A lot has been written in the papers not long ago regarding the bingo industry struggling because of the smoking ban in the United Kingdom. Conditions have become so poor that in Scotland the Bingo industry has requested huge tax breaks to assist in keeping the industry from going bankrupt. But will the net version of this classic game provide a lifeline, or might it not compare to its land based relative?
Bingo has been an familiar game generally enjoyed by the "blue haired" generation. Although the game of late had undergone a recent increase in appeal with younger men and women deciding to go to the bingo parlors in place of the discos on a Friday night. All this is about to get flipped on its head with the introduction of the smoking ban around England and Wales.
Players will no longer be able to smoke whilst marking off their numbers. From the summer of ‘07 every public location will not be allowed to permit cigarettes in their venues and this includes Bingo parlors, one of the most favorite areas where folks enjoy smoking.
The effects of the smoking ban can already be looked at in Scotland where cigarettes are already banned in the bingo halls. Numbers have plunged and the business is beyond a doubt struggling for its life. But where did all the players go? Certainly they haven’t deserted this ancient game?
The answer is online. Players know that they can wager on bingo in front of their computer while enjoying a beer and fag and still have a chance at massive cash rewards. This is a recent anomaly and has happened just about perfectly with the ban on cigarettes.
Of course gambling on on the internet is unlikely to replace the collective part of going down to the bingo parlour, but for a group of people the rules have left a lot of bingo players with little alternative.
This entry was posted on October 4, 2017, 4:25 am and is filed under Bingo. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.