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Up In Smoke?

When the smoking ban was introduced last summer many gloomily predicted the demise of the pub, people, they said, simply wouldn't go and enjoy a drink if they couldn't enjoy a cigarette at the same time. The jury on that will be out for a long time, it's not like there aren't enough people out there that were privately (and not so privately) delighted about the prospect of going out and not coming back with the distinctive odour of cigarettes.

Very few, though, would have predicted that an impact would have been felt in bingo halls across the land. However, according to gaming company Rank - who own Mecca Bingo amongst others - the smoking ban has had a detrimental impact on the amount of trade that is coming through the doors.

Bingo has adapted of course and the last couple of years have seen the likes of Mecca turn to online bingo. Internet Bingo is an ever increasing phenomenon, any time spent in front of the television will reveal any number of different companies offering the opportunity to play bingo online, usually with some sort of start offer where your money gets multiplied, before they take it back off you.

Bingo has always been something of a traditional haunt of the more mature members of the population, but as the Internet permeates older generations, the possibility of enjoying Bingo in your own home has become, for some, something of an enticing prospect. It has also opened the bingo world to younger groups, who enjoy the convenience and immediacy of playing the game online. And its not just UK online bingo, with the likes of Bingo Universal in Spain and 123bingo.com in the US playing bingo online is clearly becoming something of a global phenomenon.

The same criticisms apply to Internet Bingo as to any other aspect of life that has been adopted by the Internet. It removes the face-to-face communication, the immediate social aspect of seeing the person that you're talking to, and the widespread social feeling that you get when in a hall of people all searching desperately for the same numbers. Inevitably people have found solutions to these problems, some going as far as to arrange online bingo parties, and the advertisements are keen to focus on the social aspect of the Internet game, promising the possibility of meeting new people as the numbers roll out across the screen.

So despite Rank's prediction that things will go bad, and that the smoking ban has had a hand in this, bingo is adapting and if people are compelled to stay away from bingo halls because smoking is no longer an option then that doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't playing the games through other mediums. One of the biggest and most successful online bingo sites is Mecca's, so the industry may even be able to claim that it has kept onto its customers, just through different mediums. At any rate, Online Bingo seems to be extremely successful, and doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.