A seventy seven year old pensioner from South Shields was left shocked after she won more than ₤28 000 while playing bingo at a local Mecca Bingo club. The widowed woman, who has been a member at the same Mecca bingo club since it opened, told us how she “went to pieces” after learning she had won so much money on the National Bingo Game.
She has asked that her name be withheld and is looking forward to going out for a night of celebration with her family of two children and three grandchildren. When she found out how much she had won, she went all wobbly and her hands were shaking, the staff at the bingo club had to give her a drink to calm down and they called her son to collect her from the bingo club.
The pensioners said that she used to play bingo twice a week, but after her husband died she started attending more regularly. She found the nights very long when she was on her own and going to the bingo club gave her something to do that made her feel better. When she goes out to play bingo she can have a chat with her friends and socialize. Playing bingo can be an important life line to people on their own and it is not surprising to find that more than 3 million people in the UK regularly play bingo.