B – I – N – G – O. We can’t get enough of it, not only here in the UK, but around the world. There were an estimated 3.5 million bingo players in Britain last year, a figure that extends to 100 million globally. We all know it’s popular, it’s fun and it’s sociable. But did you know some of these record-breaking (and in some cases, slightly random) facts about bingo?

The largest game of bingo

Online

Online bingo is obviously very popular and at peak times, can reach hundreds of players in a single room, but imagine playing a game with 493,824 people. That’s exactly what happened in Tokyo on September 3, 2010. The record-breaking game was set-up by Coca-Cola and all the players were members of their social media community: Coca-Cola Park. This game wasn’t even about the prizes, but the sheer number of people taking part.

Offline

South American retailer Grupo Exito organised the biggest game of bingo in the Colombian capital, Bogota. Despite the rise of online bingo, an incredible 70,080 people turned up to win over £250,000 worth of prizes on December 2, 2006. Do you think the winners would have been heard shouting “house” with that much competition?

The biggest bingo wins

Online

The biggest win online was the £5.1 million won by Georgios M in 2009. The Greek businessman was playing in his native Greece, scooping up the €6.3 million jackpot prize. This is literally the only information found online about him, as he appears to have wanted to remain anonymous – probably to ensure he’s not befriended by everyone!

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Soraya Lowell holds the record for the most money won in a bingo hall. The mother-of-four from Hamilton, Lanarkshire was playing at the Club 3,000 bingo hall in Coatbridge on March 25, 2008 when she scooped up the whopping platinum jackpot of £1,167,795. She split her big money win with her neighbour Agnes, which kept to their pact of halving any takings from their bingo visits together.

The biggest bingo balls

Sun Bingo broke this record on June 3, 2017 at an event set-up on Blackpool seafront. 75 supersize balls were required from the adjudicators and their record set of 73cm balls achieved the new record. The record was previously held by Gala Bingo and Coronation Street, who teamed up and raised £10,000 for Male Cancer Awareness with their attempt, which you can see below.

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The biggest bingo card

As with the previous record, Sun Bingo once again hold the crown for the largest bingo card. It was at the same event in Blackpool on June 3, 2017 and the ticket measured an astounding 15.9m².

And now for the obscure

World Record veteran Doug McManaman from Canada holds over 1,800 records and two of the most obscure bingo-related ones belong to him. He once stacked 82 bingo daubers (that’s those marker pens) to make the world’s biggest tower. Doug’s second record attempt saw him balance a basket of bingo balls on a pole from his chin. He managed to keep this up for 1 minute and 19 seconds. That’s some decent balancing! Although both records pose the question: why?