Editorial

Tuesday, 06 April 2010 07:16

Bingo is a popular form of gambling that is seen as an acceptable form of entertainment by many. But how is the game faring against the online onslaught?

For many years, while other forms of gambling were considered by many groups to be anything from a fool's errand to downright evil incarnate, bingo has managed to elevate its status as a form of entertainment frequented by respectable elderly ladies, housewives, church goers and more recently younger generations too. Legal bingo halls are still to be found in many towns in both the UK and USA and it truly has carved out a niche for itself as the respectable face of gambling. So what has been happening to this fine form of fun and frivolity since the advent of the online version of the game as well as changes to a certain social laws and gambling tax laws?

While online bingo is a relative newcomer to the world of Internet gambling, the impact of this medium on the traditional land based institution that is bingo cannot be ignored. Many who would have been quite happy to make the often short journey to their local bingo hall have turned their backs on them in favour of the more convenient home computer connected to an online bingo casino. But even this is not the entire reason that the land based industry is seeing a sharp decline, especially in the UK.

The first change in the law to directly affect the attendance numbers at local bingo halls was that which outlawed smoking in public places. The sudden drop in numbers was as dramatic as it was unexpected. Smokers, who made up a goodly proportion of those bingo stalwarts stayed away from their favourite social haunts in their droves. It was far more convenient and not to mention legal to stay at home and turn to the Internet where they could carry on smoking to their heart's content, if that isn't an oxymoron, while enjoying their chosen form of "soft" gambling.

While the balance began to shift back in favour of the bingo halls as more non-smokers began to discover the delights of playing bingo in a hall where they could finally breathe fresh air, the levels of new visitors never came close to compensating for the loss of the old. The economic recession that has been descending over the last year or so has compounded the problem. The financial belt tightening that has resulted from this recession has forced more people to stay away simply because they have less disposable income to spend on this form of entertainment.

If all that wasn't enough to depress an already declining business, the next blow to hit bingo halls came in the form of tax increases, which for many sounded the death knell.

Suddenly, bingo halls were forced to pay out a much larger proportion of their already dwindling profits in taxes which, coupled with falling attendances and increasing running costs began to force the smaller operators to close. But it didn't stop with the small players. Bigger operators like Gala Bingo, who also have an online presence are at the point of having to close down the land based side of their business to concentrate on the more profitable and cost effective online side.

In the UK, the gambling tax had climbed to 22% for land based bingo halls, whereas it had remained much lower for their online counterparts. This widened gap made it much easier for online bingo websites to grow and thrive while the land based alternatives began to die off.

The recent UK budget was expected to be kinder to land based bingo with the hope that a uniform gambling tax level would be announced in an effort to revive bingo before it died out altogether. While the tax level was already set to be cut from 22% to 20%, more was needed but sadly it never came as the government seemed to completely ignore the pleas of the bingo operators.

While land based bingo appears then to be dying a slow death for a variety of reasons, online bingo is experiencing a real surge in business and success. This is evident by the sheer volume of brand new bingo websites coming online and opening up their virtual doors to an ever growing and eager clientele. But while the online side of this area of the gambling industry is growing, the land based game still generates a huge amount of revenue for the UK economy. It does this while providing many jobs at local level, keeping communities alive and the wheels of commerce turning. In the UK alone, the economy is bolstered by the £100 million generated every year by online bingo sites along with land based bingo halls.

If one side of this industry fails through neglect, can the country afford to lose a large proportion of the revenue that it currently still generates? Maybe not, especially if taxation is seen to be excessive, even for online operators who are perfectly capable of relocating to any one of the well known tax havens elsewhere in the world.