Can seaside prize bingo make a comeback?

Prize bingo used to be a regular sight in seaside arcades around the UK.

People would sit down in rows at cabinets, moving plastic tabs across numbers on their cards as they were called out – aiming to complete a line or four corners.

Unlike cash bingo, winners of games would typically get vouchers, which could then be traded in for a range of prizes.

But many venues offering it have either closed down or moved the bingo machines out – it is thought there are fewer than a dozen still operating in England.

One man in Norfolk is hoping to help the game make a comeback, though.

“It is a labour-intensive business, you’ve got to be passionate about it,” said Michael Jennings.

A fifth-generation showman whose family have been involved in fairgrounds for decades, he moved into the bingo business eight summers ago.

He bought a prize bingo arcade just outside the small village of Hemsby and then, in 2023, he took over the lease of a building on Great Yarmouth’s famous golden mile.

The 41-year-old said he had invested heavily in the business and was currently holding about £70,000 of stock for prizes – ranging from cosmetics and kettles, to Lego and air fryers.

Great Yarmouth had once been home to several slot-operated bingo machines, but they had all since closed or been removed.

Mr Jennings said modern, smaller games machines offering tickets that could be exchanged for prizes – which required fewer staff and cost less to operate – had taken over and “killed a lot of the business off”.

But he insisted there was still a market for the older form of entertainment:

“[At first] I had it my head that it was an old persons game,” he explained.

“It’s not that case. It’s a nostalgia trip for the whole family. The grandma and grandad come, but they fetch their children – and their children are now fetching their children. They’re creating memories.

“We get people coming to Yarmouth and they’re in shock that the prize bingo is back.”

On the day the BBC visited – towards the end of the school summer holidays – a good number of people were playing.

“It’s something I can play with my mum or my kids,” said Michelle Fitzgerald, who was on holiday with her family from the south coast.

“I really miss it and one of the reasons we wanted to come to Yarmouth was for this – it is an attraction. We miss it, it used to be great fun at the seaside.”

“I hope it makes more of a comeback.”

Rita Fisher, originally from Yorkshire but now living in Norfolk, said it was “a reminder of years gone by with my children”.

“We so loved our games of bingo years ago and they all died out. We were so pleased when we came this week and they’d got one here. I thought it were marvellous, we came down special from the caravan park.”

Her friend, Linda Brown, said that despite playing for decades she had not won a single game of bingo:

“I’m unlucky. It’s still fun, you have a good laugh.”

But trade over the summer has not given Mr Jennings much to laugh about.

He said business was down and that, with cost-of-living concerns, people had been less keen to spend on a “luxury” like bingo.

Despite that, he has longer-term plans to expand the business, already buying unwanted bingo cabinets and equipment when they become available.

He said his three children were looking to follow in his footsteps and they hoped to open other sites in the future.

“They’re happy with prize bingo. It’s something that a lot of people aren’t willing to do,” he said.

“We could go and buy a chip shop, we could run a pub – anybody could do that. So let’s try and go for a little bit of a novelty – a niche market – and try and corner the market and make it work for us.”