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Camelot have just launched a new TV advert promoting their new “Flamin Hot” bingo scratch card, but the bingo industry in the UK are up in arms over what the ad looks like it is dictates.
For all of you that have not seen this new ad, it is about a little old lady on a mobility scooter driving passed a bingo hall that has clearly got a closed sign prominent on the front of its doors, it is a very dreary scene until a sound changes the mood and the little old lady is transported to a beach scene where she is then driving along on an all singing all dancing mobility scooter.
Now you may be asking yourself I don’t see what all the fuss is about? My own views on this are, this is an insensitive advert in the very least by Camelot. It has been widely reported that the bingo industry are facing a crisis due to a number of factors that they have been hit with and theses include, the smoking ban coming into force, plus facing restrictions on how many jackpot slot machines they can now have in their clubs, coupled with the fact that they are the only industry in the UK that faces the double taxation law put on them by our government.
We know that there have been many bingo hall closures in the past year, so for Camelot to show this scene while promoting their new bingo scratch card, in my opinion is in very bad taste.
These are the views from both Camelot and the Rank Group:
A spokesman for Camelot, who are the National Lottery operators, “denied the advert was mocking bingo club closures. And said "It's only closed because it's early in the morning,"
A spokesman from the Rank Group, who are a part of Mecca Bingo said, “That was not the connotation given by the advert. It is particularly distasteful that a state sponsored gambling monopoly should publicly rejoice in the closure of bingo clubs," he then went on to say "We urge the National Lottery to withdraw this deeply offensive advertisement."
The bingo industry is currently campaigning for the removal of VAT in tomorrow's Budget, and at Unlucky for Some we are fully supporting them in their plight. They will be arguing the fact that, without fiscal help, one in three of the nation's 600 clubs could close in the near future.
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