A small, local bingo club in Wednesbury is to close its doors after 30 years of business, with 20 staff facing unemployment.
As the land based bingo industry continues its decline, the latest victim is the Walkers Bingo club. The club blames the dominance of large national chains such as Mecca Bingo for forcing smaller competitors to shut up shop, alongside the well documented effects of the smoking ban and recession.
In the heyday of Walkers, the club welcomed around 4,000 people a week through its doors, but sadly, the levels of customers have dwindled over the years, with the club now seeing an average of 800 customers a week.
With more than 1,500 members registered, the closure of the Walkers Bingo club on Walsall Street on Wednesday has left staff emotional, and the community devastated.
With it’s oldest regular at 96 years old, the club has built a loyal fanbase since its establishment in 1976, with general manager Barbara Toy commenting that Walkers was a bingo club rooted in tradition.
Mrs Toy, aged 60, said “We are one of the last traditional bingo clubs and have regular customers in their 80s and 90s. We are more like a social club and everyone knows each others’ names. Where are the customers going to go now?
“They have no where to go and this is another blow for this end of the town.”
Having worked her way from the buffet cart to general manager, Mrs Toy said: “I am devastated, we all are. I can’t put into words how upset I am, my heart is breaking.
“I have been here for 28 years and my assistant manager, June Perry, has been here for 23. What’s next for us now?”
Mrs Toy confirmed that all the Walkers Bingo Club staff had lost their jobs as a result of the clousre.
“The recession, the smoking ban, internet bingo and changes to the gambling laws have all hit us hard,” she said.
“And we can’t compete with the likes of Mecca and Gala, which are both in the town. The youngsters these days want cheap bingo and not necessarily the traditional environment we have here.”
The local council remarked that the building would hopefully find a new lease of life beyond bingo. Councillor Bill Archer, Conservative member for Wednesbury North at Sandwell Council, said: “This is a beautiful historic building and I have many happy memories from the time that it was a cinema.
“It is a sad day for Wednesbury, to see another small operation like this closing its doors, but can see how it has happened with so much competition in the area.
“What we need to focus on now is protecting this historic building and getting it back into use.”
For the staff and customers, it may seem like little consolation. But with many land based operators being urged to evolve their offerings as the offline bingo world tries to find some way to compete with the runaway success of the online bingo world, it seems that traditional bingo clubs are finding they are simply left behind.
