Many land-based bingo clubs in the UK have been forced into closure due to the double taxation enforced by the Government, actually, forty-three in the last fourteen months, and it appears as though this trend is going to continue into the future. We already know that the Government has no intention of rectifying the problem, and have even increased the tax burden of land-based bingo clubs.
Many older bingo players find the bingo hall to be a social life-line, a place to meet their friends in a safe environment, and they are not about to take this sitting down, they are starting to voice their concerns to the press. One such lady is Ann Jaques from Penrith, the sixty-nine year old has been playing bingo for forty years and she plays at the Gala club in Carlisle about three times weekly. She says that the bingo club is the only place she can still visit and have a bit of bingo fun, in a warm and safe environment. She suffers from Arthritis and cannot take part in other games and at least at the bingo club she gets out and meets people and is not stuck in the house in front of the telly every day. She does not want to lose her bingo hall!