Can the Smoking Ban in the UK Take Bingo Players On to the Internet?
Wednesday, 20. December 2023
An abundance has been talked in the press just a while ago concerning the bingo industry singing the blues because of the smoking ban in Britain. Conditions have grown so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has asked for big aid to assist in keeping the businesses afloat. However will the web variation of this classic game provide a escape, or will it not compare to its land based equivalent?
Bingo is an classic game generally played by the "blue rinse" generation. However the game lately had undergone a recent comeback in popularity with younger members of society opting to go to the bingo parlors rather than the clubs 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.
No longer will gamblers be allowed to smoke whilst dabbing numbers. From the summer of ‘07 all public areas will no longer be permitted to allow cigarettes in their locations and this includes Bingo halls, one of the most favorite areas where many people like to puff on cigarettes.
The outcome of the cigarette ban can already be observed in Scotland where cigarettes are already banned in the bingo parlors. Numbers have plunged and the industry is beyond a doubt struggling for its life. But where have the players gone? Of course they haven’t given up on this classic game?
The answer is online. Gamblers are now realizing that they can wager on bingo from their computer whilst enjoying a cocktail and smoke and in the end, enjoy monstrous prizes. This is a recent phenomenon and has timed itself bordering on perfect with the ban on cigarettes.
Of course playing on the net is unlikely to replace the social portion of going over to the bingo parlour, but for a group of men and women the governing edicts have left many bingo players with little option.
Posted in Bingo by Taryn