There’s always a way around a problem. Take the smoking ban for example. The accepted law is that the practice is not allowed in bingo halls. However the sector in the UK are determined to crack the no smoking ban which has seen business levels in bingo halls up and down the land collapse. So what do the big players have in mind?

A look at the small print of the smoking ban seems to suggest that it is still legal to smoke in a number of environments which include prisons, hospices, parks, theatres and when smoking is an integral part of a performers act. While on the surface this seems to place bingo halls firmly in the non-smoking group of locations it seems as though some bingo halls are looking to amalgamate one or more of the above situation with the modern day bingo hall!

While it would be difficult to incorporate a prison in the bingo halls of today, what about performing arts where smoking is part of the entertainment – something like a production of stage plays such as ‘Oliver’, etc, set in times when smoking was part of everyday life. What about offering some form of health insurance service in the same room?

Even though these ideas seem very strange and potentially non-starters, the affect of the smoking ban on the modern day bingo hall has been devastating and they will fight tooth and nail to bring the business back ‘home’.

While any attempt to skirt around the legislation is likely to meet with stiff opposition from law makers the bingo industry here believe it’s a plough worth furrowing.