Bingo

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Much has been reported in the papers just a while ago regarding the bingo industry singing the blues as a result of the smoking ban in England. Conditions have become so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has called for huge tax cuts to assist in keeping the industry from going bankrupt. But does the net variation of this classic game offer a reprieve, or will it never compare to its real life opposite?

Bingo has been an enduring game usually enjoyed by the "blue rinse" generation. Although the game lately had seen a recent comeback in appeal with younger men and women deciding to visit the bingo halls in place of the discos on a Friday night. All this is about to get flipped on its head with the legislating of the smoking ban all over England and Wales.

Players will no longer be permitted to smoke whilst marking off their numbers. From the summer of ‘07 all public locations will not be permitted to allow cigarettes in their buildings and this includes Bingo parlors, one of the most favorite areas where people enjoy smoking.

The effects of the smoking ban can already be felt in Scotland where smoking is already illegal in the bingo parlors. Numbers have dropped and the business is beyond a doubt struggling for to stay alive. But where did the players go? Surely they haven’t cast aside this familiar game?

The answer is on the internet. Players realise that they can bet on bingo in front of their computer at the same time enjoying a beverage and fag and still have a chance at big jackpots. This is a recent phenomenon and has timed itself almost perfectly with the anti cigarette law.

Of course betting on on the internet is unlikely to replace the social part of going down to the bingo hall, but for a demographic of players the law has left many bingo enthusiasts with little alternative.