State Optics and Bingo Definitions

Abstract Chapter 7 focuses on the new types of bingo authorized by regulators since the 2005 Gambling Act came into effect, in 2007. To better understand the official and unofficial definitions of the game, the chapter centres the dynamic interactions between newly permitted technologies and artefacts, and users (both workers and players). The broader stakes of the seemingly narrow interest in bingo definitions relate to two key debates, about: (1) the centrality of premises concerns to the regulation of gambling technologies; and (2) the key role of user adaptation (including by workers) in reanimating bingo vernaculars. The chapter asks some deceptively simple questions: what makes a bingo premises a bingo premises, or a bingo operator a bingo operator? What is bingo, and how much of it needs to be played in order that a bingo premises can be differentiated from one licensed for other types of gaming? The answers are extremely contested, including by the people who work and play in the shadow of newly created official definitions. In particular, through analysis of a successful regulatory effort to prevent licensed bingo from being allowed in pubs, the chapter shows that employees’ work to re-enable social gambling practices is being overlooked by the state.