Will the Smoking Ban in Britain Drive Bingo Players On to the Internet?
Friday, 28. February 2020
Much has been reported in the papers not long ago concerning the bingo industry being hurt as a consequence of the cigarette ban in Britain. Things have become so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has demanded big tax breaks to help keep the industry afloat. However can the internet variation of this traditional game provide a salvation, or will it in no way compare to its bricks and mortar relative?
Bingo has been an age old game usually enjoyed by the "blue rinse" generation. For all that the game lately had undergone a recent increase in appeal with younger people opting to visit the bingo parlors rather than the discos on a weekend. All this is about to change with the introduction of the cigarette ban around England and Wales.
Players will no longer be permitted to puff on cigarettes whilst dabbing numbers. Starting in the summer of 2007 every public place will no longer be allowed to permit smoking in their venues and this includes Bingo halls, which are possibly the most popular areas where folks like to puff on cigarettes.
The effects of the smoking ban can already be looked at in Scotland where smoking is already illegal in the bingo halls. Players have dropped and the business is beyond a doubt struggling for to stay alive. But where have the players gone? Of course they haven’t cast aside this age old game?
The answer is on the web. Gamblers are now realizing that they can wager on bingo from their computer whilst enjoying a cocktail and cigarette and in the end, have a chance at huge jackpots. This is a recent phenomenon and has timed itself bordering on perfect with the anti smoking law.
Of course wagering on on the internet is unlikely to replace the communal aspect of going over to the bingo parlour, but for a group of players the rules have left a number of bingo players with little alternative.
Posted in Bingo by Taryn