The news that land-based bingo company Top Ten is suffering reduced profits does not come as a major surprise given the land-based bingo industry’s fixation with blaming the smoking ban and new government gambling regulations.  Instead of adapting, land-based bingo has gone for the whinge tactic in trying to stop things changing.

ATE Online has reported that Top Ten posted a slump in pre-tax profits of £465,000, to £381,000, on sales down £1 million to £13.7 million for the six months to September 30.  And it’s all down to the smoking ban and the new regulations on gambling in the UK.

Noticeably absent from Top Ten’s own comments on the effects of their drop in profits was a proactive strategy for digging themselves out of the slump.  Sure, they say they are going to retrench and close some of bad performing clubs, but is this really a proactive way to deal with the changes bingo is going through?

In my opinion, land-based bingo needs to take a leaf out of online bingo’s book and look for new ways to diversify and market to the UK bingo market.  Bingo online faced a far more severe threat to its viability than a smoking ban when it lost the US market overnight due to protectionist legislation in that country.  Free online bingo games operators bounced back by taking the proactive road in adapting to the challenges facing them.  This is what land-based bingo must do if it’s is going to survive.

Written by John Witherspoon – How about playing bingo online? The best free online bingo games are just one click away.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 6:14 am and is filed under Online Bingo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.