Bingo Lingo is a bingo rave from Cardiff. You pay a pound for five games, sit at a table with your mates, and spend the gaps between numbers singing, dancing and watching strangers fight it out on stage for a prize. Its home is DEPOT in Cardiff, and it tours South Wales, the West Country and a list of English cities.
Here’s how a night runs, where it plays, what the £1 actually covers and what the “holiday” prize turns out to be.
Five Games, One Big Prize
A night is five games of bingo, each played in three rounds: one line, two lines and a full house. Bingo Lingo’s own FAQ promises “terrible prizes” through the night and “one strange mother-of-all-prizes” in the final game. Its homepage mentions a 12-foot inflatable sausage, and reviewers have taken home George Foreman grills.
Between games, it’s a club night. The soundtrack is 80s, 90s and 00s pop and dance; there’s a rave round, and the hosts work with stage performers. Bingo Lingo’s Bath listing mentions “two elderly ladies on stage”. When two people call at the same time, they settle it in a play-off on stage, which the terms describe as “a test of knowledge or skill” and which usually means a sing-off or a dance-off. Call late, or don’t get to the stage quickly, and the terms let the host rule you out.
Where Bingo Lingo Plays
These are the venues on Bingo Lingo’s events list when we checked each one on 5 November 2026. Dates change often, so we’ve linked to each city’s listing rather than repeating them. XL shows are the bigger arena nights.
| City | Venue | Doors / last entry | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | DEPOT, Curran Road | 6pm / 7.30pm | From £9.50 |
| Cardiff | Cardiff Students’ Union, Park Place | 7pm / 8.30pm | £10 |
| Swansea | The Patti, Victoria Park | 6.30pm / 7.30pm | £12 |
| Swansea | Swansea Arena (XL shows) | 6pm / 7.30pm | From £18 |
| Newport | Tiny Rebel, Rogerstone | 6pm / 7.30pm | £16 |
| Bridgend | Off Grid 31 | 6pm / 7.30pm | From £15 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | Clwb Crown, Dynevor Street | 6pm / 7.30pm | From £12 |
| Llanelli | Ffwrnes, Park Street | 6pm / 8pm | £18 |
| Chepstow | Chepstow Racecourse | 6pm / 7.30pm | £16 |
| Llangollen | Llangollen Pavilion | 6pm / 7pm | From £10 |
| Bristol | Sawmills, St Jude’s | 7pm / 8pm | From £12 |
| Bath | Komedia, Westgate Street | 6pm / 7pm | From £18 |
| Bath | Bath Pavilion (XL) and Bath Students’ Union | 6pm / 7.30pm and 7pm / 8pm | From £10 |
| Hereford | The Yard, Aubrey Street | 6pm / 7.30pm | £18 |
| Birmingham | Luna Springs, Digbeth | 6pm / 8pm | From £14 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | Victoria Hall (XL) | 6pm / 7.30pm | From £14 |
| Liverpool | Camp and Furnace, Greenland Street | 6.30pm / 7.30pm | From £12 |
| Sheffield | Sheffield Students’ Union | 6pm / 7pm | From £7 |
| Reading | Reading Students’ Union | 7pm / 8pm | £11 |
| Watford | Watford Colosseum (XL) | 6pm / 7.30pm | £24 |
Wales is the core of it. Ten of the 20 rows above are Welsh venues, and Cardiff alone has DEPOT plus the students’ union. The brand’s city filter lists around 80 places it has played, from Aberystwyth to Glasgow, plus festivals such as Boardmasters and Glastonbury and, slightly improbably, Ibiza.
What You Pay, and What the £1 Covers
Tickets on the current list run from £7 at Sheffield Students’ Union to £24 for the XL show at Watford Colosseum, with DEPOT in Cardiff from £9.50. Some venues sell table tickets alongside entry tickets. If a venue doesn’t list one, it doesn’t take table bookings, and everyone in your group still needs their own entry ticket.
You pay for the bingo separately. Bingo Lingo’s terms say it costs £1 to play all five games, that “all stakes are paid out in prizes to winners the same night”, and that your entry ticket covers the entertainment rather than the bingo. You can also ask to play the bingo without the show, as long as you ask Bingo Lingo a fortnight ahead.
A Licensed Bingo Game
Bingo Lingo calls itself “a low-stakes cash and prize bingo game”, and it’s licensed to run one. Bingo Lingo Limited has held a Gambling Commission non-remote bingo operating licence since 28 June 2019 (account 53266). Its prizes can include cash, from a fiver upwards.
That puts it in a different category from Bingo Loco, whose UK operator we couldn’t find on the register and whose prizes can never be swapped for cash. It sits alongside Bongo’s Bingo and Hijingo, which both hold Gambling Commission licences too.
As with any licensed game, you must be 18 and may be asked for photo ID.
The “Holiday” Is a Flight Voucher
Read the prize terms before you plan a week away. Where a prize is advertised as a holiday, Bingo Lingo’s terms say it “shall be construed strictly to mean a flight voucher only”.
| What the terms say | Detail |
|---|---|
| What you get | A voucher towards flights with “up to 400 airlines” |
| What’s excluded | Accommodation, transfers, meals, insurance and excursions |
| How long it lasts | 24 months from the date it’s issued |
| Extra costs | Taxes, carrier charges, booking fees and any fare above the voucher’s value may be yours to pay |
| Claiming | Within 14 days of the event |
| Cash alternative | None, and it can’t be transferred |
The other prizes come with a practical rule, which is that you take them home that night. Anything left at the venue can be treated as forfeited, and one Google reviewer said their prize was stolen while they were dancing (LOL).
Bingo Lingo vs Bingo Loco
The names are close enough that people mix them up, and Bingo Lingo knows it. When one unhappy customer left it a one-star review, Bingo Lingo replied that it was “a different company to ours” and that the reviewer meant Bingo Loco.
| Bingo Lingo | Bingo Loco | |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling Commission licence | Yes (since 2019) | No listing found (November 2026) |
| Bingo stake | £1 for five games | £1.20 a ticket |
| Cash prizes | Yes | No cash value on any prize |
| Holiday prize | Flight voucher only | Two flights plus up to two nights |
| Home turf | Cardiff and South Wales | UK-wide plus Ireland and abroad |
Dress, Door and Table Rules
It’s strictly over-18s, with photo ID if asked. Fancy dress is “more than welcome”, which makes sense given how many hen dos, stag dos and birthdays fill the tables, and you can bring decorations as long as they don’t block anyone’s view of the stage.
Timing is strict. Nobody gets in early, and last entry is 30 minutes before the first game. At DEPOT, that means doors at 6pm and last entry at 7.30pm. The terms rule out standing on benches or tables, and the security team enforces it, which comes up a lot in reviews. Strobe lighting is used “in small doses”, and the venues are accessible if you let Bingo Lingo or the venue know in advance.
Tickets, Refunds and Sold-Out Shows
Refunds happen only if a show is cancelled, postponed, or moved, and illness, including COVID, doesn’t count. Refund protection is sold as an optional extra at checkout and handled by TicketPlan, so any claim goes through them rather than Bingo Lingo. Buying a ticket also adds your email to Bingo Lingo’s mailing list, though you can unsubscribe.
DEPOT warns that shows “often sell out a few weeks in advance”, so bear that in mind.
What Reviews Say
The Google listing for Bingo Lingo at DEPOT shows 4.1 out of 5 from 100 reviews when we checked. The positive reviews mention the hosts, ordering tables from your phone, and a crowd with a wider age range than you’d expect. One works-do reviewer described themselves as “a young 65” and had a great time. Another, at 28, thought it was better suited to people ten years older.
The criticism is consistent. Several reviewers found the security heavy-handed, some waited a long time to get in or to use the toilets, and drinks prices come up often (one reviewer paid just over £12 for two pints). One said the XL show didn’t let you leave once you’d entered, on an afternoon-to-night event.
“Bingo Lingo” the Slang
Not everyone searching “bingo lingo” wants the party. The phrase is also used for the nicknames callers give the numbers, from “legs eleven” to “two fat ladies”. If that’s what you were after, our list of bingo calls covers all 90, with the stories behind them.
Bingo Lingo or Your Local Hall?
Ten of the 17 towns on Bingo Lingo’s current list also have an open bingo hall in our directory, and South Wales is well served. Cardiff has Club 3000 Bingo Cardiff, Swansea has Mecca Bingo Swansea, and Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil both have Castle Bingo clubs. Bristol has Shipleys Bingo Bristol. The rest are in our bingo hall directory.
Our bingo nights guide puts Bingo Lingo alongside the other touring party shows.