The smoking ban which came into force on July 1st last year, has badly affected bingo halls with punters turning away due to the new law. The smoking ban has done nothing to help maintain or boost bingo hall attendances

Bingo halls used to be clouded in a sea of smoke as many punters would puff on a cigarette whilst playing the game. Bingo players are known to smoke at twice the rate of the overall British population.

Several bingo halls have been forced to close up and down the country with bingo hall managers blaming the smoking ban on the loss of these halls. Many of the industry’s big players such as Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo have cut their number of bingo halls across the UK with many small independent bingo halls also going out of business.

It is no surprise then that online bingo which was already growing in popularity before the smoking ban has benefited from the demise of bingo halls. Punters can enjoy a cigarette without having to worry to go outside while enjoying a game of bingo online. Most of these websites have online chatrooms, so bingo players can still interact with each other.

Even though it is reckoned over half of bingo players’ smoke, the bingo hall experience has at least been improved for non-smokers who can now go to their local bingo hall without breathing other people’s smoke, if of course it hasn’t closed down.

For bingo players wanting to experience face to face bingo and be allowed to smoke whilst playing the game, Foxy Bingo has organised bingo cruises since the smoking ban was introduced as a way of getting round the ban. Smoking on ships is exempt from the government’s ban. It is a novel way of getting round the ban and an idea which has been copied by other bingo operators.