UK Gambling Commission say Bingo is on the up
The annual report from the UK Gambling commission has revealed that bingo sales are up again, confirming the rise of bingo in the UK. The report, which analysed bingo sales from 2008 to 2009, has surprised the industry, posting a 4.6% rise in bingo sales compared to last year. Despite turbulent financial conditions, it indicates that there are still a growing number of fans, old and new, to the game of bingo.
The report, which analyses the main trends in consumer relationships with bingo, also revealed some less surprising results given the last 12 months in bingo. The number of operators has dropped, with 2166 bingo operators registered with the UK Gambling Commission compared to 2224 from the year before. As a result, the number of bingo clubs registered in the UK has understandably declined as well, with 641 clubs registered as of March 2009, plummeting from 675 in the space of a year.
The bingo industry was no doubt braced for the news, which has been an unfortunate circumstance of a more than slightly challenging year for the land based bingo industry. A shift in bingo playing habits has happened, with many attributing it to the smoking ban and the recent recession and economic downturn. Coupled with some unfairly stringent legislation regarding machines and the recent insistence of the Government to hike bingo duty from 15% to a staggering 22%, and it becomes painfully clear that the dip in figures from the report may become a familiar annual experience for the flailing land based bingo industry.
Even less of a surprise was news that the cost of these unfavourable conditions seems to have hit the smaller, independent operators the hardest. Despite high profile closures from Mecca and Gala Bingo, the big two in the world of club bingo are in fact capitalising, increasing their market share at the expense of the smaller companies. With a 3% drop in the number of bingo operators, the figures now show that Mecca Bingo and Gala Bingo now run over forty per cent of the current active bingo clubs in the UK, with Mecca Bingo having a 15.9% stake, and Gala Bingo running nearly a quarter of all bingo clubs in the UK (24.4%).
But perhaps what the industry wasn’t expecting was despite the fact that closures are becoming commonplace both amongst clubs and the operators themselves, fans are still flocking to the game. The popularity of bingo is hardly on the wane, with the report revealing the surprising news that sales are actually up. Dwindling membership is often a reason cited by clubs for closing, but with a 4.6% rise in sales and an increase in revenue from the previous year, could it be that fans are flocking to back bingo? Total gross revenue for the game climbed to 1694 million, up from 1620 million the year before. Following two years of shrinking profits in the report, it may well be some refreshing news, and is no doubt helped by the loyal bingo fans up and down the country.
The game has experienced a bit of a revival at the moment, with it playing strong in the national conscious following the highly publicised plight of the struggling bingo industry. A growing number of protestors and campaigners have got together, utilising social media and the internet to gather support to back bingo. MP’s are now starting to wake up to the effect loosing land based bingo would have on thousands of jobs and bingo players lives. At the same time, it seems that the online bingo world shows no sign of slowing, attracting many new fans. More and more online bingo sites are being opened on a daily basis, and whilst the Gambling Commission Report has not analysed the online bingo world in it’s report, it is estimated elsewhere that the online bingo industry will be worth over 1.3 billion USD by the end of the year.
What will be good news for all fans of bingo is that there has never been a better time to play bingo, whether it is offline or online. With a huge range of choice and some fab prizes, the world of bingo is waiting!
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