At first glance, the latest figures for the online bingo sector do not make for particularly favourable reading. More specifically, the total number of bricks-and-mortar bingo premises in Great Britain decreased by 1.7% in the year ending March 2018, whilst the virtual portion of the market accounts for a paltry 3% of the online gambling GGY.
Bingo is loved by all!
However, it’s fair to say that the GGY for the bingo sector remained relatively steady at £687 million in 2017, whilst this is a sizeable turnover given the numerous challenges facing the industry as a whole.
The industry is also supported by a number of famous celebrity of players, many of whom have made no secret of their love of bingo. But who are these famous celebrities, and how they indulge their favourite pastime?
Kate Moss
We start with British supermodel and entrepreneur Kate Moss, who first became famous at the beginning of the 1990s.
Having become known as the so-called ‘anti-supermodel’ due to her unusual looks and the interpretation of styles such as heroin chic, she has since gone on to be a successful business women and the world’s second highest earning model.
Moss also tied the knot with The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince in 2011, and apparently eschewed a high octane, rock-and-roll lifestyle for something a little more staid.
More specifically, Moss and her former hubby used to spend their Saturday nights playing bingo with their kids, and whilst they’ve since split the former supermodel still has a penchant for this centuries-old game.
Robbie Williams
It’s easier than ever to play bingo in the digital age, of course, with online resources such as https://www.bestbingosites.co.uk/ offering you access to objective information about a wide range of individual platforms.
Even the lack of online bingo wasn’t enough to stop the internationally renowned pop star Robbie Williams getting a taste for the pastime, however, with this passion first evident even when he appeared with the boy band Take That.
Make no mistake; Robbie absolutely loves this game, to the extent where he takes part in regular Hollywood bingo competitions and donates his winning to various charities in instances where he’s successful.
For those who understand Robbie’s personality, it should come as no surprise that the superstar has dropped hints about his love of bingo throughout his hugely successful solo career. If you look at the music video for Robbie’s hit song ‘Feel’, for example, you’ll see him emerging proudly from a bingo hall at around the 1.09 mark.
Cristiano Ronaldo
If there’s one person on this list who you wouldn’t expect to feature, it’s the Juventus and Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid player (who also happens to be Los Blanco’s leading goalscorer with a staggering 450 goals in 438 games), is a keen bingo enthusiast and one who actually used the game to learn the English language when at Old Trafford.
Having being given a DVD bingo game to help him improve his English, CR7 quickly became enamoured with the game and has spoken openly about how exciting it is to play!
Since that time, he has maintained his passion for the game and continues to play on a regular basis, whilst he should have plenty of opportunity to indulge this passion now that he’s playing in Italy (which is where bingo first originated in the 16th century).
Ronaldo is a competitive individual who hates to lose too, so we can only imagine what he’s like if he isn’t successful!
Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe is renowned as one of the best Hollywood actors in living memory, with his leading role in the Oscar-winning film Gladiator arguably the highlight of a stellar career.
This heart-throb actor has enjoyed an unusually diverse career, however, which has taken in roles in the Aussie soap sensation Neighbours and in his local bingo hall as a larger-than-life caller!
In fact, Crowe started life in the public eye as an enthusiastic bingo caller, having developed a penchant for the game as a young child. Now, although he was sacked as a local caller for making up his own rude alternatives to traditional bingo calls, he has maintained this passion and continues to play regularly to this day.
Crowe regularly talks about his passion for bingo in interviews too, whilst legend has it that he always finds time to fit in a game or two between takes when filming.
Tagged in Robbie Williams Kate Moss Russell Crowe Bingo