An abundance has been written in the press just a while ago regarding the bingo industry singing the blues as a consequence of the anti smoking law in England. Conditions have grown so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has demanded massive tax breaks to help keep the businesses from going bankrupt. However can the net variation of this classic game provide a reprieve, or will it never compare to its land based kin?
Bingo is an established game generally played by the "blue rinse" generation. In any case the game recently had experienced a recent return in acceptance with younger men and women deciding to hit the bingo parlors in place of the clubs on a Friday night. All this is about to be destroyed with the introduction of the cigarette ban all over Britain.
Players will no longer be permitted to puff on cigarettes whilst dabbing numbers. Beginning in the summer of 2007 every public location will no longer be permitted to allow cigarettes in their locations and this includes Bingo halls, which are possibly the most favored areas where players like to smoke.
The effects of the anti cigarette law can already be looked at in Scotland where smoking is already forbidden in the bingo parlours. Numbers have dropped and the industry is literally struggling for to stay alive. But where have the players gone? Certainly they haven’t forgotten this familiar game?
The answer is online. Players realise that they can participate in bingo using their computer whilst enjoying a beer and cig and in the end, have a chance at massive jackpots. This is a recent development and has happened bordering on perfect with the ban on smoking.
Of course wagering on on the web is unlikely to replace the communal aspect of heading down to the bingo parlour, but for a group of men and women the law has left a number of bingo players with little alternative.