A lot has been talked in the press just a while ago about the bingo industry being hit as a consequence of the smoking ban in England. Conditions have become so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has demanded big tax breaks to assist in keeping the industry from going bankrupt. But does the online version of this classic game offer a salvation, or will it not compare to its bricks and mortar opposite?
Bingo has been an enduring game usually played by the "blue rinse" generation. However the game lately had seen a recent return in appeal with younger men and women deciding to visit the bingo halls in place of the clubs on a Saturday night. All this is about to get flipped on its head with the legislating of the anti cigarette law around United Kingdom.
Players will no longer be allowed to puff on cigarettes at the same time marking off their numbers. From the summer of ‘07 every public place will no longer be allowed to permit cigarettes in their venues and this includes Bingo halls, which are possibly the most favorite areas where people enjoy smoking.
The effects of the anti smoking law can already be felt in Scotland where cigarettes are already not allowed in the bingo parlors. Numbers have dropped and the industry is literally struggling for its life. But where did the players go? Surely they haven’t deserted this enduring game?
The answer is on the internet. People know that they can gamble on bingo from their computer at the same time enjoying a drink and fag and still have a chance at monstrous jackpots. This is a recent development and has timed itself almost perfectly with the ban on smoking.
Of course gambling on on the web is unlikely to replace the communal part of going down to the bingo parlour, but for a group of men and women the governing edicts have left a number of bingo enthusiasts with little option.