WITH queues that stretched all the way across the car park on a miserable, windy winter night, you might be forgiven for thinking a Hollywood star had come to town.

But in fact dozens of people were queuing for a first look at a new bingo hall that was opening on the east side of Southampton.

The Gala Bingo venue at Thornhill’s Antelope Retail Park is a new concept for the company, putting Southampton at the forefront of modern bingo and showing just how far it has come.

Crazes come and go, but bingo has been a constant with the British public.

A survey by the Gambling Commission showed though numbers were limited to around three per cent of the population that had played in the last year, compared to two thirds who played the lottery, this had remained fairly steady since the study started in 1999.

It may have declined from its heyday in the mid 1990s, from 1,800 clubs to 361 today, but those in the industry believe it could be on the up once more.

Southampton’s new venue is Gala Bingo’s first new build in nine years.

This seems a far cry from when bingo was hit hard back in 2006 with the introduction of the smoking ban as up to 55 per cent of customers were smokers.

There followed a decline in bingo and the industry is still recovering from that blow today, said Miles Baron, chief executive of the Bingo Association.

However, he said thanks to the Government tax reduction on bingo profits last year, Gala’s new Southampton venture was a great example of signs of growth in the industry again and he was “cautiously optimistic” for the future.

Certainly on both my visits to Southampton’s newest attraction in the past week, the main hall in particular was packed.

So what is the British public’s fascination with a relatively simple game and why has it stood the test of time?

The stereotype many people have of bingo is pensioners out on a weekday afternoon.

But experts say this is a myth and that bingo has long had a much wider appeal and, as it modernises with the times, its reach is growing.

Research from the Bingo Association shows the average age on a bingo evening is now 45.

Gala Bingo is trialling a new concept at Antelope Park, dividing play between a traditional bingo hall and a more social bar area with tablets and touch screens, designed to attract a younger audience.

Certainly on entering Southampton’s new Gala Bingo it was clear that there were plenty of men as well as women and a wide range of ages from people in their 20s enjoying a pint right up to their 70s.

Asked what lies behind bingo’s appeal, for different people it appeared to mean different things; a cheap leisure activity, the thrill of winning, or going home with more money than you came with.

From what I saw, there is a surprising amount of money to be won these days.

Gala Bingo worker Keith O’Connor tells me how a resident playing at Gala’s other Southampton venue at Lordshill a few weeks back pocketed £20,000 – for just a £1 ticket on one of the special bingo games.

Some games link up with other clubs across the country, raising the winnings, but even a standard full house could net you around £200.

However, virtually all the people I spoke to highlighted the same thing – that it was the social side of bingo that kept them coming back.

In the more lively bar area were Heather Palmer, 53, and Adam Jeffery, 60, who had come down for a night out at Gala Bingo and said it would have cost more to go to the cinema whereas here they could talk.

“If you get a win it’s a bonus,” said Heather, of Thornhill.

“It’s the buzz of just socialising and being with lots of different ages.”

A 56-year-old woman from Sholing, who has been playing since she was 16, said: “It’s just getting out and meeting people and seeing people I have not seen for a long time.

“It’s not the thrill of winning, it’s the thrill of it, getting closer where there’s one number left.

“I come to enjoy myself not to win.”

Paul Shelley puts forward a new perspective.

“To me it’s gambling without the gambling,” said the 29-year-old, of Bursledon, whose mother Lynne Shelley walked away at the end of the night £151 better off.

“It’s the thrill of gambling without losing the money.

“With this you pay for what you have got – you’re playing for the whole night.

“It’s restricted gambling.

“It makes it more fun and you know what you are going to spend.”

Miles Baron, Chief Executive of the Bingo Association endorses these views.

“It’s a social activity,” he said.

“You can’t play the game unless everybody’s in the same place at the same time.

“Bingo is a unique form of gambling in that you are not playing against the house as in other forms of gambling.

“You’re playing against one another.”

He said another factor in its popularity was the low stakes.

“It’s really difficult to get out of control in the bingo environment – it’s fairly safe so customers trust it,” he said.

Dr Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gambling Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, agrees that it is more social than other forms of gambling, reflected in who it attracts.

Eighty per cent of bingo players are women – the only form of gambling where women dominate.

Mark says in psychology women tend to have better verbal abilities whereas men tend to have more special abilities skills making them favour what they perceive as more skills based gambling like poker.

What also attracts people to bingo he says is the way it is perceived.

“If you asked someone if they gambled they’d say no but if you ask do you play the lottery they’d say yes. It’s the same with bingo,” said Mark.

“It’s not seen as a form of gambling; they just see it as a fun activity where they can win money.”

Though it may have much to compete with, these two points the public seems to agree set bingo aside and draws people back.

On that basis bingo looks like it’s here to stay.

HISTORY OF BINGO

Bingo originated from lottery style games that spread through Europe in the 16th century – it is thought to have started in Italy, but was adapted as it travelled from country to country.

It was played by the French aristocracy in the 1770s, called Le Lotto, and the Germans used it as a learning tool for children in the 19th century.

The first recorded game of bingo was seen in Mexico in 1838 where numbers were drawn and rice used to cover them, called La Lotteria.

It is also thought that the British Navy picked up the game from the Maltese as there was a large garrison based in Malta in 1814.

By the late 1800s it was being played in the British forces – the army called it Housey-Housey and the navy Tombola.

The name bingo is thought to have been coined by an American toy salesman Edwin Lowe in the 1920s.

He was watching a game called Beano at a carnival where beans were used to cover the number and someone in their excitement called out “bingo” instead of “beano”. He liked the phrase and used it for his commercial bingo tickets.