Remember the days before Jackpotjoy, when people used to have to book a babysitter and hop in the car or on the bus to take them to their local bingo hall for a spot of eyes down fun? While online bingo sites might be all the rage these days, in their heyday, traditional bingo halls formed an important social hub in many communities, particularly working class ones.
Bingo being around since the 16th Century, the game has flitted in and out of fashion over its centuries-old history, seeing many huge surges and dips in popularity along the way. As a result, there are some truly fascinating, and jaw-dropping, historic bingo halls out there. But with major sites like Jackpotjoy popularising the game for a new generation once more, you’ll also find one or two surprisingly odd modern-day entries in our rundown of the world’s weirdest bingo venues – so if you’re looking for somewhere a little different to get your next bingo fix, you’ll know where to look!
Legendary playcasinogame.info
Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
When modern day bingo started out in the US, it was traditionally held in church halls, and was often used as a means of raising funds for local charities. Legendary Bingo in LA keeps this tradition going strong, running a twice-weekly charity bingo game with a difference. One of the longest-running weekly charity events in the city, Legendary Bingo is a drag queen extravaganza that’s been attracting celebrity bingo callers and bingo players for years.
Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium
This famous stadium might be better known as the home of the LA Dodgers baseball team, but in 2006, the venue was transformed into the largest bingo hall in history. The San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino joined forces with the Guinness Book of World Records to put on a huge bingo game at half time, with over 53,000 game attendees taking part. The larger-than-life bingo round was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, with an apt $20,000 in cash prizes given away to lucky winners on the day, culminating in a huge firework display. While this was a one-off event, the San Manuel bingo hall is still going strong, and boasts a seating capacity of 2,500 too.
Chicken Bingo
Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon
Allendale, Austin, Texas
If you’re fed up of the same old bingo calls, and you happen to be in Texas, pop down to Ginny’s on a Wednesday night and you’ll be in for a unique bingo treat. At this local hotspot, the number callers are chickens – and no, they haven’t learned to call out numbers. Instead, the bar marks out a grid of numbers on the ground, lets the chickens wander around, and wherever they ‘do their business’, that’s the number that’s called out. It might not be the most hygienic way to play bingo, but it’s certainly one of the most unique we’ve ever heard of!
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Connecticut
If you’re looking to play bingo on a large scale, you can log on to a site like Jackpotjoy and play with thousands of other players at once. But if you want to play with online-scale player numbers in real life, you’re going to have to find a pretty big bingo hall. Thanks to the good ol’ U S of A, where they like to do things on the grandest scale imaginable, you can head along to the 4.7 million square-foot Foxwoods Resort Casino. The vast casino is one of the world’s largest, started out as a humble bingo hall and, staying true to its roots, still houses a bingo hall that seats a staggering 4,000 players!
