Much has been stated in the papers recently regarding the bingo industry being hurt as a result of the anti smoking law in Britain. Conditions have grown so awful that in Scotland the Bingo industry has called for huge tax breaks to assist in keeping the industry alive. However will the web variation of this classic game provide a salvation, or will it never compare to its land based opposite?
Bingo has been an familiar game normally played by the "blue haired" generation. For all that the game recently had undergone a recent comeback in acceptance with younger members of society deciding to visit the bingo parlours in place of the clubs on a Friday night. All this is about to be destroyed with the legislating of the smoking ban around Britain.
Players will no longer be allowed to puff on cigarettes while dabbing numbers. Beginning in the summer of 2007 every public location will not be permitted to allow smoking in their buildings and this includes Bingo parlors, one of the most common locations where many people like to puff on cigarettes.
The effects of the cigarette ban can already be looked at in Scotland where cigarettes are already not permitted in the bingo parlors. Players have plummeted and the business is absolutely fighting for its life. But where did the players go? Surely they have not forgotten this familiar game?
The answer is on the internet. Players realise that they can gamble on bingo in front of their computer at the same time enjoying a cocktail and cigarette and in the end, enjoy huge cash rewards. This is a recent development and has timed itself just about perfectly with the anti smoking law.
Of course wagering on on the web can never replace the communal portion of going down to the bingo parlour, but for a group of men and women the law has left a number of bingo players with no option.
