and things like that.
At a higher level, there are even responsibilities regarding the company’s financial position, although this would be work the financial management team would undertake rather than the general staff working in the finance department.
There could also be an element of risk management involved here, if the compliance team get in touch wanting to discuss a player’s spending habits, for example.
This is another area that would require specific training and qualifications, so it’s not a job you could just walk into, and it is almost never customer facing.