Bingo-ing Crazy For Online Gambling?

Two and six! Sixty six! All the fours! Forty Four! Clickety click... You would have to have been hiding in a dark cave in Siberia to not recognise the call of a bingo game. Connotations of grey sea-side resorts, howling wind and sticky sticks of rock come crashing to mind at the very thought of the game. Bingo is for run down seaside towns, tourists in kiss-me-quick hats, and penniless pensioners trying to win a can of beans for dinner.

Well, that is how it used to be. The game has, in recent years, taken on a whole new persona. Gone are the bad cardies and blue-rinse perms, and in are celebrity endorsements from the likes of Sharon Osborne and Pauline Quirke. Not a massive step in the right direction to trendy the game up, but a start. Apparently Sharon and Pauline can't get enough of the ladies gambling game, and think it is a positively good idea to encourage the rest of us to spunk the weekly shopping allowance on bagging a bingo fortune. The trouble is explaining it to the kids that you didn't win, and that is why they are eating value fish finger sandwiches for tea all week!

The game could do with a proper revamp. Places like Gala and Mecca have gone as far as installing interactive electronic wi fi super gigged up hand held terminals, that have replaced the old fashioned paper books and the mega chunky dabber pens. A fortune has also been spent on image enrichment. I'm not entirely sure that is a valid marketing term, but I'm sure you get my drift. Bingo is now a cool, trendy, safe and fun way to spend your spare time. It can be a social thing, a gathering of the girls on a Thursday night, all dressed up and raring to go; or a more subdued occasion, a quiet night in with a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a bit of online money spinning. I'm sure it is what Kate Moss gets up to every evening, along with the other A-listers. Who needs The Ivy and China White when you can play Wink's version of the game online and win a year's worth of Tesco shopping. At least it avoids the fish finger fiasco.

If I were going to go and immerse myself in the realm of online gambling, I would definitely choose the numerical tickets of chance over something like poker, which is enjoying a splendid online love affair with many wallets. This conjures up a vision of domestic bliss - Mummy online in the kitchen and playing bingo, daddy online in the study playing poker, and little Jimmy in the living room thrashing the life out of an X-Box! It seems more gentle, kind of innocent, not a serious type of gambling that you would end up in rehab for!

Actually, what I'd probably be fond of is a moment of reality immersion, a taste of the authentic, to go in search of the real thing. I'd gather a few girlie friends; we'd go get our hair done and dress up a little before getting a coach to the nearest seaside venue. I'd order us all fish and chips with mushy peas and too much salt and drink a half a lager shandy. We'd then head to the pier and find a traditional hall where cries of 'two fat ladies' is closely followed by 'dirty girtie'. A place where dabber pens fly and prizes are for fun not for income. I'd choose the good old fashioned super safe and entertaining way of playing, despite the image of bad hats and candyfloss, and maybe win a teddy to take home to the kids.