Being the newest member of the bingo team here in Paddy Power Towers, and being relatively new to bingo as a whole we thought it might be nice for me to blog my thoughts, learning’s and experiences which you can use as your definitive guide to what’s what in the bingo world (or to file under “How not to write a blog”). First there was diary of a debutant, and now there is diary of a bingo….virgin….ahem.

My first bingo memory is sitting in a dingy Arklow bingo hall with my grandmother and her winning a hundred pounds – I was duly rewarded with a bag of chips and fizzy orange on the way home. I didn’t have a breeze how she had won the cash but I knew that I was glad she did, and I knew I liked the funny phrases the toupee sporting Terry Wogan look-alike at the front of the room was calling out.

Now a toupee sporting Terry Wogan look-alike myself, I find myself embedded in the ranks of the bingo army at Paddy Power, and im learning that there is a lot more too it than fizzy orange rewards. Massive cash prizes, tournaments, bonuses for just about everything and a hell of a lot of fun.

First things first – the game itself: Bingo really couldn’t be simpler; you buy a card with three lines of numbers on it. Paddy calls out the numbers in a rather butch voice and you match them off your card. There are 3 simple ways of winning: Be the first to complete a line (a horizontal line of numbers on one card), be the first to complete 2 lines (if you don’t understand this then I reckon you are a lost cause), and finally be the first to complete a full house – where you have matched all the numbers on a given card (as opposed to having as many children as you can in an allotted time). Easy as that!!

Sound easy? Yes it is! Sound boring – No fricken way! I quickly learned that the agony of having “one number to go” to win a prize results in tension, suspense followed either by elation or disappointment. Im pretty sure that in my research for the job interview, my dog thought I had lost the plot when I was shouting at the laptop “come on two fat ladies” (which isn’t what I normally shout when on the internet I swear!!).

Now that I am here and experiencing the bingo world on a different level I am learning that there is much more to it. Players have great craic in the games and spend as much time eyeing the chat as they do eyeing their cards. The Chat Moderators (CMs) entertain players with a host a great games that add to the excitement (and the potential winnings) and there are promotions galore to keep everyone happy.

If this is the blue rinse brigade then count me rinsed!

David Lyons