Bingo - House!
Bingo has been played for many a year, and has been known, too, as lotto or housy-housy. The game was played mainly in local halls for entertainment, and the winners often received small prizes. Come the Gaming Act of 1968, though, bingo halls came into being and took their place as casinos for the less wealthy. Even before that, some of you older readers might remember Joe Brown and the Bruvvers – “Dad’s gone down the dog track, Muvver’s playing Bingo; Grandad’s swearing at the telly, trying to make the thing go.”
The commercial clubs were concerned with profits, of course, and as a result the old halls have disappeared, in the quest for speed of play and to maximise the turnover. But how many of the old ‘uns can you remember? And how many are now non-PC or even outdated?
Well, I don’t imagine it would be the done thing to call Two Fat Ladies any more. Some of the clientele might just get a bit uppity about that, I suspect. Sweet Sixteen might be considered too personal, too. On the other hand, Key of The Door is a bit outmoded, since the age of majority was changed to eighteen a good few years ago. Out of date, too, is Maggie’s Den. She’s not been there for seventeen years now and even Tony is talking of moving out.
Two and Six, Half a Crown went out with decimalisation in 1971, and the same applies to Seven and Six, Three Half Crowns. Since everything seems to have gone metric nowadays. I’m not too sure about number twelve, One Dozen, or it’s related 24, 36, and 48. Maybe metrication has disposed of them too. Number Nine, Doctor’s Orders is rather archaic, too. Only old soldiers, I are likely to remember that expression.
Certainly there should be no problem with Clickety Click, nor Two Little Ducks, should there? I have even heard Clickety Duck called, but the perpetrator was Danish and an entertainments officer on a DFDS ferry, so that’s easily excused, even though it might have been Unlucky for Some.
Ah, yes. Those were the days. But you still have to shout “House” when you have a winning card!