When you think of Bingo, traditionally you imagine a rather short game where the winner is found promptly and another game can begin. Well, a lot of bingo games don’t always end up like that. Here’s a list of the top six world records that have been achieved involving Bingo.
1. First, there was the largest game of Bingo which took place in Colombia in 2006. Unlike your average Bingo hall that will most likely see a maximum of 50 people at a time, this game included a whopping 70,080 people! And because there was such a massive turn out, the winnings got up to over £250,000 worth of cash prizes for all of the lucky participants.
2. The largest amount of money won at a bingo hall was recorded in 2008, the lucky lady winning her fortune in Scotland. Ordinarily speaking, the biggest jackpot that is available to win at a bingo hall is in the 3-digit range. Impressive but not exactly mind-blowing. Well, for Soraya Lowell in the south of Scotland this was not the case. Winning the National Bingo Game Platinum Jackpot, she managed to walk away from the table with an astonishing £1,167,795! Lend us a tenner will ya, Soraya?
3. Japan took the record for the largest game of online Bingo in late 2010. As we discovered earlier, the largest Bingo tournament previously recorded had a turnout of just over 70,000 in one live venue. Well, brace yourselves, but the online world of Bingo rapidly blew that record out of the water with a digital presence of 493,824 people! How the system didn’t blow up and call it a day, we may never know!
4. One of the most prolific Bingo record-holders is a dedicated gentleman called Doug McManaman from Canada. The first of his records took place in 2011 where he chose to show his love for the game by balancing a basket of bingo balls on a pole and then going one better and balancing that pole on his chin. Amazingly he held this position for an impressive 1 minute and 19.4 seconds whilst standing on his front porch for all to see.
5. Remaining with Doug, he was seemingly not satisfied with his first record-breaking achievement. In 2013 he was at it again in his home in Canada, taking his dedication to the next level. McManaman managed to make the tallest tower out of bingo markers – the markers being from before the days where colored pens were used and instead of small plastic discs would be placed over each number. His tower consisted of 82 little disc markers stacked on top of each other in a neat tower for at least 10 seconds. Unfortunately, neither of McManaman’s records is recognized by the Guinness Books of World Records due to their niche nature. You’re still a champion in our eyes, Doug!
6. Finally, we come to one of the more recent and topical records. The record for the largest Bingo balls to have been used in a game was set in Manchester back in 2014. The game was located on the cobbled streets of Corrie, where the 60.1cm balls were thrown from top windows as each number was called. A record was broken, presumably along with a couple of windows, and over £10,000 was the raid for charity. Respectable and impressive – we like it!
