Eyes Down! The Story of Bingo Timeshift


Eyes Down! The Story of Bingo

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It's the early 1960s and Britain is in the midst of a new obsession.

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Thousands are queuing on high streets up and down the country

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-to take part in a growing craze.

-Bingo!

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It was a game that anyone could play and it was sweeping the nation.

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It made pulses race.

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-You get terribly excited each game, do you?

-Ooh, I'm very excited, yes.

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Some people couldn't get enough.

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I'm so excited, I could do with a drink of whisky.

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-What is it? £47...?

-£47, two shilling.

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Bingo allowed somebody to come home with 100, £200 in their pocket,

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which is beyond believable cos in those days, £200 was a lot of money.

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The prizes were not just cash. The prizes were designed to be glamorous.

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So we had cruises in the Mediterranean,

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to Monte Carlo and Biarritz.

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Whether they won or not,

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bingo had the power to keep them coming back for more.

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-Did you win this afternoon?

-I did, yes, twice.

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Did you enjoy the session?

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-Very much, thank you.

-Did you win?

-Yes, ten shillings.

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The boom seemed to arrive out of nowhere,

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but it packed out cinemas and theatres across the land,

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much to the delight of a new breed of entrepreneur.

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A bingo hall became THE place.

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Cheap, easy, friendly.

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They felt they were somebody.

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But not everyone was amused.

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Well, we don't like these posters put all around our beautiful old theatre.

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The attraction of the game bewildered some...

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-Wouldn't you rather be doing something else?

-Such as?

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..and brought out class snobbery in others.

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Bingo. The most mindless ritual achieved in half a million years

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of human evolution!

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Few saw the explosion coming, not least the government,

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whose liberalising of the gaming laws

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had inadvertently created bingo-mania.

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But it couldn't have come along at a better time.

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It brought communities together when they needed it most.

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And, in its own small way, liberated the lives of many women.

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The 1960s had created the perfect storm

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for a bingo bonanza.

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BINGO CALLER: Eyes down, full house.

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Time for fun! 41!

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House!

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It's one of the most popular pastimes in the UK.

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More people play than watch professional football,

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and bingo attendances are higher than those for any British church.

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It's fantastic. Adrenaline rush.

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You know? Are you filming me?

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Well, when we get nearly a line, your heart... My heart starts going,

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and you think, "Oh, come on!

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"Pull it out, pull it out!" You know, really excited.

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Oh, it's nervous, you're shaking, the adrenaline's going.

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Yeah, we've had that quite a bit tonight, haven't we?

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Today the game is big business, with billions at stake.

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But all this would have been unimaginable

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back at a time when gambling was illegal

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and bingo was a simple number game

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more commonly known as Housey-housey,

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Lotto or Tombola.

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BINGO CALLER: At the beginning, number one.

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It was a popular form of entertainment for the troops

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in the first and second world wars.

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And as it was illegal to play for money,

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the prizes were, instead,

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practical items like boot polish and hair cream.

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ARCHIVE: Jack indulges in the one gambling game permitted in the Navy -

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Tombola.

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It was a very easy form of entertainment.

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You didn't need to carry a lot of apparatus,

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you didn't need to carry a big peak clientele to operate it.

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The Army could carry it in a briefcase, all with cards.

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They called it Housey-housey or Lotto,

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and the Army could take it all over the world.

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And they played it on the desert, they played it in the jungle.

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It was something they could do anywhere.

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It took the mind of the person away from what was happening in the world

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because once you start playing bingo, you concentrate.

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BINGO CALLER: Eyes down for the full house. Two ducks, 22.

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It was in the Forces where an important aspect

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of the game that we're all familiar with,

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whether we've played bingo or not, has its roots.

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BINGO CALLER: Number nine, straight line!

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The calls initially came from the Army and the Navy.

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All the fours, droopy drawers.

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But in those days it was important to get some fun into it,

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so you didn't say "number nine",

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you said "doctor's orders, number nine."

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Number nine was the nickname of a laxative pill

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issued by the Royal Navy.

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66, and it was "two fat WACs".

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Well, a WAC was a lady...in the Army,

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and there were often the jokes

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about them being very bonny in the uniforms,

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and so we'd say "two fat WACs".

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And so, yeah, the calls do reflect

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the rather coarse humour of groups of men cooped up together.

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BINGO CALLER: Legs, 11!

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I like seven and six!

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BINGO CALLER: Was she worth it? Seven and six.

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I've heard several versions of this one

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from various elderly gentlemen in various Royal Naval clubs

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and Royal British Legion clubs, so seven and six, was she worth it?

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Some of them say it was the price of a marriage licence

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and the call-back, especially if your wife is next to you,

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is "of course she is!" or "she's still here! We're still together."

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So the people call back with that.

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Another one, another explanation that I've heard as well,

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if two of you are going out,

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if you've picked up a nice girl to take out,

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then you want two and six for two cinema tickets,

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cos they're one and three each,

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you want two and six for two nice fish-and-chip suppers

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and two and six for bed and breakfast.

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And I don't know how true that is,

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but I've had that one also told me several times.

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This ingenuity and injection of humour helped make bingo

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so popular with the troops that the game quickly spread.

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First of all to the ex-servicemen's clubs and then to the holiday camps

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that were springing up all over post-war Britain.

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Where it became a staple, alongside the knobbly-knees competition

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and beauty contests.

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One of the main entertainments at the holiday camps was Tombola.

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Now, this is not a secondary or subsidiary activity.

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For example, marquees were put up that could hold 300 players,

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and then two sessions a day would run for three hours each.

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So we're not talking about something

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that was a minor part of a holiday camp holiday.

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Hello, everyone! This is Beryl, your Radio Butlin announcer.

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I did go to Pontins near Morecambe,

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and honestly, it was just like...

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..a prisoner-of-war camp, really.

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Nobody around,

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then somebody announced,

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"There'll be bingo in the hall in five minutes!"

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And everybody de-pouches from their rooms to the hall!

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If your idea of a good holiday is bingo from 10.30 in the morning

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until 10.30 at night, then Clacton is a dream come true.

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Every day, including Sundays, the faithful are called to play.

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The holiday companies couldn't profit from bingo.

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That was illegal, they weren't allowed to do that.

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So most of the proceeds had to go to charity.

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And Butlins alone was donating £50,000 a year

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from its Tombola games to charity in the 1950s.

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# Bingo! Bingo! I'm in love! #

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It was very popular there.

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It was also popular at seaside resorts and fairgrounds.

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We have some lovely accounts

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of some Tombola games being good games at travelling fairgrounds,

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where the prizes would be Bargee pots

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or boxes that appear to be chocolates,

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but when you actually got into them turned out to be nothing more than

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coconut and condensed milk and cocoa powder,

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and were quite revolting and tasted of sawdust.

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# Till she was sweet, my key of the door

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# And now we're hand in glove Bingo... #

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Even if you didn't gamble, you didn't do these things,

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you played bingo at the seaside.

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The fun game, a lot of pleasure, and it's still there today

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in the establishments around the coasts of this country.

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Hundreds and hundreds of bingo units.

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For many people, fairground bingo is still very much part and parcel

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of the British seaside experience

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and has remained virtually unchanged over the years.

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Ah, yeah, we've all's come to Blackpool ever since we were born.

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I'm only 21 now, like, you know (!)

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But, no, we've come to Blackpool for years

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and we've always come here into this little bingo place.

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BINGO CALLER: White six and seven, 67.

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White seven and nine, 79.

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Right, you pop your money in the slot, you get both your cards.

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Are you looking for a line down, across, diagonal

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or one in each of your four corners?

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The caller calls the numbers.

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If you get a line, you either press your button or you shout "house".

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You can then save your vouchers up for the bigger prizes

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or you can just take a one-win prize off the front of the stall.

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I've got a football money-box.

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And a cupcake...

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Cupcake money-box.

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For my granddaughter I've got these lollipops.

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And a frying-pan because I burnt the other one! So I've got this...

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For Katie, bingo is in the blood.

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The tradition has passed down through her family.

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My grandparents were in the fairground business travelling,

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came to Cleveleys to settle down,

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and opened up amusement arcade and bingo.

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And my parents have worked there all my life, though.

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That's all I can remember.

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And then we came up to Blackpool and opened up here in 1984

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and we've been here ever since.

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Jimmy Thomas, also descended from a fairground family,

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would go on to become one of the country's leading bingo operators.

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I started in the bingo business about 70 years ago.

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I was eight years old.

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And I had a lovely job. I carried a basket of balls round a bingo...

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..which the customer takes the ball,

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threw it into a box where there were numbers,

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and that selected the numbers.

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Bingo Lingo had a particularly practical use

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when it came to fairground and seaside bingo.

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When you were on a fairground and you were playing bingo,

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sometimes it wasn't very busy.

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And the important thing was the skill of the man on the microphone

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to entertain.

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You were not just calling numbers, you were a performer.

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And so you wanted to slow it down, but still not bore them,

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but slow it down enough for more people to congregate round,

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ready for the next game.

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Two seats this side. Two seats, then...

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Although extremely popular,

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the fairground bingo games were skirting around

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what was acceptable under British law back in the 1950s.

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In the fairground, they always play for prizes, never for money.

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That's why, if you like, it was tolerated. We called it Prize Bingo.

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Fairgrounds went to a town for two weeks.

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Local authorities took the decision

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on how to handle gambling,

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and they said, "This is acceptable, it's fun, it's here for two weeks,

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"it's a game of skill." Ha-ha!

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And so they let it go.

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In any case, the powers that be

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were far more pre-occupied with a different type of gambling.

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The big social scourge in that period was street betting.

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Everybody was worried about street betting.

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"We don't like men loitering on street corners, placing bets,

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"we don't like the people leaving work to go and place bets."

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Every single workplace had a bookies runner,

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so street betting needed sorting out.

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ARCHIVE: Runaway rascals up against the law!

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Big changes were on the horizon.

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The Conservative Government at the time

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proposed to legalise street betting

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after setting up a committee to investigate the state of gambling.

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When they were considering this new bill,

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they spent most of the time looking at street betting,

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about 80-odd hours,

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and they spent three hours looking at gaming.

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Because the Home Office assured the MPs that were considering it

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that gaming would not be profitable.

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So bingo definitely wasn't top of the Conservative's agenda

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when they decided to go ahead with the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act.

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But by passing the bill,

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they legalised commercial bingo for the very first time.

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BINGO CALLER: Key of the door, 21.

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It allowed gambling

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in licensed clubs with membership.

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Clubs were allowed to charge people an entrance fee

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and that's how they got their money,

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and then 90% of that went back in prizes

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and 10% went to the government.

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The Tories' intention was to bring bingo,

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something they regarded as a benign pastime, under control.

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But, unwittingly, they had unleashed a whirlwind.

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By January 3rd you've got the first bingo club

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and by the end of January you've got an explosion of bingo clubs!

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# You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain... #

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The doors flew open and bingo halls opened for business -

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big business.

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# Goodness gracious, Great balls of fire! #

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In the early '60s, the bingo boom was huge.

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ARCHIVE: £100,000 a week

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is gambled in the big bingo clubs.

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The Treasury did do a survey in 1963 during which they established

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there were 13 million 700-and-something thousand

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members of bingo clubs, so we're looking at a lot of bingo clubs.

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-Definitely.

-Are you going to spend all your afternoons

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-and evenings in here from now on?

-Definitely!

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Wish we could do it every day. We'd love it.

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By 1966, 24% of the population was playing bingo,

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so that's almost a quarter of the population.

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Oh! I bet you're excited about this, aren't you?

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I'm so excited, I could do with a drink of whisky.

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-What is it? £47...?

-£47, two shilling.

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-What are you going to sit through?

-Oh, to the last session.

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-And again in the evening?

-Oh, definitely.

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-Are you? You're a real addict now, are you?

-Not half!

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# Great balls of fire! #

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Few could have foreseen

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just how quickly commercial bingo would take hold.

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But while the government may have misjudged its potential,

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others most definitely hadn't.

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Just behind the scenes, a host of entrepreneurs had been waiting

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to cash in once the new law was passed.

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They were quick off the blocks,

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with one man in particular leading the pack.

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Eric Morley was really the central figure

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in the explosion of commercial bingo.

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Eric Morley was the driving force behind the Mecca organisation.

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By the 1950s, the company was a big player

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in the booming post-war leisure market,

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and their empire included dance halls, ice rinks,

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bowling alleys and picture houses.

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But by the 1960s, the cinema industry was in trouble.

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ARCHIVE: In the last ten years, box-office takings have been halved,

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while the number of admissions has fallen even more.

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The number of cinemas open has followed the same pattern.

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Cinema had once played a significant role in people's lives.

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Many went to the pictures several times a week.

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But the rise of television had enticed people

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back into their homes.

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Suddenly people were staying at home to watch, erm,

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Julie Andrews on television or somebody.

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They didn't go to the cinema.

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And with that collective experience gone, a big void had opened up,

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not just in people's lives,

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but in town centres up and down the country.

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And cinema after cinema closed.

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Cinema has very little use.

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It's a large shed in the middle of a town...

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with nothing in it.

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This hit Mecca hard.

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Eric Morley, who'd run games in the Army

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and who could see how big a draw it was in the holiday camps,

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knew that bingo was the answer.

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You know, he was very astute. He knew what people wanted

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and he had his finger on the pulse of popular taste.

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He knew because of Butlins that bingo was popular.

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He knew he'd got these buildings, and he put two and two together

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and he made a very, very successful four out of it.

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Morley was so convinced by the power of bingo,

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that Mecca immediately started an aggressive expansion programme,

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buying up empty cinemas all over the country at rock-bottom prices.

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But he wasn't the only one.

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The fairground families also seized the opportunity.

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The showmen, with their knowledge of bingo,

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and they'd been playing it on the fairgrounds for a long time,

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and their bit of finesse, their bit of skill, at entertaining,

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they were all... We use the word - they were showmen.

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They enjoyed showing.

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And they could then take the cinema, put the bingo into it.

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I remember actually building prize bingo units inside the cinema

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from the fairground, and actually, building them up inside

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and then building the bingo round it.

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So, you know, we moved in.

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And with that knowledge, that bit of finesse of entertaining,

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they made a success of turning cinemas into bingo halls.

0:17:520:17:56

Thousands of them.

0:17:560:17:58

In the monochrome world of early '60s Britain,

0:17:580:18:01

the entrepreneurs managed to inject glamour back into the high street

0:18:010:18:04

for ordinary people.

0:18:040:18:06

And they topped off the appeal

0:18:080:18:09

by adding special celebrity appearances to the mix.

0:18:090:18:12

Pat Phoenix, Elsie Tanner, who was on Coronation Street

0:18:140:18:17

and used to come regularly to the bingo hall to present things for me.

0:18:170:18:21

Something that had once been just a holiday past-time

0:18:210:18:24

was now available every day of the week.

0:18:240:18:28

But the game had changed.

0:18:280:18:30

The days of cheap and cheerful prizes were gone.

0:18:300:18:33

People were now playing for big money.

0:18:330:18:36

With membership numbers rocketing, the clubs were able to offer

0:18:360:18:40

ever more seductive prices.

0:18:400:18:42

They were glamorous places.

0:18:420:18:44

The prizes were not just cash,

0:18:440:18:46

the prizes were designed to be glamorous.

0:18:460:18:48

So we had mink stoles, we had cruises in the Mediterranean,

0:18:480:18:51

to Monte Carlo, for example, or Biarritz.

0:18:510:18:54

So these are holidays that you would see the jet-set having at this time.

0:18:540:18:58

The money prizes went up and up and up, and the bigger the cash prize,

0:18:580:19:03

the bigger attraction to your premises.

0:19:030:19:06

No question about it. Money was God.

0:19:060:19:09

And therefore it dominated.

0:19:090:19:11

However, there was one casualty.

0:19:110:19:14

In this new world of high stakes, Bingo Lingo no longer had a place.

0:19:140:19:19

BINGO CALLER: Five and nine, 59.

0:19:190:19:21

Seven and six, 76.

0:19:230:19:25

Now, when you are playing for thousands of pounds,

0:19:250:19:28

you can't make a mistake,

0:19:280:19:30

so the numbers then had to be called precisely,

0:19:300:19:34

clearly and correctly.

0:19:340:19:36

So there was no argument that you had misled a number.

0:19:360:19:40

BINGO CALLER: 49. On its own, number two.

0:19:410:19:44

So if you like, money changed the way bingo was called.

0:19:460:19:50

It's now a commercial game.

0:19:500:19:53

44. all the fours, 44.

0:19:530:19:56

As soon as the game turned commercial,

0:19:560:19:58

the comic calls disappeared, never to return to the big bingo halls.

0:19:580:20:02

I think one of the misconceptions about bingo and the bingo caller

0:20:020:20:06

is that people joke about,

0:20:060:20:10

whereas what bingo players want

0:20:100:20:12

is simply to hear the number very clearly, cos that is crucial.

0:20:120:20:16

Bingo time.

0:20:160:20:18

But something of the language survived

0:20:180:20:20

and continued to evolve in social clubs and seaside bingo.

0:20:200:20:24

One and six.

0:20:240:20:25

Top of the shop, nine-oh, 90.

0:20:330:20:36

We have bingo seven nights a week, plus Sunday afternoon.

0:20:360:20:40

-One and six, sweet 16.

-Yeah!

-Hold your card up please.

0:20:400:20:44

Bingo has always been part and parcel of life, a working man's life.

0:20:440:20:49

On its own, number seven.

0:20:490:20:51

I used to call bingo numbers out.

0:20:510:20:53

Doctor's orders, number nine.

0:20:530:20:56

Legs, 11, that always gets a whistle or a tap on a glass.

0:20:560:21:00

Those wonderful legs, 11.

0:21:000:21:02

-WOLF WHISTLES

-Thank you, whistlers.

0:21:020:21:04

And any way up, six and nine, 69.

0:21:040:21:07

Halfway there, four and five, 45.

0:21:070:21:09

Shut that door, number four.

0:21:090:21:12

Dinky doo, number two.

0:21:120:21:15

Deck of cards, 52.

0:21:150:21:18

All the threes, 33.

0:21:180:21:21

Kelly's eye, number one.

0:21:210:21:25

-Five and nine, the Brighton line.

-ALL: Oooh!

0:21:250:21:29

Thank you.

0:21:290:21:30

Today they remain so deeply embedded in popular culture,

0:21:300:21:34

it would be impossible to grow up in Britain

0:21:340:21:36

and not know a single bingo call.

0:21:360:21:39

Getting plenty, number 20.

0:21:390:21:41

The same modernising forces

0:21:430:21:45

that ditched the traditional calls in the '60s

0:21:450:21:48

were also at work taking the game in other new, commercial directions

0:21:480:21:51

as more and more people were getting on board.

0:21:510:21:54

Four and one, 41.

0:21:560:21:58

Bingo trains are an absolutely awesome phenomena.

0:21:590:22:03

Obviously excursions were popular in the 1960s,

0:22:030:22:05

both by coach and by train,

0:22:050:22:08

but bingo trains really caught the public imagination.

0:22:080:22:12

The numbers were called and announced on a tannoy system

0:22:120:22:15

and you had people wandering up and down, if anybody shouted house,

0:22:150:22:18

there was a person in each carriage

0:22:180:22:20

who could check the numbers and make sure.

0:22:200:22:22

And they would go, for example, from London to Brighton,

0:22:220:22:26

London to Margate, Manchester to Blackpool -

0:22:260:22:28

anywhere where there was a seaside resort, basically,

0:22:280:22:31

and a population to take them to it.

0:22:310:22:33

Two and eight, 28.

0:22:330:22:35

-House!

-CHEERING

0:22:350:22:38

The bingo explosion

0:22:380:22:39

was not only a big money-spinner for the main operators,

0:22:390:22:42

it was also good news for a small Sunderland printing firm

0:22:420:22:46

which produced the all-important bingo cards.

0:22:460:22:50

The '60s were a massive period for us.

0:22:500:22:53

We went from 12 staff, 13 staff at the beginning of the '60s

0:22:530:22:59

to, at the end of the '60s,

0:22:590:23:02

the beginning of the '70s, around 500,

0:23:020:23:04

so we really, really grew.

0:23:040:23:06

We were starting to print bingo

0:23:060:23:08

at exactly the time when commercial bingo became legal

0:23:080:23:11

and we were one of effectively two major companies

0:23:110:23:16

that were able to grow from that.

0:23:160:23:19

All the collation was done by hand.

0:23:190:23:22

The speed of people's hands and the work they had to do

0:23:220:23:25

and the volumes that we were delivering were massive.

0:23:250:23:29

One of the reasons bingo took off as it did

0:23:290:23:32

was because it was able to target

0:23:320:23:34

the growing proportion of the population

0:23:340:23:36

for whom the '60s were bringing new possibilities

0:23:360:23:39

in the form of greater spending power.

0:23:390:23:42

In 1962, the Guardian newspaper

0:23:450:23:48

declared that a housewife's revolution had occurred,

0:23:480:23:51

after a government report had found that one in three married women

0:23:510:23:56

were now working outside the home.

0:23:560:23:59

Women had a discretionary income that they could spend.

0:24:010:24:04

They had already found they liked gambling on bingo

0:24:040:24:06

when they went on holidays, and, "Look at this,

0:24:060:24:10

"we've got a bingo place opening up right in the centre of town.

0:24:100:24:13

"It's open in the afternoons, I've done my shift in the morning,"

0:24:130:24:16

a lot of women only worked part-time,

0:24:160:24:18

"I can pop down the bingo for the afternoon

0:24:180:24:20

"before I collect the children from school at four o'clock."

0:24:200:24:22

Often they'd go from work to home, change and then go to bingo.

0:24:220:24:26

Two-thirds of the people playing in those days were women.

0:24:260:24:29

-NEWSREEL:

-Nobody knows how many bingo players there are,

0:24:290:24:32

but it's not less than six million and probably nearer ten.

0:24:320:24:35

Most of them are women. Most of them are regular.

0:24:350:24:38

Many spend £5 a week on the game.

0:24:380:24:41

For them, the bingo session

0:24:410:24:43

takes the place of both the music hall and the church.

0:24:430:24:46

Women were also beginning to say,

0:24:460:24:48

"Well, why can't I go out and have a bit of time on my own?"

0:24:480:24:51

A lot of men, it's quite acceptable for them

0:24:510:24:55

to go out to a football match,

0:24:550:24:57

to go fishing, do whatever,

0:24:570:24:59

whereas women were perhaps beginning to be a bit assertive

0:24:590:25:03

and say, "Well, what about me?"

0:25:030:25:04

The thing you always forget -

0:25:040:25:06

probably the only safe environment for a woman to go on her own.

0:25:060:25:10

She could go there without being accompanied by a man,

0:25:100:25:13

accompanied by another woman, and she felt totally safe.

0:25:130:25:18

The husband was happy to give her a couple of quid to go with

0:25:180:25:22

because he knew she was in a totally safe environment.

0:25:220:25:25

She got nobody getting drunk and chatting her up, to put it crudely.

0:25:250:25:29

You know, there was nothing like that in a bingo hall.

0:25:290:25:32

We sort of forget just how unliberated women were.

0:25:320:25:36

Yes, my husband is the boss and I have seven sons.

0:25:360:25:39

I'd like them to take after their father.

0:25:390:25:42

Because he's the boss, I have to ask his consent

0:25:420:25:45

if I can go out to see friends.

0:25:450:25:47

You know, women didn't go into pubs,

0:25:470:25:49

they did have to get permission to go out without their husbands,

0:25:490:25:53

they did have to prioritise the childcare.

0:25:530:25:55

Opportunities were very limited.

0:25:550:25:58

Even now, some women won't feel comfortable

0:25:580:26:01

walking into a pub on their own,

0:26:010:26:03

whereas you can go to a bingo club on your own.

0:26:030:26:05

It's possibly... I can't think of many places

0:26:050:26:08

where women would feel comfortable going on their own.

0:26:080:26:12

I used to go every Sunday night.

0:26:120:26:16

I used to leave the kids at home with my husband and, yeah,

0:26:160:26:19

that was my escapism, really.

0:26:190:26:21

I like coming because it's somewhere you can come on your own.

0:26:210:26:25

Like, if you go in a pub and you're a woman and you're on your own and...

0:26:250:26:28

You just don't do it. You can come here, either with someone,

0:26:280:26:31

with friends, with your partner or on your own.

0:26:310:26:33

Yeah. And no men want to come as well so it's really good!

0:26:330:26:37

It's a great day out. It's a social day out.

0:26:370:26:41

You go there and you meet a lot of friends. I'm a single girl.

0:26:410:26:45

So I love to go because I've got a lot of friends there

0:26:450:26:50

and they care for you.

0:26:500:26:52

It's a caring place.

0:26:520:26:54

But the sight of thousands of women queueing up for a flutter at bingo

0:26:560:27:00

was more than many could bear back in the '60s.

0:27:000:27:03

Almost as soon as the boom began so too did the backlash.

0:27:060:27:10

Some newspapers started denouncing bingo

0:27:110:27:14

as a new and dangerous phenomenon.

0:27:140:27:17

And columnists gleefully declared the birth of bingo orphans.

0:27:190:27:23

We have, in The Times, an editorial that headlined...

0:27:230:27:28

We have condemnation of the players as stupid, naive, ignorant.

0:27:310:27:36

Are you going to gamble away all your housekeeping money?

0:27:360:27:39

No, certainly not.

0:27:390:27:40

There were stories about women

0:27:400:27:42

supposedly frittering away their housekeeping money,

0:27:420:27:46

there were stories about women neglecting their children,

0:27:460:27:50

and some of that was the kind of thing

0:27:500:27:53

that is often levelled at women anyway.

0:27:530:27:56

The press reaction was as you would expect them to.

0:27:560:27:59

It was something they could sell papers on.

0:27:590:28:01

If they found one child stood outside a bingo hall,

0:28:010:28:03

they could have him on the front page.

0:28:030:28:06

The fact the child was just passing the bingo hall didn't really matter.

0:28:060:28:09

The disdain wasn't just reserved for women.

0:28:090:28:12

Bingo in general became a target of chattering class scorn.

0:28:120:28:15

-NEWSREEL:

-Bingo, the most mindless ritual achieved

0:28:150:28:19

in half a million years of human evolution.

0:28:190:28:22

There is a lot of snobbery around

0:28:220:28:24

and quite a lot of hypocrisy and the usual elitism

0:28:240:28:28

around anything that working-class people enjoy.

0:28:280:28:31

How often do you come here?

0:28:310:28:33

-Twice a week?

-That's every week.

-That's every week.

0:28:330:28:36

-How much money do you spend here?

-On the average, about 30 bob.

0:28:360:28:39

-Have you got any children at all?

-Unmarried.

0:28:390:28:43

-So you've got no family problems?

-No family problems.

0:28:430:28:46

-Wouldn't you rather be doing something else?

-Such as?

0:28:460:28:49

I'd say on an evening like this, walking, cycling or all sorts of...

0:28:490:28:52

No, this suits me down to the ground. I get wonderful entertainment here.

0:28:520:28:56

You know, whether it's greyhound racing or going down to the pub

0:28:560:29:00

or the working men's club, those sorts of activities

0:29:000:29:03

are seen as less educational, they're less favoured.

0:29:030:29:08

-NEWSREEL:

-The Theatre Royal, Margate, a fine 200-year-old house,

0:29:080:29:11

the second oldest theatre in the country.

0:29:110:29:13

But the queue I found outside wasn't waiting to see the play,

0:29:130:29:16

they were waiting to play bingo.

0:29:160:29:18

Mr Brown, are the bingo sessions helping the theatre much?

0:29:180:29:21

Well, they're not at the moment

0:29:210:29:23

but we're hoping during the winter period

0:29:230:29:25

when audiences are low, they will.

0:29:250:29:27

This is a very old theatre.

0:29:270:29:29

Do you think this is a very dignified way of helping it?

0:29:290:29:32

It's not a dignified way but it's a means to an end.

0:29:320:29:35

Isn't there a danger that it might turn into a bingo parlour

0:29:350:29:38

rather than a theatre? How does your regular company feel about it?

0:29:380:29:41

Well, we have a member of the company here. Susan?

0:29:410:29:45

She would probably tell you more than I can. Miss Matthews.

0:29:450:29:49

Susan, you work in the box office, don't you, this afternoon?

0:29:490:29:52

Yes, on Sundays.

0:29:520:29:53

How do the actors feel about this bingo business?

0:29:530:29:57

Well, we don't like these posters put all round our beautiful old theatre.

0:29:570:30:01

To begin with, we didn't like it at all.

0:30:010:30:03

But taking the long view, if it means that we can have 12 months' work

0:30:030:30:07

instead of just a seasonal period, then we are for it.

0:30:070:30:11

Susan wasn't alone.

0:30:110:30:13

Many at the time felt that bingo was a threat to the world

0:30:130:30:16

as they knew it.

0:30:160:30:17

But for others, bingo was a welcome arrival to the world.

0:30:180:30:23

Working-class life was changing,

0:30:230:30:25

with old patterns of living coming under threat for whole generations.

0:30:250:30:30

Rows of terraced houses

0:30:300:30:32

were being demolished to make way for new estates.

0:30:320:30:35

And whilst this often improved the material quality of people's lives,

0:30:350:30:39

the sense of community was faltering.

0:30:390:30:42

Whole streets were being restructured,

0:30:420:30:45

the life of the street was very much changing.

0:30:450:30:47

People were beginning to live in high-rise blocks of flats.

0:30:470:30:50

Women would still go to the wash house in the 1950s and '60s

0:30:500:30:54

to do their laundry.

0:30:540:30:56

A lot of those spaces were going,

0:30:560:30:58

so the idea of having a communal life outside of the house...

0:30:580:31:04

And remember that a lot of houses

0:31:040:31:07

were not places that people actually socialised in.

0:31:070:31:09

We've got this mythology, really, about working-class life

0:31:090:31:12

that people were always popping in and out of each other's houses.

0:31:120:31:15

That wasn't really the case.

0:31:150:31:17

So to have a place that people could go out to

0:31:170:31:20

and have a kind of non-intimate sociability,

0:31:200:31:24

to be out with your mates doing an activity together,

0:31:240:31:28

bingo really fulfilled that.

0:31:280:31:32

So for the ordinary working people of this country, it was a godsend.

0:31:320:31:36

The cinemas had closed, they needed a community action.

0:31:360:31:41

It's no good sitting at home every night and talking to their neighbour,

0:31:410:31:45

they wanted somewhere to go to meet their friends and have a night out.

0:31:450:31:49

And the bingo hall became the place -

0:31:490:31:53

cheap, easy, friendly,

0:31:530:31:57

great community atmosphere.

0:31:570:31:59

We've met more people here in the last couple of sessions

0:31:590:32:02

than we've met in two and a half years we've lived down here.

0:32:020:32:05

What satisfaction do you get out of this?

0:32:050:32:08

-It gives me a couple of hours out.

-How much do you spend?

0:32:080:32:12

-12 and six on the night.

-That all?

-Mmm.

0:32:120:32:15

You think that's worth it for what you get?

0:32:160:32:18

Well, I've been a few times and I got £23, one shilling,

0:32:180:32:21

so my expenses are paid, aren't they?

0:32:210:32:24

For older women, there was that need, I guess,

0:32:240:32:30

for sociability, you know, to avoid loneliness.

0:32:300:32:33

A lot of older women, in particular, live on their own,

0:32:340:32:37

and, in many ways, bingo was simply a way to get out of the house.

0:32:370:32:43

That's also why bingo sessions

0:32:430:32:46

during the day are very popular.

0:32:460:32:48

A lot of elderly people don't want to come out in the evenings.

0:32:480:32:51

Every Wednesday about quarter past, half past 12,

0:32:550:33:00

I come round, open the hall,

0:33:000:33:01

and then fill the urns with water, ready,

0:33:010:33:05

and have it hot for when the players come in

0:33:050:33:11

at about one o'clock-ish,

0:33:110:33:13

so they can all have a hot cup of tea if they wish.

0:33:130:33:16

'And then I do another duty, which is taking their entrance fees of 50p.

0:33:160:33:21

'Our basic average is about 30 to 32 every week.

0:33:210:33:26

'Sometimes it goes up to about 38, which is a good week.

0:33:260:33:31

'But I get excited'

0:33:310:33:33

when it gets past 25 cos that covers all the expenses

0:33:330:33:37

and gives us a little profit, which is all going into the church funds.

0:33:370:33:40

Seven and nine, 79.

0:33:400:33:44

It's an escape from the boredom of life.

0:33:440:33:47

They come for the companionship, somewhere to go,

0:33:470:33:50

somewhere to get out of their little blocks of flats or apartments,

0:33:500:33:55

sometimes a slight break away from the family.

0:33:550:34:00

And then they're all talking from table to table

0:34:000:34:07

and amongst themselves, and probably sometimes

0:34:070:34:10

they wouldn't say two or three words throughout the week to anyone else.

0:34:100:34:15

It's amazing how there's a jolly, friendly atmosphere.

0:34:150:34:20

It's the company. You meet people,

0:34:230:34:25

or you probably wouldn't have anybody to talk to. It's nice.

0:34:250:34:30

Unfortunately, a lot of elderly people on their own,

0:34:300:34:34

they don't have anybody to talk to, and when they do get a chance,

0:34:340:34:38

well, like me, they can't stop.

0:34:380:34:40

Bingo is now a staple of many church halls.

0:34:440:34:47

But back in the '60s,

0:34:470:34:48

it was closely associated with other forms of gaming

0:34:480:34:51

and helped trigger a wider moral panic

0:34:510:34:53

about the extent of gambling in the UK.

0:34:530:34:57

-NEWSREEL:

-There must be times when it seems to moralists

0:34:570:35:00

as if Britain is a nation given over almost completely to gambling,

0:35:000:35:04

the second oldest profession -

0:35:040:35:05

the nation fiddling while the Treaty of Rome burns.

0:35:050:35:09

But the Sabbath contrasts are too spectacular for comfort.

0:35:090:35:12

In this Christian nation, only one person in ten goes to church.

0:35:120:35:17

God who made us mighty no longer makes us mightier yet.

0:35:170:35:20

Since the 1960 legislation liberalising betting and gaming,

0:35:230:35:28

many now believed that Britain had become a nation of gamblers.

0:35:280:35:31

Britain was actually the destination of choice

0:35:310:35:35

for anybody who wanted to gamble,

0:35:350:35:37

because there was more opportunity to gamble

0:35:370:35:39

within the UK than anywhere else in the world.

0:35:390:35:42

So the spa towns of Europe were put in the shade by London.

0:35:420:35:45

You know, if you wanted to come and gamble from America,

0:35:450:35:49

then this was the place to be.

0:35:490:35:51

And there was an awful lot of gambling tourism, actually,

0:35:510:35:53

in that period, but mainly for the high-class casinos.

0:35:530:35:56

Some church groups were particularly unhappy

0:35:560:35:59

about the rapid spread of gambling.

0:35:590:36:01

There's a lot of religious opposition,

0:36:010:36:03

there are bodies that are opposed to gambling -

0:36:030:36:06

the National Anti-Gambling League -

0:36:060:36:08

because there's this great outrage against, basically,

0:36:080:36:11

two or three things. One is that, in fact,

0:36:110:36:13

it's a waste of money, it causes poverty.

0:36:130:36:16

Secondly, it corrupts children and women, women and children.

0:36:160:36:21

And thirdly, the third real objection,

0:36:210:36:24

is that it creates an attitude of getting something for nothing,

0:36:240:36:27

something for nowt.

0:36:270:36:28

And those were the three driving forces

0:36:280:36:30

behind trying to stop people gambling.

0:36:300:36:33

But the Catholics didn't have a problem with bingo.

0:36:330:36:36

Instead, they saw it as an opportunity.

0:36:360:36:40

Made in heaven, 67.

0:36:400:36:43

In the post-war years,

0:36:430:36:45

there had been a huge influx of workers from Ireland

0:36:450:36:48

to help rebuild the country.

0:36:480:36:50

The Catholic Church needed money to pay for the building

0:36:500:36:53

of new schools and social clubs to cater for them.

0:36:530:36:55

Bingo provided an important income.

0:36:550:36:58

It is said to have partly paid for the building

0:36:580:37:01

that has become affectionately known as Paddy's Wigwam.

0:37:010:37:04

The Catholic cathedral in Liverpool had been started before the war,

0:37:040:37:07

and to a very different plan.

0:37:070:37:09

But, of course, money was much tighter after the war,

0:37:090:37:12

building materials were rationed. So they had to have a new scheme

0:37:120:37:15

and they had to have a massive fundraising effort

0:37:150:37:18

alongside the new scheme.

0:37:180:37:20

So the Metropolitan Cathedral decided,

0:37:200:37:22

"Well, if we're going to raise that sort of money quickly, you know,

0:37:220:37:25

"bingo games is one very good way forward. We will have bingo games."

0:37:250:37:28

And they did.

0:37:280:37:29

And very successfully too, because they raised a lot of money

0:37:290:37:32

and it's a very beautiful testament

0:37:320:37:34

to the use of gambling money, I think, as well.

0:37:340:37:37

Even though bingo was doing positive things for the Catholic Church,

0:37:370:37:41

political changes afoot in 1964

0:37:410:37:43

suddenly spelt an uncertain future

0:37:430:37:46

for the commercial operators of the game.

0:37:460:37:48

CHEERING

0:37:480:37:50

When Harold Wilson's Labour government came into power,

0:37:500:37:53

it could see that things had got out of hand.

0:37:530:37:55

Control was not really in place.

0:37:570:37:59

I had five casinos - small ones.

0:37:590:38:03

Because I manufactured the equipment,

0:38:030:38:05

I could put them in a club, it became a casino.

0:38:050:38:08

And so you open good casinos, bad casinos - too many of them.

0:38:080:38:13

Uncontrolled, you could open anywhere.

0:38:130:38:16

You buy a cinema, you open.

0:38:160:38:19

It was freedom.

0:38:190:38:21

When they're uncontrolled, you sometimes get a bad element in them.

0:38:210:38:25

And bingo was virtually uncontrolled then.

0:38:250:38:28

Up to tricks, 46.

0:38:280:38:32

A few unscrupulous bingo halls were operating some sharp practices.

0:38:320:38:37

I still think the vast majority of bingo that was played was safe

0:38:370:38:40

and was done with the best intentions.

0:38:400:38:43

There might have been one or two bad places,

0:38:430:38:45

but people were making so much money legitimately anyway,

0:38:450:38:48

there wasn't much need to... cheat the system.

0:38:480:38:53

But there were one or two cheats. You know, you've got the caller

0:38:530:38:56

reading out a different number from the ball.

0:38:560:38:59

Number four.

0:38:590:39:00

They pull a ball and the ball might have a number three on,

0:39:000:39:02

they'd read number 17 because they wanted that ticket to win

0:39:020:39:05

and they probably have a list of numbers.

0:39:050:39:07

But the attractiveness of bingo

0:39:070:39:08

had caught the attention of a far more dangerous fraternity.

0:39:080:39:12

Bingo, as it was constituted during this period,

0:39:130:39:17

was a very, very good way of laundering money

0:39:170:39:20

because bingo players paid cash,

0:39:200:39:22

there wasn't a record kept of how many people came in

0:39:220:39:25

or how many cards you sold.

0:39:250:39:27

If you won a large cash prize at bingo,

0:39:270:39:29

or even had a large amount of money that you wanted to put in the bank,

0:39:290:39:32

you could say, "Well, I won it at bingo."

0:39:320:39:34

There was no check to say you didn't win it at bingo,

0:39:340:39:37

so there was nothing to stop you putting the proceeds of a heist

0:39:370:39:40

in the bank under the guise that it was a bingo win.

0:39:400:39:42

-NEWSREEL:

-Today's report shows that bingo show clubs

0:39:420:39:45

have a membership of 14.5 half million members,

0:39:450:39:48

casino clubs close on a million,

0:39:480:39:50

and that every year one-armed bandits

0:39:500:39:52

make a profit of around £10 million.

0:39:520:39:55

One of the most lucrative opportunities

0:39:550:39:57

for the organised crime gangs were the slot machines

0:39:570:40:00

that were situated inside the bingo halls.

0:40:000:40:03

There was always a risk with the gaming machines that, although they

0:40:030:40:07

were run by family businesses in this country, of the foreign element

0:40:070:40:11

creeping in because of the weakness of the Gambling Act.

0:40:110:40:16

So we had got a potential problem.

0:40:160:40:19

So, there we were,

0:40:200:40:21

playing with machines that were prewar, most of them.

0:40:210:40:26

But the brand-new machines were coming in and the companies

0:40:260:40:29

behind them were not the best of the syndicates in America.

0:40:290:40:33

We won't get involved with what you call them.

0:40:330:40:36

But they then shipped them over under their own banner

0:40:360:40:40

and brought in their own people.

0:40:400:40:42

They saw England as an easy touch

0:40:420:40:46

and they thought they could move in and take over the gambling business.

0:40:460:40:51

The gaming industry is a fast-moving industry with a lot of loose money

0:40:510:40:55

and perhaps hot money involved with a fringe of criminal element

0:40:550:41:01

with certain dangers of a social nature.

0:41:010:41:05

Fearing a Mafia-style takeover, the Labour government was

0:41:070:41:11

determined to tighten the rules and crack down on commercial gaming.

0:41:110:41:16

They actually meant it was going to end.

0:41:160:41:18

There was going to be nothing left.

0:41:180:41:20

Bingo was seen as much a part of the gaming world as casinos,

0:41:200:41:24

so Eric Morley and other operators knew

0:41:240:41:27

they had to lobby government to save their profitable industry.

0:41:270:41:30

It was up to us to go and explain to government that bingo was not

0:41:320:41:37

hard gambling that took away people's livelihoods.

0:41:370:41:42

Bingo was soft and fun.

0:41:420:41:45

And we had to explain this

0:41:450:41:47

and persuade politicians there was a total barrier between the two.

0:41:470:41:51

They were successful

0:41:520:41:53

because when Labour passed the Gaming Act in 1968,

0:41:530:41:57

the casino industry was decimated and went from 2,000 clubs to 121.

0:41:570:42:02

But bingo came out of it relatively unscathed.

0:42:020:42:06

The National Association of Bingo Clubs has come along with us

0:42:060:42:11

in recognising that if bingo is to be this social game,

0:42:110:42:16

played, as I say, between neighbours for modest stakes,

0:42:160:42:20

then we must have rules which ensure that it doesn't become

0:42:200:42:26

a source of regret and sorrow and hardship.

0:42:260:42:31

People want to go there and enjoy themselves

0:42:310:42:33

and not feel that they've lost more money than they can afford.

0:42:330:42:37

So they softened for bingo because we persuaded them,

0:42:370:42:41

with evidence, that bingo was a soft community game,

0:42:410:42:46

played by ordinary people.

0:42:460:42:49

Some controls were tightened up and licences became harder

0:42:490:42:52

to come by but the way was clear for the next decade.

0:42:520:42:56

Over 8 million people, mainly housewives and pensioners,

0:42:560:42:59

play bingo perhaps once or twice a week.

0:42:590:43:01

They wager on their clickety-clicks and their Kelly's Eyes

0:43:020:43:06

an incredible £185 million a year.

0:43:060:43:09

The promoters call this obsession an entertainment with a flutter.

0:43:100:43:15

Certainly, it fills lonely hours for the elderly

0:43:150:43:18

but folk also want to win.

0:43:180:43:20

Perhaps a few pounds only or maybe up to 1,000.

0:43:200:43:23

And soon such amounts would pale into insignificance.

0:43:240:43:28

The British tabloids that had once so derided bingo

0:43:280:43:31

now wanted a slice of the action.

0:43:310:43:33

Fleet Street's first bingo millionaire

0:43:330:43:36

phoned in his full house claim this morning.

0:43:360:43:38

They ran their own games and offered prize money that people

0:43:380:43:42

previously could only have dreamt of.

0:43:420:43:45

It began with the Daily Star, was quickly followed by The Sun

0:43:450:43:48

and soon after most of the rest of Fleet Street's

0:43:480:43:50

mass-circulation papers joined in.

0:43:500:43:53

Millions of pounds are being offered in prizes in the biggest

0:43:530:43:56

circulation war Fleet Street has seen for decades.

0:43:560:43:59

The bingo games now reach 25 million newspaper buyers a day.

0:43:590:44:04

They're all bingo mad.

0:44:040:44:06

We used to print the Daily Express bingo and the Daily Star bingo

0:44:060:44:10

and the Mirror and...

0:44:100:44:13

Massive numbers - we were doing

0:44:130:44:17

a five million, six million run.

0:44:170:44:19

At its boom, we were having many millions of players playing

0:44:190:44:23

bingo in newspapers every day.

0:44:230:44:25

We were having play rates for the national papers of about 30%.

0:44:250:44:31

Now, what that means is, we were dropping bingo tickets

0:44:310:44:34

to every home in the country.

0:44:340:44:36

And 30% of those tickets were being played. That is huge.

0:44:360:44:40

Absolutely huge.

0:44:400:44:41

The Sun newspaper claims that bingo has added

0:44:410:44:44

half a million to its sales,

0:44:440:44:46

proving a more potent circulation booster

0:44:460:44:48

than its more familiar attractions.

0:44:480:44:49

Yes, it is cost-effective

0:44:490:44:51

and hopefully we will also kill off some of our rivals in the process.

0:44:510:44:55

Do you really think it is going to end like that?

0:44:550:44:58

Is this a battle to the death, as you describe it?

0:44:580:45:00

It is a battle to the death and our rivals are really feeling the pain.

0:45:000:45:04

So, what do you think this means for

0:45:040:45:05

the future of some newspapers in Fleet Street?

0:45:050:45:08

Well, I hope it means that some of our rivals are put out of business.

0:45:080:45:11

Even the broadsheets wanted in on the game.

0:45:110:45:13

It's a cross between the football pools and bingo.

0:45:130:45:16

As befits The Times' image,

0:45:160:45:18

you get an upmarket plastic card the size of a credit card.

0:45:180:45:21

The game is based on the ups and downs of the stock market.

0:45:210:45:24

We did games for people like The Times and the Telegraph and whatever

0:45:240:45:28

that, at the time, were variations on bingo.

0:45:280:45:30

It wasn't bingo,

0:45:300:45:31

it was either how the stock market moved or years of wine.

0:45:310:45:36

But it was still bingo.

0:45:360:45:37

-INTERVIEWER:

-It does smack slightly of an upmarket bingo.

0:45:370:45:40

Well, if we are selling four million copies of The Times

0:45:400:45:44

by this time next week, I would agree with you, yes.

0:45:440:45:47

The newspaper industry was delighted with the results

0:45:470:45:50

but traditional bingo operators weren't quite so enamoured.

0:45:500:45:54

It isn't bingo. It's a lottery. They draw so many numbers a day.

0:45:540:46:00

You have got to buy the newspaper for a week.

0:46:000:46:02

It's a sales gimmick to sell newspapers.

0:46:020:46:05

They can play for big money because it's an advertising gimmick.

0:46:050:46:10

But it is not bingo.

0:46:100:46:11

There is no community atmosphere, there is no pleasure.

0:46:110:46:14

It is purely a gamble.

0:46:140:46:15

The bingo clubs were worried.

0:46:170:46:19

Momentum in the halls seemed to be slowing down.

0:46:190:46:22

Overshadowed by the newspaper bingo millionaires,

0:46:220:46:25

they needed to bring the buzz back.

0:46:250:46:27

Bingo was going to be left in the doldrums.

0:46:290:46:31

We had the idea of the National Game.

0:46:310:46:34

The Bingo Association thought up this game.

0:46:340:46:37

They wanted to link up all the bingo clubs in the UK

0:46:370:46:40

and consolidate ticket sales to create a massive prize fund.

0:46:400:46:44

We went across to Parliament and we pleaded with government.

0:46:450:46:49

The Gaming Board threw up their objections.

0:46:490:46:52

The Home Secretary at the time was Douglas Hurd, I can remember it well,

0:46:530:46:57

and he said, "No, let the bingo hall talk." He liked it and he listened

0:46:570:47:03

to the reasons, the sense, the logic of it and said,

0:47:030:47:07

"This is great. These people have to compete.

0:47:070:47:11

"The people playing bingo have to have something to go for,

0:47:110:47:15

"a big prize."

0:47:150:47:17

In 1986, the National Game was born.

0:47:170:47:20

I think people thought that we weren't serious,

0:47:200:47:22

linking up 800 bingo clubs, National Game by computer.

0:47:220:47:25

And, really, there wasn't the technology.

0:47:250:47:27

It was all new technology.

0:47:270:47:29

Computer-generated bingo tickets were sold

0:47:290:47:31

in halls all over the country.

0:47:310:47:33

A random generator selected that night's numbers which were then

0:47:350:47:38

transmitted across the network to all participating clubs.

0:47:380:47:42

This computer could take in and analyse all the tickets

0:47:440:47:47

that were sold, know what numbers were called

0:47:470:47:51

and could check the winners and could control perfectly

0:47:510:47:56

the running of this huge game with hundreds of thousands

0:47:560:47:59

of tickets being sold from Scotland to Land's End...

0:47:590:48:03

All the numbers are in now so eyes down. National Game.

0:48:050:48:09

Full house only.

0:48:090:48:10

..and now your prize money went huge.

0:48:100:48:13

250, £500,000. Big money in those days.

0:48:180:48:23

Suddenly you had a legalised massive jackpot where you might

0:48:230:48:28

get 80 or 100 grand for a single game of bingo.

0:48:280:48:31

It was just like, "Wow."

0:48:310:48:33

Five and nine, 59.

0:48:330:48:34

BELL RINGS

0:48:340:48:36

That's a good one.

0:48:440:48:45

Every night you got close and you had an equal chance of winning it

0:48:450:48:51

as everybody else in the land playing that game.

0:48:510:48:55

So it was a very popular game.

0:48:550:48:57

And it brought the spark back.

0:48:570:48:59

One of the unique attractions of bingo is that it is not

0:48:590:49:03

strictly a win/lose situation.

0:49:030:49:05

The enjoyment of playing can be almost as much fun as the winning.

0:49:050:49:09

They enjoy the thrill of nearly winning.

0:49:090:49:11

They enjoy the actual real thrill when they do win.

0:49:110:49:14

They enjoy seeing their friends as well when they're there.

0:49:140:49:16

They might go with a group.

0:49:160:49:17

But you're not there to chat, you're there to play bingo.

0:49:170:49:20

For everybody that won, there was at least 50 people nearly winning.

0:49:200:49:24

And the excitement was how close you got to winning.

0:49:240:49:27

So that was the thrill of bingo.

0:49:270:49:29

You feel like shouting when someone shouts, "Here."

0:49:290:49:31

You're like, "No! It's mine!"

0:49:310:49:33

The one thing worse than that

0:49:330:49:34

-is when your one number is the next number out.

-Yeah.

0:49:340:49:36

-You are one away from the line.

-If it wasn't that next number

0:49:360:49:39

that come out, I could live with that but when it is the next number,

0:49:390:49:42

my heart goes in my stomach. It's like, "Couldn't you just miss it?"

0:49:420:49:45

And so it got the adrenaline going,

0:49:450:49:47

got the excitement going, got the pleasure of it.

0:49:470:49:50

You're shaking all over, aren't you?

0:49:500:49:52

I keep willing it out and it won't come. And I call it a bugger.

0:49:520:49:56

If you have a win, you are delighted.

0:49:580:50:01

If you don't, well, say, "We'll try again next week."

0:50:010:50:04

-You get terribly excited each game, do you?

-I get very excited. Yes.

0:50:040:50:08

-Before each one?

-Oh, we do, yes.

-During the game.

0:50:080:50:11

During and before and before we come. It's lovely.

0:50:110:50:14

And when they have won -

0:50:140:50:16

ecstasy, they have made it.

0:50:160:50:18

Four and six, 46.

0:50:180:50:20

-Seven and three, 73.

-SHOUTING

0:50:200:50:22

OK. Oh, we have got two.

0:50:220:50:25

-Did you win this afternoon?

-I did, yes, twice.

0:50:250:50:27

I won £10.

0:50:270:50:28

It's my first time winning as well, so it is dead exciting.

0:50:280:50:31

I've had nothing yet.

0:50:310:50:33

I have won 20 before but that's it. Still waiting for the big win.

0:50:330:50:37

Did you enjoy the session?

0:50:370:50:39

-Very much, thank you.

-Did you win?

-Yes, 10 shillings.

0:50:390:50:41

Whether they won a pound or they won 1,000 didn't really matter.

0:50:410:50:44

They would yell just as loud,

0:50:440:50:47

they would jump in their seats just as high.

0:50:470:50:49

Bingo! I've won.

0:50:490:50:52

It might only be four pound but you have won.

0:50:520:50:55

I don't know, it gives you a thrill.

0:50:550:50:57

Well, it gives me a thrill, anyway.

0:50:570:50:59

250 each.

0:51:010:51:02

When I win money here, I come in the next day and spend a certain

0:51:030:51:07

part of it and go to my bar and get my two bottles of Guinness.

0:51:070:51:13

People go and say to you, "I don't go to win, I go for the pleasure."

0:51:150:51:20

I think they're fibbing.

0:51:200:51:22

I think everybody wants to win.

0:51:220:51:24

Whether it is bingo or whatever you do in life - you want to win.

0:51:240:51:28

The National Game had brought bingo into the modern era.

0:51:300:51:33

But the converted cinemas that had once provided glamour

0:51:330:51:36

now looked shabby and out of step with the way people were living.

0:51:360:51:40

As people became more used to travelling in cars,

0:51:420:51:46

you opened bingo halls where you'd got the biggest car park.

0:51:460:51:49

Cricklewood was a total success

0:51:490:51:52

because it had got car parking for 1,800 cars.

0:51:520:51:55

We were now creating the large bingo halls.

0:51:560:51:59

The 1,000-seater, 2,000-seater.

0:51:590:52:03

People were more demanding now.

0:52:030:52:04

They were asking for better facilities.

0:52:040:52:07

You have moved to much more upmarket buildings

0:52:080:52:11

that are designed for bingo.

0:52:110:52:13

JIMMY THOMAS: We could develop a bingo hall

0:52:130:52:16

with entertainment around the outer core.

0:52:160:52:18

We could put a pub, a restaurant, theatre,

0:52:180:52:22

all these things around inside the huge shell

0:52:220:52:26

and then put a couple of thousand seats in the middle of it.

0:52:260:52:30

So they became the next generation of bingo halls.

0:52:300:52:36

When I walked in, I couldn't believe it.

0:52:360:52:38

I thought, "Oh, this is great, isn't it?"

0:52:380:52:41

Everything matches everything, doesn't it?

0:52:410:52:43

-Yeah, yeah.

-Everything matches everything.

-Beautiful, yeah.

0:52:430:52:47

It's out of this world.

0:52:470:52:48

Big prize money

0:52:510:52:52

and the new super-sized, specially-designed halls

0:52:520:52:55

seemed to have created a bright 21st-century future for bingo.

0:52:550:53:00

-A very good evening to you all. Good evening.

-ALL: Good evening.

0:53:000:53:05

But then something came along that had potential to extinguish

0:53:050:53:08

this favourite British pastime for good.

0:53:080:53:11

In 2006, the Scottish Assembly introduced a smoking ban

0:53:120:53:16

and the rest of Britain followed suit a year later.

0:53:160:53:20

Smoking is a very important thing to bingo players.

0:53:200:53:25

65, 70% of people in bingo halls smoked.

0:53:250:53:30

It's a nervous reaction when you're playing. You enjoy a smoke.

0:53:300:53:34

It was part of the pleasure.

0:53:340:53:35

A high proportion of working-class people smoked.

0:53:350:53:39

Bingo is a working-class game.

0:53:390:53:42

Bingo is also a game for people who take risks on occasions

0:53:420:53:46

so when the smoking ban came in, it hit bingo harder,

0:53:460:53:49

proportionately, than other pastimes.

0:53:490:53:51

We reckoned that that would take 15% away

0:53:510:53:55

from the bottom-line income of the bingo hall.

0:53:550:53:59

For a lot of bingo halls, that meant closure.

0:53:590:54:02

Unfortunately, this is the club that we had to close.

0:54:020:54:06

We shut this in May of last year.

0:54:060:54:09

Well, we used to have, on a regular basis,

0:54:090:54:12

over a thousand people playing in any evening at the Rio Bingo Club.

0:54:120:54:17

Nobody can deny it is a more pleasant place to be

0:54:170:54:20

in a bingo hall now - cleaner, tidier,

0:54:200:54:24

there is not that stink of tobacco.

0:54:240:54:26

You're talking to a non-smoker so I am probably biased,

0:54:260:54:29

but it did hurt my business and it hurt the bingo business.

0:54:290:54:34

And we haven't fully recovered from that.

0:54:340:54:36

But over time, it has adapted.

0:54:360:54:39

By 2010, there were nearly 13 million less players a year

0:54:390:54:44

compared to 2006.

0:54:440:54:46

But it still meant that around 48 million people

0:54:460:54:49

were playing annually.

0:54:490:54:51

Bingo is once again having to reinvent itself,

0:54:520:54:55

this time for the smoke-free 21st century,

0:54:550:54:59

designing new clubs with something for everyone.

0:54:590:55:02

Bingo still has its fan base within the UK

0:55:030:55:07

and it is quite an extensive one.

0:55:070:55:09

The game is trying to reinvent itself -

0:55:090:55:11

it's targeting student nights out and hen nights.

0:55:110:55:15

And it appears to be working.

0:55:150:55:17

Today, the biggest growth area in membership is women under 35.

0:55:170:55:21

It's more younger people now that come. Especially at the weekend.

0:55:210:55:25

We've got the lounge and it's just a good atmosphere.

0:55:250:55:28

It really is now.

0:55:280:55:30

It's a lot more for the younger people now. It's really good.

0:55:300:55:33

Bingo's success in attracting a new clientele has been

0:55:330:55:36

helped by the creation of separate spaces for those who want

0:55:360:55:40

to socialise without disturbing the more hardcore player.

0:55:400:55:43

It's got a different vibe about it than everyone seems...

0:55:440:55:47

Everyone seems to think it's all for, like, grandmas and stuff

0:55:470:55:50

and it's really not.

0:55:500:55:52

It's really good fun and you get to have a drink and a laugh.

0:55:520:55:54

Cos you've got the loud room and the quiet room,

0:55:540:55:57

you can sit in the loud room with your girlfriends

0:55:570:55:59

and have a bit of a chitchat and have fun and it's a good laugh, really.

0:55:590:56:04

You know, the business is always cyclical.

0:56:040:56:06

I think bingo is on an upturn now.

0:56:060:56:08

There's still millions of people playing the game now.

0:56:080:56:12

I remember people saying, you know, 25, 30 year ago,

0:56:120:56:17

"Oh, bingo won't last."

0:56:170:56:19

You know, it's still very strong these days.

0:56:190:56:22

I don't think, personally, that there will be a time

0:56:220:56:26

when bingo isn't popular.

0:56:260:56:27

Nearly there, 89.

0:56:270:56:29

The bingo business has managed to survive because at the heart of it

0:56:320:56:36

is a simple game that we fell in love with a long time ago.

0:56:360:56:40

And its appeal today is much the same as it has always been -

0:56:410:56:46

It is an egalitarian game, beautifully without pretence,

0:56:460:56:50

that has kept us entertained through difficult times,

0:56:500:56:54

injected a touch of glamour to the high street

0:56:540:56:57

and brought people together.

0:56:570:56:59

We have made a lot of friends, haven't we?

0:57:010:57:04

I mean, I didn't know Anna until I came to bingo

0:57:040:57:07

and then when this opened, we just came on a Friday

0:57:070:57:11

and we've been every Friday since.

0:57:110:57:13

It does play an important social function.

0:57:130:57:17

I think it is important that that does continue.

0:57:170:57:20

One and seven, 17.

0:57:200:57:22

I was sat with people 90 years old, sharp as needles.

0:57:220:57:27

One of their daughters said to me, "My mother was going into a home.

0:57:270:57:31

"Since she started playing bingo, her mind is fresh again."

0:57:310:57:35

And that's what bingo does. It makes you work your brain.

0:57:350:57:38

And there's always that chance that you might just get a full house.

0:57:380:57:42

Bingo!

0:57:420:57:43

But whether you win or not, bingo is more than just a game.

0:57:450:57:48

For many, it's part of who they are.

0:57:480:57:50

I don't want people crying at my funeral.

0:57:510:57:55

I said, "What I want is, as you walk in,

0:57:550:57:58

"you're handed a strip of bingo tickets

0:57:580:58:01

"and I want the priest to call the bingo numbers

0:58:010:58:05

"so we can all have a game of bingo."

0:58:050:58:08

# Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city

0:58:080:58:11

# Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

0:58:110:58:15

# How can you lose?

0:58:150:58:18

# The lights are much brighter there

0:58:180:58:21

# You can forget all your troubles

0:58:210:58:24

# Forget all your cares

0:58:240:58:25

# So go downtown

0:58:250:58:28

# You'll find a place, for sure

0:58:280:58:30

# Downtown

0:58:300:58:32

# Everything's waiting for you. #

0:58:320:58:35

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0:58:350:58:38

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