Of all the places you’d expect to see technological advancement, bingo clubs are not the first that would normally spring to mind. Even online bingo sites are pretty basic, just offering players a straightforward portal into a non-tactile version of the popular pastime.

So what did I expect when my wife dragged me along for a ‘fun’ night out at the Liverpool bingo club run by Buckingham in Huyton? Not a lot, if I’m honest. I thought it would just be people sat around marking numbers off their papers while a guy shouted them out from the stage.

How wrong I was.

The bingo clubs of today are filled with more technology than you can shake a rolled-up copy of T3 at. The first surprise was the wireless play console my wife gave me to enhance the playing experience. Apparently these were first rolled out up the road at Buckingham Bingo Manchester in Trafford, but they’ve got them everywhere now. They allow you to mark off numbers on a touchscreen unit that sits on top of your table. It’s like a Nintendo DS on steroids; visually engaging and bound to result in a screen-tapping frenzy.

Then there’s the ingenuity of the link-up between the clubs. Again, I was expected a time-lagged radio hook-up straight out of the 70s, but the way they do it now is much more hi-tech. When it came to the National (just before which my wife almost rugby tackled me to the ground for attempting to go to the bar – “this will settle the mortgage,” she shrieked), we linked up with other players around the country at clubs like Mecca and Gala and other Buckingham branches. Audio was clear and there was no lag, which I was amazed by.

As it goes the big prize was won by someone in Diss and we’re still chipping away at the house payments. I might go down to the bookies and see what the tech is like there; rest assured I’ll be taking a more open mind than I did to the bingo club.

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