It?s a full house at bingo nights

The traditional Bingo?or Housie? night is fast shedding its elderly cardigan-clad image and is being reborn as the hobby du jour for a new generation of bingo fans. Grandmas are having to make room for young ones as calls of ''two fat ladies'' (88) and ''chicken legs'' (legs 11) reverberate around the Schooner Tavern in downtown Auckland. For the past six weeks, owner Peter Fletcher has run a Wednesday bingo night complete with quirky prizes, a classic bingo wheel and old-fashioned quarts of beer. ''I was trying to introduce a bit of old-school fun to the pub scene,'' he explains. ''Things had become a bit dull and boring.'' With off-beat prizes that include candy g-strings, novelty keyrings, make-your-own shot glass kits and cigarette cases, the night is anything but. ''I've also got meat packs ? which are synonymous with bingo culture really,'' he says. Patronage appears to be increasing steadily week after week. On the night The Aucklander visited there were at least 40 keen players, eyes down, the atmosphere a heady mix of anticipation, excitement and occasional groans of disappointment as they scanned their cards. Friends Sam Jellie, Sam Faulker and Chase Lyon, all 19, heard of the bingo nights via radio and were intrigued by the novelty factor and quirky prizes. Chase wanted to see what all the fuss was about and work out what old ladies saw in the game. All three plan to return soon. Anna Hughes, 31, says: ''What attracted me was the nerdy-cool element. I'm constantly looking for new and different things to do with my friends.'' Will bingo catch on with the cool crowd? ''It absolutely will,'' she insists. Anna predicts bingo nights will become an institution in the same manner as pub quizzes. All this is good news for Fletcher who says bingo's allure is spreading slowly by word-of-mouth and he hopes bingo nights develop a cult-following. With players ranging in age from 18-40, the newcomers are getting steadily younger with 80 per cent of them at the younger end of the scale, he says. Bryan Mcleod, organiser of the Teachers and Eastern Housie nights in Orakei says that although people in their 20s would make up only around 5 per cent of members, it's a case of the more the merrier. ''The older players wouldn't mind as it means the stakes are higher and the prizes better,'' he says. Bingo world managing director Rino Opera says although there is a general downtrend across the industry, the average age of bingo players is falling. ''There's a new group of kids on the block in the 25-35 age group.'' ? by journalism student Natasha Francois