Having been intimately close to addiction, I am familiar with its insidious impact on family and friends, as well as those gripped by compulsive and often ruinous behaviour. The issue here seems to be that your husband is comparing bingo with cards, and he has had a bad experience where he got into debt playing cards at the casino. I honestly believe that a good social life, cultivated long term friendships and mixing with lots of other people are vital for good mental health. It is so important that we socialise and have fun in whatever way suits us, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone else. I can almost feel the vibe of your bingo night out when I imagine what you have described. Growing up near Margate in Kent, one of my lasting childhood memories is playing bingo in the arcades on Margate seafront – where the caller sits in the centre of a ring of fixed consoles that are bingo cards, where you slide a little door over the numbers as they come up. Bingo and cards are nothing like each other – what should I do? It doesn’t seem right that I can’t have my girls’ night out because he is rubbish at cards. My husband, however, wants me to stop going because he stopped going to the casino after getting into thousands of pounds’ worth of debt playing cards.

I have had a few decent wins, the largest was £400 and paid for a great family holiday, and probably covers every penny I have ever spent at bingo. The bingo hall has some slot machines and other arcade games, but it is not a casino – there’s no cards or roulette, or anything like that. It is a social event and very popular, admittedly mainly with the ladies, but it is a good girls’ night out.

I have been playing bingo on a Wednesday evening at our local bingo hall in Birmingham for the last four years.

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