Essentially he says that he found the game was not fun, and found it easy to understand why bingo clubs in the UK were closing down, and he called it an “every man for himself betting frenzy.” I find it hard to believe that this young man had such a bad experience at a bingo club. He does not mention which bingo club it was so they are not even able to make a rebuttal. He obviously doesn’t understand the dynamics of bingo and the socially interactive outlet the game allows many people.

I would like to state categorically that in the UK bingo is not “simply faceless gambling” and I hope that this young man reads this, perhaps he should give online bingo a try and see how he likes that!

What this entails is the bingo club applying for a separate licence to operate these “Adult Gaming Centres” within their existing premises. The new gambling laws have made it possible for bingo halls and similar operations to apply for an unlimited amount of these licences and it has obviously taken the legal pundits some time to work this out.

Bingo clubs have been crying foul to the Government since they took these highly lucrative slot machines away from them under the terms of the new gambling act, but by applying for one or more of these licences under the same premises, the bingo club will be allowed to have four of these machines for every licence.

I don’t know about you, I think that this is a whole lot of hoop jumping when the Government could quite simply change the laws to regulate matters on a more even keel. Quite personally, if it were me and the Government was putting me through my paces in this, I would simply turn to online bingo. There is far less red tape to have to deal with.

When making his plea to the House of Commons he mentioned that his efforts were aimed at preserving his local bingo club, the Byron Bingo Hall in Hucknall where he considers it a great privilege to play. He has even been invited to call the numbers on occasion, and is genuinely concerned for the future of the bingo club as well as bingo as a whole throughout the UK.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that many MP’s including Mr. Tipping support the lowering of tax for bingo in order to keep it in line with other gambling activities, and also despite the fact that Angela Eagle, The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury has said that they were looking at proposals to help secure the future of bingo in the UK, nothing has happened. The government has denied emphatically that double taxation is not the reason why bingo is ailing throughout the country.

His decision was to undergo radical brain surgery, in a six hour operation and ₤30 000 later the father of two had had a “neuron” stimulator fitted into his brain. The battery operated stimulator is designed to send electrical messages into the area of the brain that motivates the desire to gamble.

Mr Mandale spent a small fortune at the Opera Bingo in Workington, the operations company of the club made a statement that they complied with the Gambling Act and operations manager at the bingo club, Shaun Edwards stated that they do practice a self-exclusion scheme where people are kept informed of how to control their gambling. But they had no idea that Raymond had such a huge problem.

Mrs. Coid said that she has seen a definite drop in the attendance of people at her bingo club and puts this down to the fact that playing bingo is expensive now. Everything in a bingo club is taxed at 17.5% VAT, and the bingo club also has to pay 15% Gross Profit Tax, while other gambling concerns only pay the 15% GPT.

Mrs. Coid says that she doesn’t think that the club will be closed, but there is a definite change, she has her dog that she can walk, but not much else to do and bingo is very important to her. She knows all the staff and all the people who go there and she even helps to clear the tables after the bingo sessions, it keeps her active.