The economics of Bingo games: Leisure and revenue

Bingo games are a source of entertainment for players, and a source of revenue for non-profit organizations and local governments that operate Bingo games. A Bingo game, thus, can be viewed as a market problem for the organization selling game tickets and for the players participating in the game. A simple model is developed, which investigates optimal behaviour for the organization and the participants. The model is applied to a data set derived from weekly Bingo games. The data suggest optimal strategies for both the organization and the players, namely, varying the number of salespeople per Bingo player and determining the spending levels of players, according to payday and post-payday weeks.