One of the perks of the job back in those days was getting to engage in a touch of industrial espionage. Yes, you read that right, espionage. Like sneaks in the night (mixing my similes there,) we would often have to channel our inner James Bond, walk in to enemy territory and steal as much […]
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So Long Gaiety, And Thanks For All Those Memories
It’s been in the offing for the best part of 20 years, but the last month or so, the final chapter of the my old workplace has been written. Work began in March 2026 to finally demolish the former bingo hall and cinema on City Road in Cardiff, finally wiping away any vestiges of the […]
Remembering the Gaiety
I originally wrote this piece about the Top Rank Gaiety on City Road in Cardiff for the now defunct RoathCardiff.net website, and given the building’s demolition, I thought it was worth republishing here, as it perfectly captured my thoughts on the place when I wrote about it a decade ago. Written in July 2016, here’s […]
Confessions Of Bingo Caller Part 3 – The Secret Room
Time for another instalment in my occasional series about my time working in the Top Rank Gaiety on City Road in Cardiff, as a late teen. These tales span a period of the late 1980s to the early 1990s, a time before internet and camera phones, so many of the tales from that period are […]
Happy Belated 20th To Playing Bingo
It almost passed me by, but I just realised that this little old bingo site is 20 years old this month. I don’t know the exact date I launched, but I know it was around October 2005 going by the news stories that featured at the time as the earliest on the captures at Way […]
Confessions Of Bingo Caller Part 2 – The Missed Call From Hell
One of the common dangers of calling the numbers for a room full of bingo heads, is missing one of their shouts. It can be a bit of a flashpoint in an evening’s bingo, because believe me, if you do miss one of the members’ claims, and they lose the prize money, you will hear […]
Is the UK’s Obsession With Bingo Fading?
As we know here at Playing Bingo, the UK’s relationship with bingo has long been the stuff of legend. Bingo halls opened up and down the country during the 20th century, providing communities with vital spaces to catch up with friends, enjoy casual gaming entertainment and hopefully call “Bingo!”. The game quickly became an essential […]
Confessions Of A Bingo Caller Part 1 – Introduction
I thought it would be fun to recount some of the experiences I had as a bingo caller at the Top Rank Gaiety on City Road, Cardiff. I started working at the hall when I was 17 years old, having previously worked in a supermarket on Clifton Street. There’s a whole lot of stuff I […]
What is RTP and why is it an important factor when choosing an online slot game?
In our last site refresh, we added online slot games, as they’ve long been a big part of both online and retail bingo play. Sure enough, as soon as the mid-session interval hits, bingo players leap up and start playing the slots. Given their popularity, you can see why slots are the most popular online […]
Etiquette In Bingo: The Dos And Don’ts Of Playing
Bingo is a popular game played by millions online and offline not just in the UK, but worldwide. Players of all ages and social and ethnic backgrounds can connect physically or virtually to play bingo. There are common etiquette rules that players are expected to abide by in any bingo game. Since etiquette reflects the […]
