How to Make Bingo More Fun for Seniors

It’s been a long-standing myth that bingo is a game played only by the elderly. However, the rise of online bingo games has put that misconception to bed and more young people are playing the game than ever before.

Still, that’s not to say that online bingo and bingo halls are only for the younger generation now either. In fact, youngsters and seniors alike love bingo, and seniors, in particular, can benefit from playing the game regularly.

In this blog, we’re going to take a quick look at how bingo can benefit seniors and how you can spice up your games to ensure that they don’t get stale.

Senior bingo and its benefits

Bingo isn’t just a game that is super entertaining, but it can also be very beneficial for ageing adults. There are a couple of real advantages to seniors playing the game on a regular basis. Here are just some of the benefits that bingo has for senior players:

• It’s social: The elderly can become quite lonely if they don’t get the interaction that they have become used to in years past. Bingo offers an excellent opportunity for them to see others and interact with like-minded people.

• It can help to decrease the risk of mental illness: Unfortunately, the risk of mental health issues increases as we age, and mental illnesses like depression and Alzheimer’s are prominent in senior communities. The social aspect of bingo helps to keep issues like depression at bay, while the mental aspect of the game helps to keep their minds as sharp as possible.

• Improves cognitive function: Bingo is the perfect game for seniors, as it is easy to learn, can be repetitive but still requires memory and focus. This makes it the ideal in-between for seniors who might not be able to learn too many new rules, but it still involves their cognitive functions enough to exercise them.

• Improves hand-eye coordination: Our bodies tend to shake and move a bit slower as we age and any kind of physical activity can help combat this. Something as simple as marking a number or putting a chip on a card will help hand-eye coordination.

Making bingo fun for seniors

Bingo is one of those games that can get a little stale if you don’t swish it up a bit. It might not have as many themes and options as slots online, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change it up and make it a little more fun for senior players. Keep in mind that the health and wellness of seniors come first and they shouldn’t attend big indoor social gatherings, and should always try to maintain social distancing when playing bingo.

Here are a few ways that you can keep your bingo games fresh for seniors:

Have themed bingo games

One of the easiest ways to make your next bingo a little different from the last one is to have themed games. The great thing about this is that it’s almost impossible to run out of bingo game ideas when you base them on different themes.

We’re talking about the whole shebang here too! Colour schemes, costumes, and of course, food and drink that reflect the theme of the game. A sure winner every time, is simply to base your themes on the seasons and times of the year. So you could do a summer, winter, or spring theme. You could base a game on Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Halloween, and so on.

Try human bingo

One of the biggest benefits that we spoke about earlier is the social aspect of bingo for seniors. While the game itself is a good way for players to interact to an extent, playing human bingo will be an even more entertaining way for them to get to know each other. All you need to do is create new bingo cards with a characteristic in each separate box, for example, “Favourite colour: green” or “Has ridden a horse”.

The aim of the game is then for each person to find someone that has done that activity or has that characteristic and mark it off their card. The first person to get five in a row wins.

Try picture bingo

Picture bingo is another great activity that will work senior citizens’ minds and memory. Make cards with pictures of various things, one in each blank space. The caller will then have to describe what these things look like without actually saying the name of it. The players will then mark the object off of their cards when they think they know what is being described, and then the usual bingo rules apply when it comes to winning.

Play different bingo formats

Making bingo more entertaining can be as simple as just tweaking the rules and the patterns for the winner. Some great bingo prize ideas include giving out more than one prize per game. So, for example, you could give out a prize for the person who covers the four squares on the top-right of their card, or whoever gets all four corners first, and so on.

Play online bingo at Lucky Pants Bingo

As you can see, there are so many different ways that you can change up your bingo games to make them more entertaining for senior players. Luckily, at Lucky Pants Bingo, we have a huge variety of bingo games to choose from and you could find something new and exciting such as Slingo when you play games on our site.

Sign up with Lucky Pants Bingo and enjoy a variety of bingo games every time you play.