Even with arthritic dial-up connections operating at speeds 35 times slower than the most basic broadband speeds offered today, early online entrepreneurs were able to offer online Bingo games and chat that started to build communities of players as far back as 1996 – which is comparable to the prehistoric age in terms of consumer use of the World Wide Web! These twin facets of the Bingo game made it a natural fit for the medium of the Internet even from its early days when the typical connection speeds consumers had were truly tortoise-like compared to modern broadband. The appeal of the game seems to have been its cocktail of simple gaming rules to play for attractive prizes, coupled with an environment that encourages socialising between players, creating a sense of community. Bingo halls have been venues for mass entertainment for decades, gaining popularity in the UK following the introduction of the game as players now know it in the 1960s by Mecca Bingo.
