Gala Bingo in Preston to Close

by Hollie Sanders

It comes with great sadness having to report about another forthcoming land based bingo club closure and this time it is the Gala Bingo Hall in Preston which will be closing its doors for the last time next year.

The Gala Bingo club is set to close on 4th February 2012 and this is the second club which has closed down in the city during past few years. Buckingham Bingo in Preston shut in 2009 and it now looks like Gala will be following suit.

22 jobs will be lost when Gala Bingo shuts in February, so this news is sure to be worrying for their staff. Just what you want to hear right on top of Christmas.

A spokesman for Gala Bingo, released a statement about this pending closure, they said: “We can confirm that we have notified our staff about the closure of our bingo club in Preston. The last day of trading will be Saturday 4th February 2012. This is not a decision we have taken lightly especially at this time of year. We are considering the welfare of our staff and customers every step of the way and are currently in consultation with the club’s 22 employees and where possible we will be looking to find them alternative employment opportunities within the Group. We recognise the important role the club plays in the community and will continue to offer our customers an enjoyable bingo experience at the nearby Blackburn and Chorley clubs.”

Difficult trading conditions are said to have played their part in the decision to close Gala Bingo in Preston.

It goes without saying that the smoking ban knocked the land based bingo industry for six, because whether you like it or not people smoke and they enjoyed smoking whilst playing bingo. People just do not want to keep having to keep going outside to smoke, especially during the winter months. Before the smoking ban was law bingo clubs provided non-smoking areas for their customers and these were always significantly smaller than the smoking areas and in most instances the (non smoking) parts were never filled up – which tells you that either lots of bingo players who frequented the clubs smoked or the ones that didn’t never minded sitting in a smoking area anyway.

Online bingo provided an alternative way to play bingo for millions of people and as there are no laws governing smoking in our homes, you can smoke, eat, drink, and even play bingo in your PJ’s if you want whilst you are playing at an online site. All the big bingo giants like Mecca, Gala etc have online sites, so you are still able to play bingo with them, but in a different way. Online bingo has no doubt also played its part in the demise of land based clubs.