Following the story of the Scottish smoking ban, a report today says as many as half of Scotland’s Bingo Halls could close. It highlights a point I’d missed in past posts about why they’re not taking the gaming outside. They can’t, it’s banned.
Bingo halls are worse affected than bars and pubs, which have coped with the smoking ban by creating gardens or erecting awnings, because players are banned from using electronic terminals outdoors.
So the outside gaming wouldn’t help, but I still think they’ve missed an opportunity here of appealing to a whole new audience. Not only that, Bingo clubs in England and Wales should start planning their attack now – they’ve seen what happens.
My feelings would be this. 1: Market to a whole new health conscious audience and demographic. Make a virtue of the fact the halls are non-smoking. 2. Develop an online alternative that brings in new punters and could be a refuge for the smokers (special promotions for free internet and PCs?) 3. Develop new revenue streams for the punters going outside.
For too long the Bingo clubs have kept their heads in the sand. Relying on such an unhealthy and aging demographic has given rise to many of these problems. Cursory attempts at marketing to new demographics have piqued interest in the intended new markets, but so far it’s not really grabbed them enough to get them to the halls. There’s a lot to do, but I think these clubs could do so much to plan for this potential decline in its traditional audience.
