ABSTRACT
Bingo has come to occupy rather the status of a joke in British social life. In song, parody and social comment, it has come to epitomize the ‘dead end’ use of leisure to which a newly ‘affluent’ working class have resorted in the absence of any ability to do something better with their time. Since its sudden rise in popularity in the immediate aftermath of its legalization in the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act (though its status before the Act was not so much illegal as anomalous), bingo has also come to be associated with middle-aged women in particular, so much so that its attraction has been held to have something (usually unspecified) to do with the ‘crisis’ of the menopause. But whatever the origins and functions of these views, they are not confirmed by our data: Proportions playing bingo https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table"> Cumulative frequency Sheffield Swansea Wanstead/Woodford Total Regularly Men 13 9.5 2 11 Women 12 9 1 10 Occasionally or more Men 18.5 18 5 17 Women 18 16 4 16
