Yes, I’ve grown old. Very old. I went to play Bingo last Saturday. My mother has started to play Bingo occasionally and she lured me with her and her partner, as we had an hour to waste before he had to leave for a trip. And guess what: it was actually fun!

Of course, Bingo is a game of pure luck. Well, luck and perception and some quick reacting, too, but there’s really nothing you can do maximise your chances except to put more money in it. But it didn’t take long before I was charmed by the voice reading out the numbers, waiting for the right ones to appear.

I actually won some, too. First I got just few lines — that only pays 2 euros worth of Bingo coins, which pays one more round of line game (that’s where you try to get first one line, then two lines and so on until finally you try to get a full five lines). Then I won big: I got five lines with only 61 numbers called. If you get five lines in that Bingo hall with only 56 numbers called, you’ll win at least a part of 520 euros. As that doesn’t happen every day, they give out other prizes: the best score of the day, which is more than 56 numbers, gets 180 euros and the second best gets 52 euros. My 61 numbers was the second best score of the day. So, I got 4 euro prize for doing that and a chance to get 52 euros, if nobody else would beat my score.

Well, that made the rest of the day a bit more exciting. It was early, so there was about four hours of time left for someone to beat me. However, nobody did and when the hall closed at three, I was 52 euros richer. Of course they don’t give out money, but Bingo money or purchase cards, but I sold those to my mother to get some cash. Which was nice.

I think I just might go do that again someday… Hopefully my beginner’s luck will stay.