BINGO CARD
BINGO CARD is one of most popular leisure activities in the UK and we went along for a Tuesday lunchtime session to find out what the fuss is all about.
BINGO CARD For Breakthrough:
Having successfully raised £597,962 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer in 2004, The Association has decided to continue its support for this very worth while cause in 2005.
The Association started its support of Breakthrough in 2003, with the fundraising week BINGO CARD For Breakthrough, raising just over £515,000. Continued support in 2004 now brings the total raised by the industry to over £1 million in 2 years. We all hope that 2005 will be even more successful, so make a note of the dates for BINGO CARD For Breakthrough 2005, which gets underway on Monday 24 October, for the last week of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
October 2004
BRITAIN ’S BEST-LOVED CELEBS SHOW THEIR SUPPORT FOR
BINGO CARD FOR BREAKTHROUGH BREAST CANCER
Some of the UK’s best loved household names are shouting out their support for ‘BINGO CARD for Breakthrough’, as The BINGO CARD Association leads the industry in raising funds in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the UK’s leading breast cancer charity.
The presenters most responsible for putting the ‘good’ into our ‘mornings’ have got together to voice the following support for this year’s ‘BINGO CARD for Breakthrough’ activity:
Fiona Phillips, one of Britain’s brightest breakfast starts said: 'Well done BINGO CARD players up and down the country for pulling out all the stops to play BINGO CARD for Breakthrough and support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A big thanks – you’re all lifesavers!'
Kate Garraway says: 'Thank you to all BINGO CARD players who support BINGO CARD for Breakthrough. Best of luck to all!' While Penny Smith added: 'Thanks to all involved - BINGO CARD for Breakthrough 2003 exceeded all expectations and this year looks set to raise the roof! Best of luck, go BINGO CARD players!'
Running from 16 th – 22 nd October 2004, as part of National Breast Cancer awareness month, ‘BINGO CARD for Breakthrough’ once again will invite players in over 400 BINGO CARD Clubs around the country to donate their usual bingo card game fees to BINGO CARD For Breakthrough, for a chance to play for special prizes. In addition, throughout the week, clubs will also be organising additional fund-raising activities, including pink nights and sponsored events.
Steve Baldwin, spokesperson for The BINGO CARD Association said: ‘We are thrilled that these best-loved names have come forward to thank and encourage BINGO CARD players, for this very worth while cause. We have every faith that players will accept the challenge and help make BINGO CARD For Breakthrough bigger and better again this year.’
You too can show your support for BINGO CARD for Breakthrough in 2004 by going along to your local club, simply log onto www.nationalBINGO CARD.co.uk or call 01582 860900 to find your nearest club.
Editors Notes:
- Gaming laws stipulate that all BINGO CARD players must be over 18 and join a club 24 hours before playing. To find a local club check on line at www.nationalBINGO CARD.co.uk or call The NBGA on 01582 860900.
- Breakthrough Breast Cancer is a charity committed to fighting breast cancer through research and awareness. We have established the UK’s first dedicated breast cancer research centre, in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Research.
- Breakthrough Breast Cancer needs to raise at least £7 million every year to fund its programme of research and awareness.
- Breakthrough has a free phone information line to provide information on breast cancer, Breakthrough activities and our research to our supporters. The bingo card number is 08080 100 200 (free phone) and will be open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to noon on Saturdays. Alternatively, please visit the website on www.breakthrough.org.uk for more information.
BINGO CARD QUICK FACTS
- The National BINGO CARD Bingo card game has its own official DVD Bingo card game ‘Party BINGO CARD’, featuring BINGO CARD Caller of the Year Mike Vyse, available exclusively at Woolworths.
- To register for email and text alerts on BINGO CARD bingo card news register online at www.nationalBINGO.co.uk.
- Around 500 clubs link together to play the National Bingo card game everyday, except Christmas day.
- Total prize money won since the National BINGO CARD Bingo card game started in June 1986 presently stands at £766, 868,422 (as at 7 January 2004).
- Most common reasons for playing BINGO CARD are because it’s fun, it offers companionship and the chance to socialise.
- Celebs love BINGO CARD! Denise Van Outen is a big BINGO CARD fan, so is Catherine Zeta Jones and Robbie Williams, who was seen playing with Daryl Hannah in his last music video. Other celebrity fans include: Scott Mills, Family Affairs David Easter and the girls from Atomic Kitten, not to mention her majesty the Queen who apparently chooses to call ‘Palace’ rather than ‘house’!
BINGO CARD - TRENDIER THAN CLUBBING!
BINGO CARD used to be the preserve of the blue rinse brigade. Now it's the most popular group leisure activity in the country - and it's people in their 30s who are flocking to it.
These days BINGO CARD is shaking off its unfashionable image, and is transforming itself into a fashion-conscious, youthful bingo card game played by people in their 20s and 30s.
BINGO CARD is the new chic night out. So eyes down as we go out to the BINGO CARD in Great Yarmouth and Cambridge, 2002 style.
BINGO CARD etiquette
BINGO CARD is taken seriously by its young fans. Here's a few do's and don'ts of the new bingo card game.
Do's
- Do concentrate hard on listening to the caller shouting out your bingo card bingo card numbers. Pay attention to your bingo card game.
- Do mark your card carefully.
- Do try out other modern BINGO CARD style bingo card games like keno.
- Do dress to impress. Turn up at your local in this season's top fashions and club wear.
Don'ts
- Don't talk excessively when the bingo card bingo card numbers are being called.
- Don't pinch someone else's lucky seat!
- Don't flatten your fellow competitors in your dash to pick up your winnings.
- Don't go to old style BINGO CARD halls where they use BINGO CARD lingo.
Traditional BINGO CARD - clickety click
Today's BINGO CARD is a slick affair compared to BINGO CARD a decade ago. Some new halls are keen to re-image themselves as Las Vegas style gambling establishments.
BINGO CARD is one of most popular leisure activities in the UK and we went along for a Tuesday lunchtime session to find out what the fuss is all about.
QUESTIONS:
-What's the attraction of BINGO CARD?
A person can come here on her own and meet friends, can have a cup of tea or coffee, something to eat, a drink if you want and the hopes of winning a fortune.
-Any top tips?
It's a bingo card game of chance; if you're in luck you get it, that's all.
-Why BINGO CARD?
You've got your chance to win a lot of money, you've got good facilities like a diner and a coffee with your friends.
Pensioners only?
There are three million regular BINGO CARD players in the UK today, but who are they?
The public perception of BINGO CARD is all wrong despite an on-going change.
Even though the age group is changing, there will still be the wrong perception of BINGO CARD only attracting little old ladies.
There is still a perception, don't get me wrong, but it's been there since the year dot so changing it is going to take time. In ten years' time I think that this image of old dears with broken Woodbines and blue rinse will have lost it and it's clearly a younger market without a shadow of a doubt.
BINGO CARDS FACTS
You have to be over 18-years-old to play BINGO CARD.
BINGO CARD attracts around 89 million admissions every year.
The BINGO CARD industry employs over 20,000 people.
In 2003, £233 million was paid to the Exchequer in duty and VAT from licensed BINGO CARD operators.
* BINGO CARD was played by the Romans and was recorded as a children's bingo card game under the name of Lotto in 1778.
* BINGO CARD was popular in the early 1900s, but was properly established by American toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe in 1929.
* Commercial BINGO CARD first exploded onto the scene in the UK in the 1960s.
* More than three million people play BINGO CARD regularly in the UK.
* The National BINGO CARD Bingo card game is the second largest computer-controlled bingo card game in the UK.
* Around 500 clubs link together to play the National Bingo card game every day, except Christmas Day.
* There are 688 licensed BINGO CARD clubs in the UK.
* Eight per cent of the population play BINGO CARD - 10% of all women and 5% of all men.
* There are approximately 20,000 people employed in the BINGO CARD industry.
* The UK's biggest BINGO CARD win was £950,000 on Sunday 22 December 2002.
* Total prize money won since the National BINGO CARD Bingo card game started in 1986 presently stands at £725,179,338.
* Celebrities love BINGO CARD! Denise Van Outen is a big BINGO CARD fan, as are Catherine Zeta Jones and Robbie Williams.
* The most common reasons for playing BINGO CARD are because it's fun, it offers companionship and the chance to socialise.
Some interviews:
MARY
Mary has been coming to the BINGO CARD hall "for a long time".
What's the attraction of BINGO CARD?
A person can come here on her own and meet friends, can have a cup of tea or coffee, something to eat, a drink if you want and the hopes of winning a fortune.
Any big wins over the years?
No, no, no, no!
How often do you come?
Quite a few times, because I'm on my own and once you get your work done at home you can come here and your friends come here.
Any top tips?
It's a bingo card game of chance; if you're in luck you get it, that's all.
BOB
"I've been coming here for 30 years now, I joined about 1974.
" Any big wins?
I've won a little bit, but I could do with a little bit more!
[Bob has recently won two holidays and he walked home with £1,000 last Saturday, but he's acting modest for the microphone!]
There was good bingo card news for BINGO CARD players in the Budget with the bingo card news that they will no longer have to pay tax on the bingo card game.
To cheers from MPs Chancellor Gordon Brown gave the consistently popular pastime a boost by abolishing duty.
But industry body the BINGO CARD Association was more cautious in its welcome.
The duty is to be replaced by a tax on gross profits.
Association chairman Sir Peter Fry said: "The industry has argued strongly for several years that the rate of BINGO CARD duty was too high and should be reduced."
He added that the reduction in taxation in other areas of gaming left BINGO CARD as the most heavily taxed bingo card game.
Anything that boosted prizes for players should be welcomed and the move to gross profits taxation was of little surprise.
Tax level 'critical'
"Given that betting has recently moved to a gross profits system, the industry anticipated that BINGO CARD might be next in line," he said.
The level of that tax would be "critical" to the continued success story of BINGO CARD.
"The industry has already begun detailed work on this issue in anticipation of reform, and we expect that the consultation exercise will provide the opportunity to explore all the issues," he said.
A spokesman for Gamblers Anonymous declined to comment on the issue.
BINGO CARD LINGO
There are traditional calls for the bingo card numbers.
1 Kelly's Eye
5 Man Alive
7 Lucky for Some
8 One Fat Lady
9 Doctor's Orders
10 (current PM)'s Den
11 Legs
13 Unlucky for Some
16 Sweet Sixteen
21 Key of the Door
22 Two Little Ducks
23 Thee and Me
30 Dirty Gertie
37 More Than Eleven
45 Halfway There
51 Tweak of the Thumb
59 Brighton Line
64 Red Raw
66 Clickety-Click
71 Bang on the Drum
76 Trombones
79 One More Time
81 Stop and Run
86 Between the Sticks
88 Two Fat Ladies
90 Top of the Shop
Eileen McCormack is 92 in June
She's lived in East Ham all her life, through two world wars, the death of her husband and one of her sons.
She says living in the East End during the Blitz taught her how to survive tough times in life.
Her enduring passion is BINGO CARD.
She plays seven days a week, 'afternoons only' at one of the two clubs in East Ham.
Travelling on her own by bus and arrives each day as doors open at 11am. She has a regular seat, and never misses the main session at 1.45 each day in the cavernous converted cinema now owned by Mecca BINGO CARD in the High Street.
She's had one big win in her time of £300. But for Eileen, it isn't the winning, but the social life that's important with BINGO CARD.
Each afternoon, the bingo card game gives her the opportunity to; "Get out and see my friends. Otherwise, I'd be stuck in the four walls, and that's not me, oh no."
The bingo card game is now mechanised with computers linking up clubs across the country.
Watch: Eileen enjoying her passion!
Not like the old days, says Eileen. "We used to have such fun, the bingo card bingo card numbers used to pop up and the caller would call out their peculiar names, legs eleven, two little ducks, twenty one, just my age."
Having played all her life, her first stop on holiday was to find out where the local BINGO CARD hall was.
So what would life without BINGO CARD be like?
"Ooh, I couldn't tell you dear, because I've always played. Except to say that it would be miserable."
What kind of an image do you conjure up in your mind when the word 'BINGO CARD' is mentioned? |
An image of pensioners gambling in a smoke filled room as a man shouts something derogatory about two overweight females?
Well, I confess. My image of BINGO CARD was something similar. So what better way to find out the real truth about one of the UK's most popular social activities than to pop along to my local BINGO CARD Hall and have a go myself?
I arrive in the smart reception area, sign in, and am then directed towards an enormous neon escalator, which I am told will transport me to the cash desk.
As I make my way up, it makes me think; is this a sign of the average age of the BINGO CARD playing public, or purely for my comfort and convenience? |
At the cash desk I am given a brief guide to the rules of the bingo card game and asked how many books I wish to purchase.
Not wishing to seem like a BINGO CARD novice, I opt to play the maximum amount of bingo card games for the evening. Well I don't want to seem out of place amongst the regulars, do I?
I am then offered a "bit on the side" by the lady behind the desk, but I decline her suggestion on the grounds that it's a weeknight.
She then explains to me, much to my embarrassment, that this is an extra bingo card game to be played tonight with a special prize - a microwave no less - and tickets are only a pound. I hastily give her the money and slope off red faced to find a seat in the main hall.
And what a hall it is. Large, airy and full of pink neon. I sit down and observe people making their way to their seats.
At one point the hall falls silent as a small, elderly lady in a blue dress appears. The lady next to me chips in, "that's Betty," she says "she always wins." Oh we'll see. She clearly hadn't seen me play BINGO CARD before. |
Play buzzword BINGO CARD!
Everyone needs something to liven up dull meetings. We've got the solution. Next time you've got a meeting or conference, print out the PDF on the link on the right hand side of this page and bob's your uncle. |
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We've all been there, staring at the wall behind the boss' head as you try to look like you're listening intently. It's like being back at school again.
What you didn't get in school to make the experience more bearable was Buzzword BINGO CARD however!
Next time you're in a meeting, print off the PDF file that's linked to on the right-hand side of this page. Bring it in and tick off the meaningless bits of jargon that the boss picked up from watching Wall Street once too many times.
You get extra points when you hear a euphemism like "downsizing" (this bears the same relationship to sacking people as ethnic cleansing does to genocide). Extra points are also awarded for when a phrase is needlessly appropriated from American military usage or a Vietnam film. Similarly, keep an eye out for sporting phrases appropriated into the corporate framework.
Here's another spin on the bingo card game. You may like to see how many of these naff, lazy phrases you can jam into conversation before you get caught.
For more on the delightful language use that is employed in companies all over the Thames Valley, check out the management-speak feature in the Voices section. |
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