A lot has been reported in the press not long ago concerning the bingo industry being hit because of the smoking ban in the United Kingdom. Conditions have become so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has asked for big aid to help keep the businesses from going bankrupt. But will the web version of this quintessential game offer a reprieve, or will it not compare to its real life relative?
Bingo has been an classic game historically enjoyed by the "blue rinse" generation. For all that the game recently had undergone a recent comeback in appeal with younger men and women opting to hit the bingo halls rather than the bars on a weekend. This is all about to get flipped on its head with the enforcement of the anti smoking law across Britain.
Players will no longer be able to smoke at the same time marking off their numbers. Starting in the summer of 2007 every public location will no longer be allowed to permit cigarettes in their venues and this includes Bingo halls, which are possibly the most common places where people like to smoke.
The effects of the cigarette ban can already be observed in Scotland where cigarettes are already banned in the bingo halls. Players have dropped and the business is beyond a doubt struggling for its life. But where did all the players go? Surely they have not deserted this established game?
The answer is on the web. People realize that they can wager on bingo in front of their computer at the same time enjoying a drink and cigarette and still have a chance at huge jackpots. This is a recent phenomenon and has timed itself almost perfectly with the ban on smoking.
Of course playing on the internet could never replace the communal part of going down to the bingo parlor, but for a group of men and women the rules have left a good many bingo players with little alternative.