Town Band bingo goes online
Nobody can accuse the people behind Mullingar Town Band’s popular bingo of lacking innovation.
The band’s weekly fundraising bingo game is one of the most popular in the region attracting hundreds of players every Wednesday to its base in Clonmore.
However, since the Covid-19 restrictions banning large crowds were introduced last month, players have found themselves at a loose end.
Eager to provide a diversion for people during this difficult time as well as maintaining a source of income for the band, Mullingar Town Band Bingo Team member Martin Nally and bingo caller Jane Slevin put their brains together and are now broadcasting bingo games twice a week on Facebook Live.
Jane, with some technical help from her son Aaron Moore, uses her phone to randomly generate numbers and the numbers appear on her TV screen which is then broadcast on Facebook.
Players can buy bingo cards from the band’s website which will be sent to them by email for them to print or have hard copies posted to their homes.
When someone gets a “check”, they send a live message to Jane along with a photo of their bingo card. Mullingar Town Band keeps 25 percent of the income generated from the games while the remaining 75 percent is paid out in prizes.
Martin says that the games, which are limited to 50 players, are proving very popular with people, so much so that it has been decided to run them twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays until normal life resumes and people can once again congregate in large crowds.
Before Easter Sunday night’s game a number of players got creative and sent in photos of their computers with seasonal treats and other goodies strategically positioned within arm’s reach.
“Judging by the photos sent in by players before the start of last nights Easter Bingo - it looks like the regular players of Mullingar Town Band’s Bingo were really getting into the mood of Online Bingo,” Martin said.
“We think it’s a first in Ireland for a local bingo committee to adapt their Bingo from the Bingo Hall to in your home and we are really delighted at the positive feedback from players.”
Weekly bingo is the source of vital income for many local sporting and community organisations. Martin says that the Mullingar Town Band Bingo team would be delighted to speak to any group interested in setting up online bingo games in their locality.
“As long as people want to play we will continue to do it. We would love to be back in the hall again soon but we don’t foresee it in the short to medium term, unfortunately,” he concluded.