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9/6/2005: Bingo and superstitions
Bingo is a game of chance, involving no skill or choice judgements. The very little research conducted on bingo has mostly been from a sociological perspective. When outcomes are uncertain or unpredictable, many gamblers appear to turn to superstition and/or luck in order to feel in “control” of the situation. This has also been shown to be the case concerning bingo. Dixey (1987) found many players had ritual routines concerned with superstitious belief, such as buying cards for the game in a particular order, sitting in the same seat, wearing lucky clothes, and using specific pens. King (1990) suggested that the use of superstitious strategies in order to win implied both skill and some degree of control over the outcome of the game.
The Journal of Gambling Issues study on bingo players and their beliefs on superstition and luck.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:16 am
Great history you have here. It’s not only in this kind of gambling though, in poker, I have met some of the weirdest human beings as exhibited by their superstitions. Indeed, poker/gambling superstitions make poker and its populace MORE COLORFUL!