Poxy Foxy Bingo.


I find myself getting repeatedly bothered by all the adverts for online Bingo and gambling apps, which seem to be framed by the idea taking part in these games is a big social event, when in reality you’re most likely to either be sitting in a room on your own, frittering money away for no good reason, or at the least doing the opposite of what those adverts portray.

I can completely get on board with the idea of going to play real Bingo partly for the camaraderie that goes with competing with friends for fun. I can also understand how people can get sucked in to playing the online version, without considering the money they’re putting into it; it’s almost not real if it only takes a few taps of your mobile screen to place another bet. What I can’t grasp is how the advertising campaigns so blatantly play on the idea this sort of gambling is a way of getting out of the house to meet new people when the truth is actually the opposite; by all means go out the Bingo from time to time with your friends partly to enjoy the company, but don’t try to suggest the online versions are just as fun and glamorous.

There was a time in my life when I got into the habit of phoning one of those late night money-making quiz shows where you have to guess a missing word or some-such and hopefully get through in time to say it and potentially win the money. Except I never got through to the presenter, so I would press speed-dial repeatedly, in the hope I would get through this time, to fail again and again. Then, in the end, I had an idea: “How about I stop doing this, as I’m not getting anywhere” - and I’ve kept with this maxim ever since.

The reality is habitual gambling is a big problem for a lot of people that it’s very hard to get out of, and posing the way the models in these adverts to make it look so glamorous is instrumental in this negative outcome: I mean, no-one even mentioned the fact you can still get Bingo wings...

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