Now it is legal and encouraged on radio, TV and billboards. For the elderly, bingo is one of the few daytime activities available in which old people are not in the minority. Women can feel comfortable there alone. Bingo is as important to some women as football is to some men. Compulsive gambling can kill, destroy marriages, and deprive children of education.
Suicide can be a result.
But compulsive gambling is treatable. State supported gambling is often the sixth largest employer. State funded gamblers' treatment centers have waiting lists. It is a very ancient compulsion. Roman soldiers betting on the turns of an upended chariot wheel invented roulette.