Britain’s Biggest Bingo Fans

Biggest Bingo FansWe would all no doubt consider ourselves bingo fans, we wouldn’t be on this website if that wasn’t the case.

But there are fans and then there are fanatics.

Some people are so obsessed with the game that they are noteworthy for the things they have done in the name of bingo.

Have a read of some of the stories below, and see how you compare to these absolute bingo fanatics.

Some of them are totally barmy, others show steadfast dedication and consistency, but all are 100% certifiable bingo superfans.

How do you compare?

Bingo Tattoos

Mecca Bingo TattooThere are many bingo fans out there with tattoos of bingo balls and bingo tickets – even tattoos of dabbers would you believe?

While these people are all fans of the game, there are others who have permanently inked themselves with bingo related artwork for different reasons.

In 2011, Katy Hoyle, from Elsmere Port, got the Mecca Bingo brand tattooed on her forearm in return for a year’s worth of free bingo.

We all love a special offer or promotion but Katy really went for it with this one!

Mecca had put out a call for anyone willing to do the stunt but Katy was the only one who took them up on the offer, and now proudly displayed the 6 inch full colour tat wherever she goes.

She said:

““I saw the challenge and thought, why not? I love bingo, it’s a laugh and this is the kind of thing I’d do. It’s random and different.”

She was delighted with the free bingo, although no one knows if it ever led to a big win.

Bingo Fan TattooSomeone else with a bingo tattoo is Gordon K. Jones, an author from Toronto, Canada. However, Gordon isn’t the bingo fan in his family, it was his Mum, and his tattoo is to commemorate her.

She used to play regularly, and bingo was such a big part of her life that Gordon felt the best way to remember her was to have bingo balls numbered with her date of birth tattooed on his chest.

He also incorporated his Dad’s WW2 dog tags into the design, so the ink commemorates both of his parents.

The crazy thing about this story is that the last time Gordon’s Mum ever played bingo before the sadly passed away, she only went and won!

It’s as if the game she loved knew it would be her last hurrah, and said goodbye in the only way it knew how.

Bingo-a-Thon Bingo Club Tour

60th Birthday PartyIn 2021 Mecca Bingo turned 60, and as it happened, so did Mansfield based bingo lover Yvette Price-Mear.

As a carer for adults with special needs, Yvette wanted to mark the occasion at the same time as raising money for charity, and the fact that she shared a 60th year with Mecca Bingo gave her an idea.

She decided to visit 60 different bingo clubs before she turned 60, with the aim to raise £1,000 for charity.

Mecca got hold of the idea and agreed to sponsor her by providing free bingo and refreshments at every club she visited, and Yvette hit the road, visiting between 4 and 6 clubs every weekend over 6 months.

Her 60th and final club was Mecca’s oldest, Rosehill in South London, where she was met by family, friends and well wishers to celebrate her birthday and the end of her journey.

More than 4,200 miles later and Yvette had smashed her £1,000 target, raising well over £10,000 in the end, as well as having experienced a bingo based road trip worthy of a Hollywood movie.

Centenarian Bingo Player

Elderly Bingo PlayerIrene Boyce, was such a big fan of the game we all love that she was still visiting her local club in Salisbury at over 100 years old.

She moved to the area ten years before, although she was already a bingo fan, and visited the club every week ever since, even winning thousands of pounds on a jackpot game on one occasion.

It was a Gala venue when she first became a member, but in 2019 it rebranded as Buzz Bingo like so many other clubs across the country, and when it did, they needed someone to cut the ribbon for the official opening.

As a very regular customer who was 100 years old at the time, Irene Boyce was the obvious choice.

A spokeswoman for Buzz Bingo said:

“The club could’ve chosen a celebrity or a local dignitary for their opening, but instead they wanted somebody who meant something to the club. That person is Irene who represents all of Buzz Bingo’s Salisbury customers past and present.”

Irene said she was “honoured” to be asked to cut the ribbon, and noted that it was the people there who kept her coming back as much as the bingo.

Ethel Denny was a spring chicken compared to Irene Boyce, but when she had her 94th birthday at Beacon Bingo (now MERKUR Bingo) in Redcar, she said bingo was the secret to staying young.

She had been playing there for 30 years at the time, and took a taxi every week costing £27 each way and played 6 books each visit – now that’s what we call a super fan!

Will you still be visiting your local club when you have long since passed the ‘top of the shop’?

Bingo on TikTok

Bingo TiktokWe have talked elsewhere about how bingo is a very adaptable game that changes with the times, and this is a prime example of that.

For anyone who doesn’t know what TikTok is (and where on earth have you been if that is you!?), it is a social media platform where people share short, usually funny, videos of between 10 seconds and 10 minutes long.

Well a number of bingo’s biggest fans have set up shop as Bingo TikTokers and record or live stream their bingo play to all of their followers.

Using the hashtag, #bingoobsessed, you can find videos by people like bingo_fairy (real name Melva Powell), an American bingo nutcase who plays 18+ cards at once to around 15,000 viewers via a live stream. That’s mothing compared to the number of views on her videos though which can be over 1 million.

Bingo_fairy’s viewers have watched her win so many times you can hear the other players in the bingo hall complaining about her in some of her videos!

She’s not the only one either; bingojunkiess is another popular bingo tiktoker with 1.9 million followers who posts daily videos of bingo play and other bingo style games, both when she loses and when she wins.

There are plenty of others too, and what’s incredible is that these guys can actually make a lot of money from having so many followers because of digital advertising and the like – so bingo is paying them even when they lose.