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The Gala Bingo club in Great Burr, Birmingham is all set to close its doors for the very last time on 23rd July. Not only will this be another huge loss for the surrounding community, 17 employees will lose their jobs, although it has been stated that Gala Bingo are in talks with their staff to try to relocate them to other surrounding bingo clubs, buy just how many will be able to take them up on this offer, still remains to be seen.
It has been reported that Gala Coral have citied extreme factors that were behind this latest closure and I was not surprised to learn that the smoking ban, coupled with the government’s decision not to do anything about the grossly unfair double taxation law placed upon the industry, plus the restrictions placed on how many jackpot gaming machines they are now allowed to have in their bingo clubs, were a huge factor in why we are now seeing yet another Gala Bingo club close down.
We knew more land based bingo hall closures were on the cards, but it is a sad day to see yet another one bit the dust. Bingo is not just a business it is a community based leisure activity that is enjoyed by millions of people in the UK and most of the world come to that and a bingo hall closure can have a massive impact on the local area and it especially effects the elderly, as sometimes getting out to the local bingo hall where they meet up with their friends is their only source of social enjoyment and some of them may not be able to travel a much longer distance to be able to play bingo.
Why is it that these new mega casinos that are due to be built throughout the UK are being given all the help they need by the government, but the bingo industry seems to be continually slapped in the face.
They were the only sector to have to remove jackpot gaming machines from their premises, while other sectors see an increase in the amount of jackpot machines they were allowed to have. They are the only sector within the gaming market that has to pay double taxation to, they pay a 15% gaming duty as well as 17.5% VAT, now how can this be justified? From where I am standing it can’t and the ordinary people of Britain are suffering because of it, especially our older generation!
More than 8.5 million people played bingo last year and over 17,000 people work within the industry, it will be interesting to see what the figures for 2008 will be, as the more bingo hall closures we see, the likely hood is that these figures will drop also.
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