Chain: Mecca Bingo (Lost Halls)
Mecca Bingo’s story begins under a different name entirely, since the clubs were originally known as Top Rank, with many of the buildings starting life as cinemas rather than purpose built bingo halls. When the 1960 Gaming Act opened the door to commercial bingo, Rank spotted an opportunity in its own struggling picture houses, converting a wave of them into bingo clubs over the following decades.
Mecca has weathered several distinct rounds of closures over the years. The smoking ban’s introduction in England hit the business hard, and in 2007 Rank shut nine Mecca clubs, with 230 people losing their jobs as a direct result. The Covid-19 pandemic brought further pressure, with the club estate nearly halving in the years that followed.
A fresh wave of closures came through 2022 and 2023, including clubs in Halifax, Bridgwater, Plymouth, Andover, Hanley, Hull, Chester, Dewsbury, Hunslet in Leeds, Sale, Rochdale, and Hayes, as rising costs and changing customer habits squeezed margins across the industry. Several of these venues had decades of history behind them, having originally opened as grand cinemas or theatres before their conversion to bingo use.
More recently, closures have continued into 2025 and 2026, with nine further venues shutting during that period alone, including clubs in Taunton and Merseyside, as rising gambling taxes added further strain to the business. Rank Group’s current leadership has suggested the bulk of this contraction is now largely complete, with the chain settling at a smaller, more sustainable size going forward.
Across all these rounds of closures, Mecca’s estate has fallen from a high of well over 100 clubs in its earlier decades to a much smaller network today, reflecting the scale of change the UK bingo industry has undergone since Mecca’s Top Rank origins in the 1960s.
