Many analysts have said that the community based game would explode in the UK, especially in light of the smoking bans in Scotland, Wales and England, and the restrictions imposed by the US government on online gaming. Firstly we decided to visit a few bingo sites and see just how busy the bingo rooms are today. Leading the pack are the big brand names like Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo, however Sun Bingo also had a significant number of players (over 1200 in the bingo rooms). Surprisingly St Minver bingo sites (Littlewoods Bingo and Castle Bingo amongst others) reported less than 200 players online at an equivalent time. Whether that accounts for all players across all versions of their game remains to be seen.
Also fairing worse than expected was Jackpotjoy. They've recently launched a new TV ad campaign to promote The Price is Right Bingo, but on our visit less than 60 players seemed to be taking part, with only slightly more than that in the Bingo Gold room.
Of course this is just a small quick poll to see how busy the bingo rooms are at the same time, and a more indepth (and dare we say it scientific) study is needed. For example we can't tell accumulative numbers of players over a 24 hour period or over an entire month, but we can presume the distributions will show the same sort of patterns with Gala, Mecca and Sun Bingo all leading the charge.
With the smoking ban about to be finally introduced into England, online bingo is expected to boom as traditional operators lose their smoking players (St Minver) - we're not convinced! There's no doubt that the smoking ban is and has effected offline bingo, but it's not going to see smokers go online for their bingo fix.
Remember bingo is a social game - and most people who play offline will be playing and meeting up with friends. Whilst yes you can chat online in the bingo rooms, it just doesn't get you out the house and playing bingo & interacting with your bingo friends. The fact is that the offline bingo halls have simply failed to attract new players and/or interact successfully with their online counter parts. How many times have you seen the likes of Gala or Mecca offer incentives to their online players to visit their local bingo halls?
