In amongst all the news we seem to be getting forecasting the doom of the land based bingo industry in the UK. It has to be borne in mind that the industry per se does not only comprise of huge groups that operate hundreds of bingo clubs. No indeed, there are quite a number of independently operated bingo clubs in the UK and these are doing just fine regardless of taxation issues, non smoking bans and online bingo.
The reason for this is probably the old adage, “the bigger you are the harder you fall”. In other words, the huge bingo operating companies such as Mecca Bingo and Gala Bingo have a massive operation to deal with and the tiniest little loss from each club, say 0.25 of a percent, but multiplied a hundredfold is going to make much more of a difference to the bottom line of the bingo business of a group than it would for an independent operator.
One such independent operator is the North Parade Bingo and Social Club in Skegness. As a child Skegness was one of my most favourite seaside towns and it has remained a huge favourite with much of the UK public. They are privately run and can offer better value than any of the big brand bingo clubs, perhaps the prizes are not as large, but the fun and value for money equals and betters that of big brand bingo.