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Smoking ban to be reviewed for Bingo halls?
There are several factors blamed for the recent downfall in the bingo industry, and one was the smoking ban which was introduced in 2007. It is currently rumoured though that this ban might be reviewed by the Government, as it is claimed it is badly affecting Britain’s £6 billion a year pub and bingo industry.
Approximately 130 bingo clubs are said to have closed over the last 3 years, which works out to be 20%. As well as this 2365 pubs closed in 2009 with about 39 pubs closing per week now. Figures like these have supposedly led to the talked about review, although when the Health Bill was introduced in October 2005 MPs were told by Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary that; “We will monitor the impact from day one, and we will have a full review at the end of three years.”
There is much debate about the cause of these figures though, as bingo had been in decline for many years before the smoking ban came into place. This is despite many changes that took place in the late 1990s. These include the abolishment of charging periods (affecting spending limits), the abolishment of advertising rules and the 24 hour waiting rule (before players could join a club), rules relating to prizes, an increase in link game limits, allowing clubs to have both fruit and jackpot machines and the abolishment of tax on players stakes. All these combined to give the clubs greater freedom, which in turn allowed them to make more money from players.
Brian Binley, the non-smoking newly re-elected All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group vice chairman and MP for Northampton South wants the law to be changed to allow smoking in separate well-ventilated rooms. He said; “The way Parliament handled the situation for pubs and clubs was draconian, crude and crass. You only have to look at these shanty town lean-tos in rural areas to know there is sizable damage being done to pubs. It’s just crazy and a rather crude answer to the problem.”
The cost of going out for an evening to play bingo has increased a lot over the last few years, and the smoking ban is probably the straw that broke the camels back, rather than the cause of the decline. It will be interesting to see if the smoking ban is amended, though whether it leads to an increase in bingo players is another matter altogether.
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