We all know that bingo has something of an unfair reputation as being a game for the elderly, and specifically old ladies.
Not online bingo, perhaps, but certainly playing the real thing in a bingo hall.
To be quite honest it drives us up the wall, because bingo has changed a lot since this silly cliché was established, but nevertheless, it is a game that attracts a lot more of the older generation than other gambling games, like blackjack or roulette for example.
So as well as asking why it is seen as an older person’s game, perhaps we should also ask why older people are attracted to bingo. That would give us a more balanced idea of what is going on here.
In fact, that’s exactly what we will do.
Bingo’s Reputation as a Game for the Elderly
We have to face facts here, bingo is probably seen by many as a game for older people because there is some truth to the stereotype.
Age UK even recommend it as a good activity for the elderly for goodness sake, so it would be hard to argue that there are no grounds for people to make that assumption.
Us bingo fans all know that the game is so much more than that, but it is still a cliché rooted in truth.
Places like residential homes and churches are often associated with bingo too, since they use the game as a leisure activity for residents and parishioners, or as a way to fundraise.
Aaaand what type of people are associated with residential homes and churches? Why, old people of course!
What’s more, as we will investigate in the sections below, bingo is one of the few past times that people can continue to play into very old age. Someone who regularly played squash for 40 years will probably end up having to give it up in theirs 70s unless they are super fit, but they can still play bingo.
We have to remember too that bingo was massively popular in the 60s and right up to the 80s really, and the older people playing it now are probably largely the younger people who were playing it then. They found a hobby in their younger years and they stuck with it as the years rolled on.
Related to this, is the fact that as bingo’s audience aged, those people running the bingo halls adapted what they were offering to better appeal to their target audience. So if a bingo hall wanted a busy night they might invite a celebrity that would appeal to those of a certain age, for instance, because they knew that this demographic was their main customer base.
In this way, bingo’s reputation as an old person’s game was partly autogenic. That’s a posh way of saying that the industry created the reputation for themselves, by recognising that their audience was ageing, and then marketing themselves more heavily to that older audience, which in turn brought in more older players, thus cementing the reputation.
Is it a Fair Reputation?
We would say that it probably was fairly accurate once upon a time, but is much less so now.
There have been various studies and surveys to monitor the change in who plays bingo over the years, and the age has actually been coming down quite quickly.
A survey into the type of people who play online bingo showed that the most heavily represented age group was 25-54 in 2021, with 83% of all respondents being from that category.
This is a huge drop from 35-64 which was the most heavily represented age group just a year earlier, in 2020.
Admittedly, you would expect online bingo players to be younger since fewer older people tend to use or trust the internet for such things, but it still demonstrates a trend.
Plus, we know that around 28% of online players trickle through to the bingo halls to experience the real thing, so this influx of new younger bingo club members will be partly due to online bingo sites opening the door for them.
Now, if you visit a bingo hall you will be likely to see a lot of people who are much older than their 50s and 60s, so the reputation is still valid to a point, but only just. The days of looking out across a bingo hall to be met with a sea of hair nets and purple perms are long gone.
The fact is, bingo’s audience is getting younger, but reputations take an awfully long time to change, so whether its fair or not we will probably have to put up with these HiLaRiOuS jokes about old ladies and bingo for a while yet.
Why do Older People Like Bingo?
Now it should go without saying that we aren’t implying that all old people like bingo. We are going to be talking generally here, but if you look around a bingo hall, especially earlier in the day, a good proportion of the players will be pensionable.
As people get older, they usually stop doing crazy things like all night partying, or dangerous things like skydiving, and instead look for gentler leisure activities.
This doesn’t mean boring or unexciting, but less chaotic and exhausting.
On top of our diminishing appetite for the extreme, the older we get the more we tend to struggle physically too, and so our pace of life slows down.
When you think about bingo, it is:
- Safe
- Fair
- Fun
- Sociable
- Mentally stimulating
- Not physically taxing
A perfect recipe for those looking to enjoy themselves without risking life and limb or having to dodge someone throwing up in a bin at 2am on the way home.
Let’s look at these factors one at a time.
Safe
Older people are more vulnerable than those of us in the prime of our lives, which is just one reason they don’t tend to hang around on street corners at night or go to raves.
Imagine being in your 80s. You aren’t as strong as you used to be, you might be getting frail, you probably can’t run very fast or very far, and the world is suddenly feeling a lot bigger and faster than it did when you were younger.
Perhaps technology has left you behind, and you wish everything wasn’t so bloomin’ complicated these days.
There is nothing intimidating or challenging about bingo, though. It hasn’t changed all that much over the years, and the innovation that has come along such as the now famous ‘bingo bees’ has been easy to get used to and comes with plenty of hand holding from staff.
Bingo is a familiar and reliable constant in a world that is ever changing, getting busier, louder, and scarier.
The local bingo hall is a safe environment but it is still bustling with people and packed with fun, so it offers a place that elderly players can be both entertained and feel secure.
Fair
Since bingo is a game based 100% on luck, it is by its’ very nature fair. This means that arguments are less likely to happen (but they still do sometimes – check this article out!).
Other gambling games, like poker or blackjack, come with more aggressive edge, with tactics and even trickery involved, so there is a more competitive element to them which older players might find uncomfortable.
Bingo is the opposite.
You are in no danger of being cheated while playing bingo, you are in no danger of being outwitted or bullied into losing either, or made to feel like less of a player.
It’s the luck of the draw with bingo and that means everyone in the room has an equal chance of winning.
You often find that other players are even happy for you when you win at bingo.
Fun
We hardly need to tell you lot about how bingo is fun, do we?
From the caller making us smirk to the feeling of anticipation when you only have one to go, there’s loads to keep our brains buzzing when playing bingo, and older people don’t stop wanting to have fun just because they got old.
Everyone wants to spend their free time wisely, whether it’s something simple like visiting friends or watching a movie, or something a bit more eventful like a trip abroad or going to a festival.
Well, the older generation can’t always access some of these things all that easily, or perhaps they find them too frantic, or tiring, or financially out of reach.
Bingo is none of those things, but it sure is fun.
Sociable
It’s a sad fact of life that as we get older, the people we know and love begin to die. Friends, family, partners and colleagues all get older at the same rate we do, and any group of people who regularly meet up will eventually be whittled down to just one or two.
In fact, Age UK estimates that over 2 million people over the age of 75 live alone, and over 1 million of those regularly go a whole month without speaking to anyone.
On top of this, our income takes a huge hit once we retire so we have less money to spend on extravagant holidays etc., but we still need something to do that brings us into contact with other people.
What’s more, we aren’t working any more so we also have a lot more time to fill, at the very point in our lives when we are least equipped to fill it. There’s no justice is there?
With bingo though, anyone can play; old, young, able bodied or infirm. You can go alone or with others, and when you get there, a ready made group of people with a common interest are waiting.
What’s more, because bingo attracts people of all ages, it offers a rare opportunity for the older generation to socialise with the younger generation on an even footing, so unlikely friendships can and do form.
To cap it off, a session at the bingo hall doesn’t have to cost much either, and often lasts a good 3 or 4 hours if you get there early and stay for a brew afterwards, so players get a lot of value for the ticket price.
Mentally Stimulating
Alright, we aren’t exactly cracking the enigma code, but bingo can be a brain workout nevertheless.
A 2022 study found that our brains quite literally slow down after the age of 60, and it is also part of our body that falls into the ‘use it or lose it’ category. Like our muscles, if we don’t use our brains then they slowly become less effective.
Our sense of taste does not disappear if we don’t eat for a while, but our brain functions can change if we don’t use them.
Playing bingo, we are constantly scanning numbers while also listening to the caller for the next one, perhaps working out how far off we are from a potential win at the same time. A really good player might even be able to keep an eye on Beryl’s tickets opposite, to see how she’s doing too.
Then when we get close to a win we go into hyper focus so as not to miss the moment, our brains and bodies poised to make a claim before the caller moves on – if the numbers go our way that is.
All of this switches our brains on and engages us, which not only makes us feel more alive in the moment, but it’s good for us in the long term too.
We would put bingo in the same category as a brain training game, because when we play we are taking in information visually and audibly and then processing it as quickly as we possibly can.
Not Physically Demanding
We obviously love a bit of bingo, and could occasionally be guilty of overstating its’ plus points, but not even we can claim that bingo counts as exercise.
In terms of being physically demanding, bingo is about as inclusive as its possible to get.
Pretty much anybody in the world can play, all you need is one working hand, one working eye, and a voice to make a claim. In fact, you could even play if you were mute by using an air horn or something to make a claim.
Alright, maybe an airhorn wouldn’t go down well with the other players, but so long as the staff knew you were there and couldn’t talk, you could come up with an alternative.
You can be asthmatic, in a wheelchair, suffering from Parkinson’s, or have almost any other sort of ailment and still manage to play bingo – getting to the venue would probably be the most physically challenging part.
Not all elderly people struggle with mobility of course, but many do, and good old bingo is there for them making zero demands on their bodies.
So, Is Bingo for Old People?
Yes, it certainly is.
But it’s for everybody else too.
Bingo’s reputation as an ‘old fogies’ game is a silly stereotype, but like all stereotypes, it comes from a place of truth.
There are many reasons for older people to love bingo, it’s one of those rare activities that can be thrilling as well as being safe and totally accessible, but it’s just as fun for the younger generation too.
The fact that bingo is often used comically in the same sentence as little old ladies is something of a self-perpetuating joke, which is why the stereotype remains, but those of us who play know that there is far more to our beautiful game than that.
As time goes on, people’s views on the game will probably change and the stereotype will fade, until today’s younger generation become tomorrow’s elderly generation, and the whole cycle starts again.