CLUBS FACING AXE AS SMOKING BAN BITES

By Stephen Hayward, sundaymirror.co.uk 21/10/2007

EXCLUSIVE

One in three bingo halls are facing closure because of the smoking ban.

About 600,000 customers have stayed away - a 20 per cent drop in attendance figures - since the July 1 ban in England. Industry experts believe around 200 of the country's 634 bingo clubs will have to shut - on top of 60 closures in the last year.

Government tax rules have also been blamed for the crisis.

The £250million-a-year business has also been hit by changes to gambling laws, which meant it was forced to remove hundreds of £500 jackpot machines.

Industry leaders say bingo is the only part of the gambling sector to be taxed twice - paying both VAT and tax on their profits.

They warned the threatened closures would hit hundreds of communities. Bingo Association's Paul Talboys said: "The fabric of whole neighbourhoods will change."

Bingo was invented in 1929 by New York toy salesman Edwin S Lowe