We know bingo players can be a bit of a mad bunch, and we know that the people running bingo games online and offline can be equally as bonkers, but we have to be honest, some of the prizes we found researching this article made our eyes pop!
Usually when we play bingo, the prize is a bit of money, every now and again quite a lot of money, and there are also occasions when a box of chocolates or a cuddly toy or whatever are thrown in on top – it depends how much your bingo caller likes you.
However, there have been some occasions when the prize for a bingo game has been questionable to say the least, or highly unusual to be more specific.
From livestock to sex toys (yep, you read that right, sorry if you’re prudish), the world of bingo has had some utterly crazy prizes given out in its time.
We will take you through a few of them now, but these are only the documented ones, we bet there have been loads of dotty bingo games over the years with unusual prizes that would leave us open mouthed.
So, have you ever seen prizes more unusual than this little lot?
A Milking Cow
Imagine going to a game of bingo and coming home with a cow!
This really happened to one…. Lucky (?) winner in America. Well, we say it really happened – it is a well-known story first told by someone who was there, but people have since dismissed it as an urban myth.
We are choosing to believe it though, it’s too unusual to have been made up.
The story goes that a New Yorker who attended a game of bingo for charity out in the countryside ended up with more than she bargained for when she won a prize.
She had no idea what the prizes were, and after calling ‘bingo’ was informed that she had won a milking cow. A living breathing one ton milking cow!
Dressed in a suit having travelled from work to be there, and giggling like a maniac, the woman accepted her prize and presumably took it home with her. Or set it free. Or something.
Not sure what you would do with a cow in New York, but if she did take it back with her, lets hope she had a garden, or at least her own parking space.
Your Weight in Cheese
A company called Bada Bingo offered bingo fans in Sheffield the highly unusual opportunity to win their body weight in cheese in the run up to Christmas.
We tend to have a cheeseboard during the holidays, but we wouldn’t have thought it was the most festive prize in the world, but nevertheless, fans of stilton, cheddar, and brie had it all to play for at Christmas 2021.
Although the night was run by Bada Bingo, it was held at a Buzz venue in the Wybourn area of Sheffield, which explains the slightly wacky prizes, which also included shark diving in Skegness.
No thanks!
We aren’t sure if the cheese was the main prize or just what you would win for getting a line, but whoever the winner was, they must have had a very pongy house come boxing day.
Pink Concrete Goat
A local church in a small town in Iowa ran a regular bingo game in which a bit of fun got slightly out of hand and turned into something of an unusual tradition.
We aren’t sure how it started, but one week, the winners of the game were also given a concrete garden ornament in the shape of a goat and painted pink.
This was proudly displayed on the winner’s front lawn, apparently making everyone else very jealous, so the next week, when the game had new winners, they took ownership of the goat and displayed it on their front lawn.
The same thing happened the week after, and before anyone had time to notice that they were all behaving rather strangely, several years had passed and the pink goat was now a hotly contested floating bingo prize which entitled the custodian to bragging rights.
Sadly, in 2008, the goat became a literal floating prize, when the Iowa floods swept it away along with half of the state, never to be seen again.
Two Storey Tiny House
Ever heard of winning a whole house at the bingo?
It’s another American prize – those guys seem to be more into unusual bingo prizes than us Brits – and this time it was somewhere you could actually live.
The trend of ‘tiny homes’ was catching on, and the Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City, South Dakota, decided to capitalise on this by giving one away as the main prize in a game of bingo.
If you don’t know what this is, just think of a static caravan but it has two levels and is fully fitted out like a normal sized house would be.
Worth around $50,000, the tiny house was on show at the casino for a month as part of the promotion, and the lucky winner could have it delivered and installed wherever they wanted.
This was back in 2017, so whoever won the tiny home must have a very ‘full house’ by now.
Ann Summers Sex Toys
There once was an online bingo website called AnnSummersBingo.com.
This isn’t the start of a nursery rhyme, there really was a site themed around the raunchy lingerie and sex toy retailer, back in 2007.
Among the goodies up for grabs were tickets to see shows like Dancing on Ice and The X Factor, but those aren’t the unusual prizes we are talking about.
Given the theme, the operators thought it only natural that they should incorporate some of Ann Summers’ own products into their prize structure.
The really unusual bingo prizes, were things like sexy lingerie from their latest collection, and the new rampant rabbit wave, which was a… well, you can use your imagination to figure that one out.
We have heard of ‘trying something new’ but this one really took the bingo biscuit.
Turkey and Thanksgiving Dinner
Waaaaaaay back in 1914, The Danish Society in California, USA, began their tradition of giving away live turkeys, geese and ducks in sacks for Thanksgiving.
Fast forward to the modern day, and the society were giving away the same animals but as prizes for a bingo game.
You might think these are poultry prizes (get it?), but they have added to the bounty over the years by including other groceries – enough to make a whole thanksgiving dinner for the family – plus vouchers for El Rancho Market, a fresh produce market in the state.
So players celebrate the holidays with a game of bingo, in the hope of winning a slap up meal, which they have to cook themselves.
We are presuming the birds that are won are no-longer given away as live-stock, but are ready to cook.
Bongo’s Bingo
This mob are so off their heads that we have written a whole article about them, so if you want to know more you can head here.
They only give out crazy prizes, so there are far too many to list, but in the past they have included inflatable toys, henry hoovers, and a life size cardboard cut-out of Phillip Schofield.
Saying that, they have also given away speedboats, luxury holidays, and thousands in cash, so there is something really worth playing for alongside the funny stuff.
A night at bongo’s bingo is about so much more than the prizes though; they will have you dancing on the tables, getting up on stage for ritual humiliation (and the chance to win prizes), and watching men in drag raving for your enjoyment.
As well as the main prizes, they also give away boxes for special cereal… and then encourage you to open the box and throw it all over your friends and the people sitting next to you.
It really is about as mad as bingo can get.