Some of these you'll have watched a hundred times. What follows is the roll call — the ads, the stars, and how the whole thing quietly fell apart.
The Memorable Ads
Foxy Bingo turned up in 2006. Nobody knew who was inside the fox mask. Nobody cared. He went on to sponsor Jeremy Kyle for nine years and became the closest thing bingo ever had to a national mascot.
Wink Bingo had a Weimaraner doing Riverdance. Nobody asked why. Everyone remembered the dog.
Mecca gave us the twerking cactus in 2014. Ladbrokes had people bouncing about in zorb ballss, not forgetting Cheeky Bingo where this yellow bingo ball just wouldn't shut up - we do miss that site though.
Think Bingo did morning TV ads with ladies catching bingo balls in a swimming pool. Sun Bingo went full 3D bouncing party balls. Penny Bingo made everything about the pennies. And ITV Bingo ran its own campaigns with the ITV theme before Gala took over the Coronation Street and Emmerdale bingo rooms.
All of it, middle of any afternoon, in between the soaps. Half the country watched with a cuppa. Nobody batted an eyelid.
The Iconic Telly Stars
Late Dame Barbara Windsor wore her bingo crown for Jackpotjoy from 2010. Her Royal Crown and blue ball gown covered in tiny bingo balls, cakes flying about for Comic Relief, and enough giggles to fill EastEnders again. She was the Queen of Bingo. No debate.
Vic Reeves dressed up for Ladies Night at 888 Ladies. Peter Andre fronted Gala Bingo. Sharon Osbourne did the same, playing bingo in a spa. Heather Graham took over Foxy in 2017 and made a running joke of asking if Foxy was a sociopath.
Then there were the shows themselves. The Chase turned up in Gala ads. Coronation Street got its own bingo room. If it was on ITV in the afternoon, chances are it had a bingo ad clinging to it.
What Changed
The 2007 Gambling Act let the whole gambling industry advertise on telly. Betting, casino, slots — all of it. Gambling ads shot up 600% in the six years after. That's not a typo. Bingo was suddenly sharing the ad break with heavier stuff, and the tone of the whole thing shifted.
Then the rules got serious. Regulators wanted gambling ads to be socially responsible — no light-hearted daftness that might appeal to kids, nothing that made gambling look like it fixed anything. Out went the daft stuff — the pooping pigeons, the racing grannies, the twerking cactus. None of it got banned by name. It just couldn't fit the new rules.
In 2022, celebrities who might appeal to under-18s were pulled from gambling ads altogether. No more Queens of Bingo, no more Peter Andres, and no more Vic Reeves dressed up for Ladies Night.
By 2026, if a bingo brand's on TV at all, it's usually tombola, Mecca, Gala or Foxy. And even they're mostly selling you slots now, mostly after the watershed. Sometimes there's a nod — Mecca sponsors Loose Women, a brand slides in on The Chase. But no cakes. No cactus. No dancing dog. Just a sponsorship ident, or a random person holding up a phone screen telling you about the app.
Meanwhile, some ads have slipped through the net entirely. Casino brands seem to get off lightly — deposit £X for X free spins on almost any radio ad break, catchy dance music hooks that could pull in anyone with ears, including plenty of under-18s. Feels a lot more harmful than a daft fox raising money for Comic Relief.
All gambling can be harmful — we're not pretending otherwise. But bingo is statistically the softer end of it, and it's the one that copped the tightest rules. The stuff that could actually cause damage keeps finding ways through.
What's in The Vault
I watched most of the bingo ads live over the years, in between Corrie and Loose Women. Danced along when Foxy did Comic Relief with Kristina Rihanoff. Watched the tombola bus travel the country with their Open for Fun ads. Never quite made it to one of the tombola meet-ups though. Been playing and working around bingo since 2007 — chat host at Mecca, and playing long before that.
Always love a good ad — well, when they're not ruining a movie night. Anything entertaining beats a loo roll ad. So I went through the archives to find the best ones I remember. Some quietly got pulled when the rules changed. What we're left with is scraps of bingo memories — an era that's not coming back anytime soon.
Scroll back up for our Glitzy Vision TV, aka The Vault, where we play 25 random ads a day. Some you'll remember. Some you might not. Some show their age. Some still look good to go, if only they were allowed back on prime-time TV.
If you like history, tune in to channel 2 on the box for the Bingo Story — a documentary about 1960s bingo halls to modern-day bingo. Well, modern when it aired, which was a few years back now. A lot has changed, but still worth a watch.
Grab a cuppa. Tune in to the videos. Fancy a game after? Have a look at the bingo directory. And, being a good host — set your limits first. Don't try claiming any of the offers in these ads either. They expired years ago, I'm afraid. Sorry about that. Some of them were pretty good before the fishing slot offers got shoved in our face.
Anyway, that's The Vault. Enjoy.
Can you guess today's word?
