Bingo Boost
Online bingo is gearing up for what is expected to be a massive boost this summer as the smoking ban in public places comes into effect in England on the 1st of July this year.
The online bingo sites are expecting a large influx of players to sign up and play online rather than visit their local bingo halls where they will no longer be allowed to smoke whilst playing their games.
Certainly, since the ban came into force in Northern Ireland and then Scotland just over a year ago, the bingo halls are reporting a large loss of earnings. The ban seems to be having the largest negative effect in Scotland where a number of bingo sites have already closed their doors.
The effects are just because the players aren’t visiting the clubs either. The largest loss of earnings comes from the interval breaks where normally players play the interlude cash games but are now venturing outside for a cigarette instead. These interlude games are for low stakes but generally make high profits for the clubs as they retain more of the money exchanged for bingo cards than in the normal games. By law, these games are only allowed to be run in the interval period, hence the large drop in revenues.
Obviously with the amount of clubs closing and less people visiting the ones that are open, most players are looking for elsewhere to play and online makes perfect sense.
Players can smoke and drink just as they did before but they don’t have to make themselves respectable or travel to a non-smoking local club. Online bingo also offers them some interaction and socialising with the other players as well as more or less all of the sites online contain chatting facilities that players can join in with if they want.
Of course, the anti-smoking brigade is defensive when speaking about the impact on the bingo clubs and halls. They say that the smoking ban actually introduced new players to socialise more. However, the numbers just don’t stack up and with some companies reporting that 70% of their players are smokers, they’re justifiably concerned.
With the large influx of players expected when the English smoking ban comes into place, competition for those online players is high with many offering incentives and offers to entice new UK based players.
If you’re one of these, it may well be worth your time checking out our UK bingo section for reviews and our current recommended online bingo sites.
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