Manchester’s famous theatre will soon be opening its doors as a bingo hall, The Royal Exchange Theatre will, from the 3rd of July be hosting the play “Everybody loves a Winner” written by Neil Bartlett. This play is set in the traditional land based bingo hall and will feature Sally Lindsay (Shelly Unwin) from the soap Coronation Street. The theatre which has been ‘kitted out’ to resemble a traditional bingo will even have slots in the foyer. Ms Lindsay has admitted to the Manchester Evenin... Read Full Story

Gala bingo had no option but to give a Glasgow OAP a lifetime ban from all of their bingo halls. The 96 year old from Pollock was attending her local club when she noticed that someone was sitting in her favourite seat, she abruptly told them to move or suffer ‘dire consequences’ the assistant manager walked over to try and sort out the situation, the 96 year old then punched him in the left eye knocking him to the floor. Some of the onlookers were shocked at what they had witnessed saying s... Read Full Story

Its good to see some celebrities getting in on the act, that is getting involved in bingo for a good cause and not just lining their pockets. The latest was Mickey Hughes, the runner up at Big Brother 9 (OK, fine, we are stretching the word ‘celebrity’ to its very max), he was calling the numbers at the local college in Kilwinning Ayrshire for the North Ayrshire Cancer Care Foundation. Although blind, due to being born with Sticklers Syndrome, Micky done a grand job of calling t... Read Full Story

Brazilian football stars Gilberto Silva and Maicon were over an hour late for a press conference about their latest match against Italy in the Confederation Cup (Sunday 21st June). A spokesman for the team explained to scores of reporters that the team were at a team building exercise. The team had been on a safari during the day in which they saw lions, giraffes and zebras, at night the team building continued as they swapped their footballs for bingo balls. It was mentioned that the players... Read Full Story

* Please note that this blog post is about offline bingo and not online bingo * At the beginning of 2007 bingo was deemed the new ‘night out’ as more and more young people were entering through its doors. This was a boom time for the bingo organisers as the money was flooding in, causing this industry to grow from strength to strength. Unfortunately like all good things it has came to an end, the No smoking ban and the recent tax hike has crippled this once thriving industry. With bingo hal... Read Full Story

Yesterday (15th June 2009) Gala bingo announced that due to recent tax increase they are now considering closing at least 6 of their 156 clubs with the loss of 180 jobs. Gala which is backed by private equity companies Permira, Candover and Cinven recently announced that there will be no more redundancies after streamlining [...] Read Full Story

Gaming companies are claiming that the Revenue and Customs breached European “fiscal neutrality” rules. This came about when bingo and casino giants, The Rank Group won a landmark high court ruling which enables them to claim back, what they say is overpaid tax, this amount will be in the region of £62million. This paves the way for other companies to claim back their tax which is estimated to be worth around £100 million. In other news, William Hill bingo are now offering you a £25 welcome ... Read Full Story

Bruno, the new film by star Sacha Baron Cohen is already getting ready to fight a lawsuit even before the film is released on July. It is reported the Baron Cohen will play a flamboyant gay Austrian fashionistaite in the latest of his controversial films. The trouble happened at a charity bingo game, where the organisers were told he was a celebrity, Mrs Richelle Olson, who is the Executive Director of Desert Valley Charities says, “Bruno arrived dressed extremely offensive with sexually... Read Full Story

In recent years the bingo community must think that the government have something against them. Firstly the smoking ban was introduced in 2007, this act stopped 8% of the total people playing bingo in the traditional halls. This figure might not seem like a great amount, but if you think that more people visit bingo halls than attend Premier Football matches each week, it starts to mount up. Normally bingo halls have mini games which can only be played at the interval, these are called ‘tabl... Read Full Story

With more than 3 million people now playing bingo on a regular basis, the major sites are offering some great deals and promotional gimmicks to get even more people playing. Bingo once home to the OAPs is now a thriving industry which now attracts more and more younger players. It is a relatively cheap night out and you can meet some great people there, young as well as old. With the competition heating up between the organisers to get players in they are offering some great deals at the mo... Read Full Story