When Mrs.
As she listened, she heard the ‘Ognib Show’ hosted by the comic actor Charlie Drake. ‘Ognib’ was the reversal of the word Bingo. Bingo via the radio became a new and popular phenomenon and Irish listeners like Mrs. Durnin were hooked.
One of the most popular radio bingo programmes, also heard loud and clear in Ireland was Radio Luxembourg’s, ‘Postal Bingo Show’ that was linked to the Durham Postal Bingo operated by Derek Killingsworth Armstrong. The Bingo had at its height in early 1965, 100,000 people playing every week, posting in a postal order for 3/6 to participate.
Irish fans of Radio Luxembourg’s
show included Katherine Hickey from Waterford, James Byrne in Camolin, Patrick
Corless in Clare, Maura Delaney in Ardee and Robert Thornton in County Leitrim.
But despite the popularity of Radio Caroline and Luxembourg, troubled waters
lay ahead for the Irish listeners.
In March 1964, James Byrne posted an envelope to Durham containing a 3/6 postal order to take part in the airwaves game but his letter was intercepted by the Irish postal authorities in Dublin Castle, opened and he then received the dreaded knock to his front door. The Gardai were there. He failed to realize that under Section 34 of the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, ‘It is illegal to send money to a lottery outside the jurisdiction’.
The visit of the Garda meant a
trip to court where the Judge took into account that he did not know it was
illegal to send money abroad to participate in lotteries such as ‘Bingo’. Byrne
was given the probation act but in a strange piece of Irish legislation, the
State were not allowed to hold onto the evidence and the postal order was
retuned to Mr. Byrne. In April 1964 Patrick Corless from Ruan, Co. Clare another
listener to Radio Luxembourg told the court that he could win up to £ 8,500 on
a full house. There were postal bingo games in Ireland but the prize fund was
little more than a couple of hundred pounds and not the thousands that could be
won on radio bingo. Patrick Corless too ended up in court in Ennis and was
handed the Probation Act.
In August 1964 Katherine Hickey from Waterford had her 3/6 postal order intercepted by the Post Office which was being sent to Durham Postal Bingo Listening to Radio Luxembourg. In Court the judge gave her the Probation Act at Dungarvan Court and sentenced to listen to Radio Eireann. Maura Delaney from Ardee was the recipient of the Probation Act from Justice Rochford in December 1964
On February 20th 1965,
Mrs Kathleen Durnin from Dunleer who had also been caught posting a 3/6 postal
order to Durham Postal Bingo told the court that,
‘It
was the result of listening to a commercial on Radio Caroline’
She too had the Probation Act applied
and had her postal order returned
It was not just the East coast listeners that were listening and attempting to participate, in April 1965 Robert Thornton from Dromod appeared at Rooskey Court before Mr Justice PJ Loftus. Once again, the probation act was applied and his two Postal orders returned.
But it was not just in the Irish courts that radio bingo games were about to suffer setbacks. In June 1965 the British House of Lords ruled that under the 1934 Betting Act, the Durham Postal Bingo contravened that act. According to the University of Kent’s Bingo Report the House of Lords,
‘Upheld the conviction of the proprietor of a postal bingo club for running an illegal lottery, on the grounds that buying a ticket in this form of bingo was not participation in a game. The postal bingo involved 300,000 players. Results were announced in a dedicated bingo programme on the pirate radio station Radio Luxembourg and published in the cult magazine Tit Bits. Again winners were contacted and notified without having to claim; again the court held that there was no gaming, since there was no participation in a game and no assembly of players.’
Despite that setback and the disappearance from
Luxembourg’s schedule offshore pirate Radio Scotland revived the game with significantly
lower prize money.
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