Another Bingo Hall Closure Leaves Residents Bereft

It is with great sadness that I write about another bingo hall closure in the UK, this time in Birmingham. Seventeen jobs will be lost with the closure of the Gala Bingo Club in Great Barr, Birmingham when it finally closes its doors to players on the 23^rd June 2008, although Gala Coral is going to try to relocate staff to nearby clubs. But this doesn’t always work out.

Gala Coral, the owners of the club made a statement saying external factors such as that the triple blow experienced by the smoking ban, double taxation and the scrapping of big jackpot gaming machines had been the cause for the closure. Gala are on of the UK’s largest bingo and casino operators, and they also operate in the online bingo industry. Apparently the smoking ban has hit harder in the land based bingo industry than in any other. And last year the UK Government closed a loophole in existing gambling legislation; “Section 21” that enabled ₤500 slots machines to be allowed in UK bingo halls and the knock on effect of this has also been quite dramatic.

Paul Talboys, the Chief Executive Officer of the UK Bingo Association has called the Governments treatment of the industry a “slap in the face”, and I must say that I have to agree with him. Now with clubs being closed left right and centre, there isn’t really much to be done, unless the Government chooses to change its stance somehow. I do suppose that many people will turn to online bingo, but what about the aged who go to bingo as a form as socialization. There are not going to be many eighty year olds that have access to a computer and the internet, let alone want to go through the rigmarole of learning to play online bingo.

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