Listen to this article:It was widely expected that the Conservative party would suffer significant losses in last week’s general election and there were many in the UK who were thrilled at this prospect. It seems that amongst those hoping for a Tory wipeout were bingo fans, as a range of games and wallcharts were created ahead of the election that was designed to celebrate a Conservative loss.
Games appeared across the internet, but not only at the top online bingo sites. For instance, on Etsy, it was possible to purchase a Tory 2024 Meltdown Wallchart. This bingo-inspired game featured seven rows of Tory candidates split into categories such as “Inevitable Losers” (containing Jonathan Gullis), “Mild Surprise”, “I’m Enjoying This”, “A Night to Remember”, “Better Than 1997”, “Karma Overload”, and “There is a God” (containing Suella Braverman, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Rishi Sunak, amongst others). Each time a candidate lost his/her seat, the player received points and there were bonus points available for those who had previously been made a Sir or Dame by the party.
There were also more traditional bingo options. For example, a downloadable game called on players to “Have fun with friends on election night, as the results come in and you see the Tory losses racking up!” In addition to containing candidate names, the cards had squares such as “Labour majority over 50”, “A Tory moans about boundary changes”, “Mention of Boris Johnson”, and “Sunderland first to declare”.
A second similar game urged:
“Add some extra spice to the 2024 General Election on 4th July. Celebrate the catastrophic implosion of the Conservative Party with up to 10 friends with this fun Tory Wipeout Bingo. Mark off each MP as they lose their seats, and play one of three ways, or combine all 3 scoring methods. Just remember, even if you lose the game, the entire country wins!!”
Several other similar games, similar to Tory Wipeout Bingo, could be found online ahead of the election. As explained, some simply called for players to mark off the Tory candidates as they lost seats, while others demanded more for players to win the full house prize.
A creator of one of the games, Chris Barker, who sold more than 2,200 copies of his Conservative Wipeout Bingo game, explained:
“What I wanted was a bingo card where you could cross off all the Tories as they lost their elections as a sort of therapeutic and cathartic thing.”
Barker said that he spent several hours going through all the constituencies and noting down which candidates were standing. He claims that it took him just ten minutes to sell ten cards, which spurred him to continue. It was so popular that people continued ordering the game even when it was clear it could not be delivered through the post before the election.
For those who wanted to play but couldn’t order in time, Barker created and online bingo game. The site went live on election night at Portillogeddon.com, a reference to one of the most memorable election night moments in the UK’s history when Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo lost his seat in 1997. Visitors to the site could click on candidates as they lost their seats and trigger fun animations, such as lettuces filling the screen when Liz Truss failed to be re-elected.
While the above games are mainly good-natured fun, bingo players who share the anti-Tory sentiment should be careful what they wish for. In recent years, the Labour party has sounded far less friendly towards the gambling industry than the Conservatives and there are many in its ranks that would like to bring in further restrictions on the industry in areas such as advertising and betting limits.
However, there was very little about gambling in the Labour party’s manifesto, and so far, it has been relatively quiet on the subject. The Betting and Gaming Council’s chair Michael Dugher has even gone as far as welcoming Labour’s victory and saying that he is looking forward to working with the party:
“The BGC had long treated Labour as a government in waiting. We have been working closely with shadow ministers in recent years, on behalf of our members and their millions of customers. Our work to drive up standards and champion a world leading British industry carries on and we look forward to partnering with Labour – as they have pledged – in this vitally important work.”
Hopefully, Dugher is proved correct, and the cheerful sound of people playing bingo will continue to resonate in clubs and in people’s homes across the nation.
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