Mothers day is only a month or so away, and anyone who likes to get things booked in nice and early might just be thinking about taking their dear old Mum to the local bingo hall.
If that sounds like you then you are not alone, because Mother’s Day is one of bingo’s busiest days of the year.
It does tend to be mothers and daughters rather than mothers and sons that follow this heart warming tradition, but nevertheless, March 10th should see thousands of Mums, Mams, Mothers and more treated to an all expenses paid night at the bingo.
When you think about it, a bingo night is a brilliant Mother’s Day idea, so it makes perfect sense.
So what is this all about? Why is bingo the perfect way to show your Mum what she means to you, and what sort of impact does it have on the bingo industry?
Bingo: A Great Idea for Mothers Day
So why do people go and play bingo on Mothering Sunday?
Well, we all know that bingo is a game dominated by females. Although this is changing, it is still the case that more women play bingo than men, so many of those female bingo fans who are also mothers would no doubt enjoy taking their adult children with them to the bingo hall to have some fun together.
There’s food, there’s a bar, and there is entertainment, the whole package – what’s not to love?
If you ask me though, it’s about more than just doing something that Mum would enjoy on her special day.
For a lot of people, especially daughters, it is their mothers who introduced them to bingo in the first place.
Perhaps they took them when they first turned 18, or maybe it was a weekly Friday night tradition until they left home; the specifics don’t really matter, the point is, bingo was a mother/daughter or mother/son bonding activity in a lot of families.
As people get older and have families of their own though, a lot of these old traditions fall away, so it feels nice to have a reason to revisit the past and go to the bingo together like the good old days.
It’s the same reason why people love Christmas traditions; it feels safe and familiar and comforting.
Obviously, the bingo halls know by now that Mother’s Day will be busy, so they publicise it hard too, probably with offers or little extras available on the day, all of which attract more players.
Plus, busy bingo nights equal bigger prizes, so it becomes something of a frenzy because people don’t want to miss out on the potential to win bigger money than normal.
Mothers Day is the Busiest Day of the Year for Bingo
It’s all very well me talking about Mother’s Day being the busiest day of the year for bingo, but you might quite rightly be wondering what I know about it?
Well, more than some and less than others, but this information isn’t just coming from me.
John O’Reilly, the CEO of The Rank Group, the company that owns Mecca Bingo, was asked about this year’s Mother’s Day and said:
“The busiest day of the entire year is Mother’s Day. Bingo has got the most momentum I’ve seen in the nearly six years I’ve been at the group.”
He went on to say that Mother’s Day attracted 29,000 people to Mecca venues in 2023, a 60% increase on an average Sunday.
Now obviously, John was only talking about the company he works for, but we can assume the same is true for all the other bingo brands too.
So that means not only is Mother’s Day an absolutely massive day for bingo halls across the country, the biggest of the year no less, but it is leading something of an industry wide bingo charge.
This is excellent news, and explains why there have been a spate of new bingo hall announcements in the last 12 months, although there have admittedly been some closures too.
There is certainly plenty of life left in the game though, or businesses wouldn’t be investing, and part of the reason for that is the traditions formed between parents and their offspring, the memories made at bingo halls up and down the country, and the coming together of families to enjoy a good old game of bingo.