Women’s Bingo
Recent research on media use carried out by the Northwestern University in the United States, indicated that children and adults spend more and more time online, visiting social networking sites, shopping, surfing the net, reading books, magazines and newspapers and playing online games. The study also illustrated how online habits have changed in the last couple of years, with 10% of all US internet time spent on online gaming - now the first most popular online activity, which has even overtaken email and social networking. The latter have surprisingly dropped from 30% to 9% in a space of two years.
In Europe, email & social networking are still the most popular online habits, but online gaming is rapidly growing here too. What is even more interesting is that online gaming is becoming increasingly popular amongst women and Women’s Bingo is currently the number one online gambling game. The online bingo industry has exploded in recent years and much of this is attributed to its female users. In the UK alone the Bingo industry is worth more than £1 billion with almost 70% of the players being women. At the same time, the popularity of online Women’s bingo has inspired the revival of traditional Women’s Bingo, with new Bingo halls springing up like mushrooms.
But why has Bingo become so popular amongst women specifically?
The online gaming industry has always primarily catered for boys and men, with action games being its most popular product. Bingo, as a game, was first invented in 1530 in Italy and immediately became very popular with women. It saw its golden age in the 19th century, in many parts of Europe but especially in the UK. Back then, British women played it in order to cheat the strict laws that forbade them from gambling. As Bingo did not include any dice it could not be considered a gambling game. Simple, fast, entertaining and most of all, a game that was popular amongst all social classes - from the poorest to the most conservative – Bingo grew in popularity. The working classes played it in specified halls and churches whereas the elite played it at home, with friends.
The popularity of Bingo amongst women can also be attributed to the fact that it never became associated with so-called ‘evil’ and immoral games, which many associated with other forms of gambling, therefore it remained acceptable for women to engage with it, no matter their status.
Today, online Bingo such as Ladies 888 and other Free Online Bingo platforms are considered by many to be a fun and entertaining way to indulge in some free time when online.
