Old Bedminster Bingo Hall up for Rent

by Hollie Sanders

An old bingo hall that was also used as a children’s play centre on the corner of Luckwell Road in Bedminster is back up for rent after the city council took the previous tenants to court amiss fears of them being in breach of health and safety laws and ABC Zoo Ltd who run the play centre were later charged with this offense. This former bingo hall has now been standing empty for several months and interested parties might be keen to learn that the building already has planning permission to be used for any leisure purposes.

The former bingo hall is just one in a long line of bingo halls to close their doors for the last time over the past few years and if you are a land based bingo player you may have asked yourself the question? Will the closing down of our bingo halls in the UK stop! One thing is for sure the land based version of our bingo game has been in steady decline over the past year or so and there are a few reasons as to why this is.

The smoking ban has been ear marked as one significant reason for our bingo club closures, but I don’t think that this alone could have had the effect it has. There seems to have been a shift in the mood of bingo players throughout the country, as more and more of them seem to be delving into the world of online bingo. Along with this and the double taxation law that is placed on the bingo industry I think is hitting them the hardest and really it is unbelievable that (bingo) is the only sector of gaming to have this absurd law place upon them.

Online bingo is so much more of an accessible game to play than land based bingo as you are not restricted to a time table of opening hours, plus if you have busy lives and families to look after you can play the online bingo version of the game at a time to suit you and not the other way around. Huge amounts of cash can also be won now from playing bingo online and the only difference here is that if you do have a big win you do not walk out with the cash in your pocket as it can be transferred directly back to your bank account.