Casinos Are Taking A Page From Game Shows By Giving Away Cars As Prizes
In 1956, NBC rolled out a black-and-white show hosted by Bill Cullen called The Price Is Right, unknown to the television broadcasting network at the time that they had just singlehandedly changed the game show format forever. After a brief hiatus between 1965-1972, the show was relaunched on CBS and with a new host (Bob Barker). In 2015, The Price Is Right celebrated a record as it became the longest-running game show of all time.
The Price Is Right has given away over a quarter of a billion dollars in cash and prizes during its lifetime, with the most famous prizes being luxury cars. For instance, in 2013, a woman from Tacoma, Washington, won a $157,300 Audi R8 V-8 Spyder. Taking a page from The Price Is Right’s book is the casino industry, which has started to offer incentives to players outside of just cash prizes, welcome bonuses, and free spins; this includes allowing punters to win expensive cars.
Casinos Are Starting To Give Cars As Prizes
One example of this is Paddy Power’s 2020 Guess Or Drag It Out bingo competition, which received a nod at last year’s EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards. This prestigious and annual event gathers the world’s top online gaming operators to celebrate commercial success in the industry. The Guess or Drag It Out competition, which is a far cry from the usual bingo games Paddy Power offers, such as slingo and scratchcards, saw contestants guessing how many bingo balls were inside a brand-new Mini Cooper in an attempt to drive away with the car.
Enter our Paddy Power Bingo competition to be in with the chance to win a Mini Cooper! 🚗🚗🚗
All you have to do is guess how many Bingo balls are in the car by clicking the link below! Or you can Drag it out by counting each ball…
18+ | T&C’s apply
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) September 23, 2020
From start to finish, the competition was unique. Participants could try to guess the total number of bingo balls in the Mini Cooper, or they could watch for five hours as the balls were loaded into the car. In many ways, watching the bingo balls get loaded into the Mini Cooper improved the accuracy of a participant’s guess. However, it also meant one glance away from the screen was a deciding factor in the accuracy of their guess. The casino operator also rounded up some of the most famous cast members from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK to help with loading the bingo balls into the car, which allowed the competition to gain exposure to a wider audience.
Over the past few decades, we have seen some incredible game show car giveaways, not just on The Price Is Right but also on shows like Let’s Make a Deal and Tic-Tac-Dough. For instance, during the 1980-1981 season of Tic-Tac-Dough, a US Naval officer won $312,700 in cash and prizes in 43 games, which included eight cars. Game shows are a staple worldwide, but there’s no denying their popularity has started to fade recently as the world begins to rely more on streaming services like Netflix and original content for their entertainment. That said, casino games remain extremely popular, so it is nice to see brands incorporating aspects from other gaming niches, such as by offering cars as prizes for traditional games like bingo.
