An abundance has been stated in the papers recently about the bingo industry singing the blues as a result of the cigarette ban in Britain. Conditions have grown so bad that in Scotland the Bingo industry has requested big tax cuts to help keep the businesses alive. But does the internet version of this classic game present a lifeline, or will it never compare to its real life opposite?
Bingo has been an familiar game historically played by the "blue rinse" generation. In any case the game lately had witnessed a recent comeback in popularity with younger men and women deciding to visit the bingo halls in place of the bars on a Saturday night. All this is about to change with the enacting of the anti cigarette law across United Kingdom.
No more will players be permitted to puff on cigarettes while marking off their numbers. From the summer of ‘07 every public place will not be allowed to permit smoking in their locations and this includes Bingo parlors, which are possibly the most common places where people enjoy smoking.
The effects of the anti cigarette law can already be felt in Scotland where cigarettes are already forbidden in the bingo parlors. Players have dropped and the business is beyond a doubt struggling for to stay alive. But where have all the players gone? Obviously they haven’t given up on this classic game?
The answer is on the web. People realize that they can play bingo in front of their computer while enjoying a drink and smoke and in the end, enjoy monstrous prizes. This is a recent anomaly and has timed itself just about perfectly with the ban on cigarettes.
Of course betting on online is unlikely to replace the communal portion of going down to the bingo parlour, but for a group of men and women the governing edicts have left a good many bingo enthusiasts with no option.
