Since the introduction of the smoking ban in the UK, attendance at traditional bingo halls has declined. Even the biggest names in the business like Gala saw 13 closures during 2008. One Mecca bingo hall in Islington that had started life originally as a cinema saw a big drop in attendance during 2007 when the smoking ban came into force and it closed and became a church owned community centre, another Mecca in Fulham closed around the same time and was earmarked for student accommodation. Meanwhile bingo players in Deal, Kent have lost their last bingo hall after almost 50 years when the Regent Bingo Hall closed in early 2009. Players in Cambridge fared no better when their last hall closed in May 2009. The north of the country has suffered closures too with Preston losing its newest purpose built Buckingham Bingo hall just two years after it was opened in style by Wendi Peters the former Coronation Street Star who played Cilla Battersby-Brown.
The irony of this is that bingo is not in decline but is now played online by millions regularly from the comfort of their own homes. There are many advantages to this for the players. There is no need to leave home at all and you can play as well in your pajamas as you can in your Sunday best! You can stop and start whenever you want and a cup of tea (and a cigarette) is always close to hand. No need for babysitters, no hanging about on bus stops or worries about where to park the car. Games can be played anytime of the day or night and can be fitted in around your favourite soaps or serials. If you fancy a beer you can have one or more as the only thing you will be driving is a mouse!
Online bingo now has chat rooms running alongside the games so you can keep in touch with your new online friends and congratulate each other on wins and chat between games.
Virtually all games have prizes for one line, two lines and of course the full house. You can play 75 number games or the more traditional 90 number games the choice is all yours. Before you play you can see how many players are taking part and if you are being strategic you might want to take part in games with fewer players to increase the odds of your winning.
All the big online bingo promoters have free games where prizes can range from 1 - 500. Many of them have buy one get one free (BOGOF) games with tickets starting at just 2p. For the budget conscious there are plenty of 1p per ticket games running on all the sites too.
Considering the cost of attending a Bingo hall with tickets (6s) costing anything from 5 - 15 plus the inevitable splurge of 2x 20p going into the mini bingo board machines in the interval you could estimate that the cost before traveling and perhaps babysitters, drinks, snacks and such like to be between 15 - 25 per night per player.
The costs of online bingo can be considerably less as the players choose the value of the games they play from free upwards. It is quite possible to a have a good session online lasting several hours for less than 5 and there are more prizes with the additional 2 line wins on all games.
The only question now is which online game to join? For the latest offers and all the latest promotions checkout www.bingobrain.co.uk and make an informed decision and you could be playing in the next 10 minutes!