Gala Bingo customers offered a lifeline in Pitsea (From Echo)

Gala Bingo customers offered a lifeline in Pitsea

1:20pm Saturday 4th July 2009 in

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SOCIAL club members are hoping to reap the benefits of Pitsea’ Gala Bingo Club’s impending closure.

Bowers Sport and Social Club is aiming to come to the rescue of disappointed bingo fans by offering them their regular housey-housey fix when Gala closes its doors later this month.

The popular club, on the Broadway, is one of five Gala venues closing nationwide, with the firm blaming the smoking ban and a controversial “bingo tax”.

Bowers Social Club, in Crown Avenue, Pitsea, is hoping its twice-weekly not-for-profit bingo sessions, on Sundays and Tuesdays will help meet demand.

Peter Feltham, club secretary, said: “It’s sad the Gala is closing, with redundancies, but we hope it will mean lots of players coming back to us.

“When Gala opened, we were hit hard, with a lot of our regular players leaving to go there, so the upside is we hope we’ll get a lot of them coming back now.

“We’re cheaper than chain clubs and we don’t try to make a profit. Everything goes back into our prize pot.”

Mr Feltham said cash prizes at the club were often in the hundreds, with the amount depending on how many players took part. He added: “If lots of people turn up, there will be a huge prize pot.

“There’s an incentive to come down and have a game!

“We just want people to know there is somewhere else in the town they can enjoy a game of bingo.”

Big-name bingo clubs have been under pressure in recent times because of the recession, the smoking ban, restrictions on money-spinning slot machines at club and, an increase in the duty clubs have to pay the Government.