Chain: Zetters Bingo

Zetters Leisure was a significant UK bingo chain during the 1970s and 80s, operating clubs across the country, many housed in former cinemas as picture houses closed in the face of falling attendances. Sites operated under the Zetters name included the former Gaumont in Worcester, which opened as a cinema in 1935, closed in 1974, and was subsequently converted into a bingo club, passing through several operators over time, including Top Rank, Zetters, Gala Bingo, and eventually Buzz Bingo.

Other Zetters clubs included a site that had originally opened as the Picture Palace cinema in 1912, converting to a Zetters bingo club in the former stalls area in 1975, while continuing to show films in the former circle for a time. A club in Banbury also passed through Zetters’ ownership at one stage, alongside EMI, ABC, and Star, before later closures and redevelopment.

Zetters’ most significant moment in UK bingo history came in 1988, when the chain, comprising around 30 clubs, was purchased by Bass Leisure (a division of brewing company Bass plc) for £23 million. This acquisition helped build the foundation of what would later become Gala Bingo, following Bass’s further purchase of Granada plc’s 74-club chain in 1991, when the combined estate was rebranded under the unified “Gala” name. Gala later became Buzz Bingo following its 2018 rebrand.

As with several chains from this era, many former Zetters clubs occupied historic cinema buildings — a reminder of how closely the growth of British bingo was tied to the decline of the cinema industry from the 1960s onwards, with operators repeatedly repurposing the same grand old picture houses as they changed hands between chains over the decades.