Study shows Exeter students loath bingo

‘Bingo!’ – a phrase usually exclaimed with excitement and passion – no one questions the meaning.  It would however seem, that according to recent research, students in Exeter are not so excited by the game itself – in stark contrast other locations.

A study funded by Rocket Bingo, an online bingo site shows that alongside Cambridge, students from Exeter are amongst the least likely in the country to visit a bingo hall whilst studying.
You might not find this news surprising but as it turns out, the popularity of bingo halls seems generally to be on the rise amongst students in other areas.

Take Sunderland in the North East of England, there 45% of students have enjoyed a game of bingo whilst studying. Similarly, 33% of students have been to the bingo whilst furthering their education in Leeds.
So what is it that draws students to the bingo halls? We asked the question in our study which involved surveying a sample of students. The sample included an equal amount of subjects from ten cities, four hundred in total and was conducted online via a popular surveying website.

The first question we asked was: ‘Whilst at university have you every played in a bingo hall?’.
‘Whilst at university have you ever played in a bingo hall?’

As you can see, bingo just isn’t popular amongst students at Oxford, Cambridge and Exeter, a trio of unquestionable prestige. The question this left us pondering is, why are students in other locations seemingly flocking to the bingo halls?
Curiosity drove us to add the following question to the survey: ‘Why do you visit bingo halls?’

‘What makes you want to go to a bingo hall?’

Bizarrely, the results of this survey show that bingo is clearly popular as a hangover activity. Perhaps the results would show a correlation between highest amount of student bingo players and alcohol consumed? That’s a study for another day.

The second reason why bingo is often regarded as a popular pass time amongst students is due to it being cheap. This stands to reason, a typical evening gaming sessions costs £10 (Mecca Bingo) and food and drink prices are typically low too with bottles of wine on sale for less than £7 (Gala Bingo).

It’s interesting to note that only one tenth of the students surveyed cite ‘chance of winning’ as a reason for playing the game. This would seem to indicate the students are savvy and realistic about their chances of winning money on the game.

The motivation for conducting this survey was mainly amusement, however the results have shown (with a few geographical exceptions) a much higher than expected fondness for the game brewing amongst students.

A further motive for the study was to investigate the plausibility of research by a popular bingo portal, cited in the Mirror newspaper. The paper cited results stating that the average age of bingo players is 26. Whilst our research cannot confirm such an average age, it does at least seem likely that this figure could be within the realms of possibility; a far cry from the average player age of 65 back in 1990.

Make what you will of the findings, but one thing is for sure, bingo is not so hot right now amongst Exeter’s students.