Smoke ban leads Rank to shut ten bingo clubs

mkpdavies · 15-02-2007, 12:37 AM

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1386872.ece

Quote:

The bingo club where Prince William paid a surprise visit last year is to close down as part of a wider plan by Rank Group to mitigate the impact of the smoking ban on its Mecca chain.

The Mecca Bingo Club in Reading, where the Prince and a group of fellow cadets took a break from their army training at Sandhurst in October, is one of ten clubs being closed by Rank with the loss of more than 250 jobs.

The company said that eight of the clubs earmarked for closure, including one in Fulham, are former cinemas. They were smaller and more difficult to manage than the new generation of large flat-floor venues that bingo operators increasingly concentrate on.

A spokesman said that whereas about 50 per cent of Mecca’s customers were smokers, the proportion was as high as 70 per cent in some of those being closed. “The former cinemas tend to have poor ventilation, which creates a smokey atmosphere that makes nonsmokers less likely to go.”

I hope the health fascists are happy now. The people who enjoyed going and the people kicked out of employment will not be I am sure.

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