Bingo Callers Should Always Use a Timer

While visiting a customer's bingo the other day, I noticed that the bingo caller was calling bingo on his own without the benefit of a timer. While this bingo caller was experienced, and had a good feel for the bingo players, he was still varying his pace enough to be a problem.

Without a timer, this bingo caller would sometimes lose track and start to call too slowly. To which, bingo players would soon grumble, "Speed Up!". Sometimes this bingo caller would accelerate the pace, causing bingo daubers in players' hands to speed up in a flurry to get their numbers daubed.

Bingo players don't like inconsistency. Variable calling speeds are going to annoy them, or possibly really upset them if they miss a bingo. Despite this bingo caller being solid in most respects, he was hurting his bingo by his lack of a timer. Believe it or not, little things like this can cause a bingo to lose bingo players.

Most bingo machines come equipped with timing devices which will set a steady pace for bingo callers. If this is unavailable, a simple and inexpensive metronome will do the trick. Even a watch or seconds hand on a clock is better than your bingo caller simply winging it on his own.

In my customer's case, when we asked the bingo caller why he didn't use the timer on the bingo machine, he said he thought it was broken. Funny thing is the timer wasn't broken. The bingo caller didn't know how to use it. Once he was shown how it worked, he began calling the bingo numbers at a consistent pace, and the bingo players were happier for it.