Another bingo hall bites the dust

16th August 2010 10:46 AM

It is no secret that land based bingo halls have struggled in recent years. The growth of online bingo sites has been partly to blame as has the smoking ban but the biggest factor that has blighted these halls has been taxation. Even well established bingo halls such as Gala Bingo have struggled in recent times and after no reports on hall closures for some time it was thought that the worst may have been over but sadly the news that another bingo hall bites the dust comes to us today.

The Lyric Club in Wellingborough has not mentioned internet bingo sites as part of its decision to close, although they do claim that the overheads associated with running the hall along with the recession have hit them hard. The attitude of the government and the banks have also played a factor and we can only assume that by this The Lyric club mean the controversial taxation that is placed on them which is incidentally higher than that of online bingo sites. Obviously online bingo sites do not have the overheads that land based bingo halls such as the Lyric Club and Gala Bingo would have and the reluctance of the banks to loan money to struggling business does not help them to be as lucrative as online bingo sites.

Land based bingo halls still have a very important role to play in every community as not everyone has access to the internet to play bingo. The kinds of people who are going to be hit by such closures are the elderly in particular, who will be reluctant to use online bingo sites. Those that are willing to use online bingo sites will struggle to get the support to learn how to use the internet. Those who can, will be comforted to know that many well known land based halls have their own online bingo sites too, such as Gala Bingo, Mecca Bingo and Buckingham Bingo to name just a few. So there will always be a name that they recognise to play at when they first start to use online bingo sites.

Written by Hannah Jones
 

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