Chain: Top Ten Bingo
Top Ten Bingo was a UK bingo chain that grew quickly through the mid-2000s before being squeezed by smoking bans, new gambling laws and falling attendances. At its peak it was the third-largest bingo operator in Britain, behind only Mecca and Gala. It closed in 2014.
The trading company, Top Ten Bingo Limited (Companies House number 02646544), was incorporated on 18 September 1991 as Ivorycrown Limited and took the Top Ten name in January 1992. It sat under a listed parent, Top Ten Holdings plc, which joined London’s AIM market in 2002 with just 11 clubs. From there the group set about buying up smaller operators in what was then a very fragmented industry.
The acquisitions came thick and fast. The group bought 13 clubs from Walkers (Westvale Leisure) in the Midlands and the North, plus Apollo Bingo’s three clubs in Rhyl, Blackpool and Caernarfon, and Bravo Bingo’s three in Leicester, Worksop and Blackwood. It also bought clubs from the Masons Organisation and Welcome, as well as a single club at Moreton. By early 2006 it was running 44 clubs, 26 of them freehold, and the company said it expected almost three million players a year. Head office was in St Albans, and the chairman was Sir Aubrey Brocklebank. Executive directors Norman and Alan Weston later moved to non-executive roles, while Allen Walsh and Gary Bennett of the trading company joined the main board.
Then the market turned against the industry. The smoking ban and the introduction of the Gambling Act hit trade hard, and Top Ten reported falling revenue and said it was unlikely to pay a dividend until conditions improved. The group’s answer was to sell off its weakest clubs, including two small ones for £551,000, to cut costs and to lobby the Government over the double taxation of bingo.
The end came in 2014. Top Ten Bingo Limited went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 19 June 2014, and the parent company, Top Ten Holdings plc, followed on 3 July 2014. The last accounts for the trading company were made up to March 2013, and both companies were formally dissolved in August and September 2023.
A few of its clubs, including those at Heckmondwike, Spennymoor and Stanley, are listed among Britain’s closed bingo halls.
