Bingo was born of the lotteries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though the game as we know it today was introduced to the UK by the Royal Navy after sailors discovered it on their voyages.
During the early 20th century, gambling in Britain was illegal, but the law was only occasionally enforced and over half the population took part in some form of gambling.
In the armed forces it was legal to gamble on bingo, though it was the only form of gambling which was permitted. An important pastime in the trenches of the First World War, the game was introduced into clubs by soldiers following the armistice.
Its popularity grew amongst the working classes and although many were arrested for playing it for money, many other operators were able to bypass the law.
Following the end of the Second World War there was a change in how the game was perceived. A government survey in 1950 demonstrated that 80% of people (71% of men and 51% of women) had at some time gambled and concluded that gambling should be regulated rather than banned.
Another influence was the Catholic Church which considered moderate gambling to be quite acceptable and used bingo regularly to raise funds. The large post-war influx of Irish workers and their families to cities such as Liverpool boosted the game’s popularity.
It was also a popular pursuit at the holiday camps of the 1950s such as Butlins, but all profits had to be donated to charity. The sums donated were significant. In 1958 alone Butlins raised £50,000 for charity from bingo.
Eventually, in 1960, the Betting and Gaming Act permitted bingo to be played for money at clubs by members and the first legal bingo club opened its doors on 3rd January 1961. Within three years there were over 14 million bingo club members. There were waiting lists to join a club and long queues would form outside clubs as people waited for a game.
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