Playing bingo can help fight devastating 'loneliness pandemic' in UK

Bingo halls are helping to combat a “loneliness pandemic”, the boss of Britain’s biggest chain has declared.

Dominic Mansour, who runs Buzz Bingo - formerly Gala - said: “Bingo has always been about more than numbers on a card - it builds community and connection and provides a safe place to socialise.”

Yet it comes amid a sharp decline in the number of bingo halls across the country. Buzz Bingo has 79 sites, having fallen from 137 before the Covid pandemic, with admissions still well down.

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Across the industry, bingo halls have dropped from 335 pre-Covid to 247 now. When the smoking ban was introduced in 2007, there were roughly 635.

The decline comes along with a sharp fall in pub numbers, with watering holes another important place for different people to get together.

Mr Mansour claimed its venues were “a real cornerstone of the community”, but added: “It has been a tough sector to operate in for a few years.”

A survey for the firm found while 48% of players were lonely before coming along, nearly two thirds said they left feeling less so, and “better connected”.

Research from 2022 discovered nearly half of UK adults - almost 26 million - reported feeling lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always. Around 3.8 million experience chronic loneliness, meaning they feel lonely “often or always”.

Mr Mansour said: “This new research is a stark reminder of the loneliness pandemic affecting people across the country, and it highlights the vital role bingo plays in tackling isolation and supporting wellbeing.”

Cleaner David Chatfield, 68, travels 40 minutes from Guildford, Surrey, to Buzz’s club in Feltham, West London, ever week. “I used to go to ones in Aldershot and Woking, but they have both closed down,” he explained. “I love it - I meet my friends here. I could play bingo at home, but it’s not the same.”

Full time carer Angela Freebury, 64, says she has been playing bingo from the age of 18. Speaking at the Feltham club, ahead of the evening session, she said: “I really like the friendly atmosphere here - being with other people.

“If I come down here there will always be people I know. I normally get here around 5.20pm and stay until the end,” says Angela who, like David, has won £1,000 on the game previously. It’s more the social side - I don’t expect to win. I come to join up with everybody.”

Former cleaner Brenda Whitby, 87, takes three buses to get from her home in Harefield, Middlesex, to the club. I have all the time in the world,” she says. “I come two or three times a week, normally with my friend. If I didn’t I’d be at home watching TV all day. I like to get out and mix, to talk to people.”

While most popular with older people - and women - Buzz has make great efforts in trying to appeal to younger players.

But Mr Mansour is under no illusion about the challenge on its hands, with most of its 79 venues in need of refurbishment. “We have huge fixed costs,” he explained. “Any money we have had we have put into survival. We have been a little like a patient on a drip. We have started renovating the clubs but some of them haven’t been renovated for 20 or 30 years. The carpets in some of them have more gaffer tape than carpet.”

The company has earmarked £25million for investment and says the small number of clubs that have been refurbished have enjoyed a bounce in trade.

Miles Baron, chief executive of The Bingo Association, said: “The main reason people come to play is to win money, but the second biggest - not by much - is to meet with people, family and friends.”

He said last October’s Budget, with its increase in employers’ national insurance and the minimum wage, wiped a quarter off operators’ profits.

It comes amid speculation that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will hike gambling taxes in next month’s Budget. Think tank the IPPR has proposed a focus on online gambling firms - the fast-growing part of the industry - and avoid any changes to bingo or lotteries. Former Labour PM Gordon Brown backed the call, saying the money raised could be used to tackle a child poverty crisis.

But Mr Mansour said Buzz Bingo’s online arm was subsiding its retail arm, the bingo halls, and that a big rise in duty would be “devastating”. He added: “If we are taxed more it is less money to invest.”

Asked what would happen if gambling duties were increased massively, he said: “I don’t think we could continue as a going concern.”