Bingo: New laws could be last call for bingo

BINGO callers fear their days are numbered following new laws which they say threaten to kill off clubs altogether.

The bingo industry has already seen profits fall since the smoking ban last July.

Because of Government rules, bingo also have to pay 15 per cent of gross profits on top of 17.5pc VAT.

And under new gambling laws, their license fees have gone up, admin costs have risen to keep up with new regulations, while bingo halls have had to cut back drastically on the number of profitable £500 bingo jackpot machines.

Denise Storey of Walker, Newcastle, worries she is among the "last generation of bingo callers".

Denise, 48, and a mum of two, has worked at Welbeck Bingo Club in Walker, Newcastle, since she was 19.

She said: "I'm very worried about the future of the bingo club. This is all I've ever known.

"If we closed I don't think I could go to another bingo hall as it just wouldn't be the same. I know everyone here and some are my best friends.

"It will be devastating if the bingo club closes. It's my life and my livelihood but it is looking to go that way."

Around 100 bingo clubs have closed their doors in the past three years . . . and more than a dozen since the beginning of this year.

Denise said bingo is not just a business but an integral part of the community. She said: "It is a social night out for a lot of bingo players and provides a homely atmosphere for so many."

Jack Allen, manager of Welbeck Bingo Club, said: "Four or five years ago I was seeing anything from 1000 to 1400 admissions a week. Now it's down to around 500.

A study by the Henley Centre research group, commissioned last year by the Bingo Association to chart the effects of the closure of bingo clubs in Scotland and the Midlands, found that, particularly among older women whose small local bingo clubs had closed, there were major social effects.

It concluded: "For regular bingo members, going out to bingo is the primary, and sometimes only, leisure activity outside of the house."

Written by Eleanor Gregson

www.sundaysun.co.uk