The British government is expected to make an announcement tomorrow regarding slot machines in bingo halls. It is expected that the announcement will be in favour of the machines, and give the sector a lift by relaxing the limits on the number of slot machines allowed in bingo halls.
A source in the industry has said that the government may raise the limit, which currently stands at four 500 pound slot machines per bingo club.
The industry had put forward several possible new rules, and the preferred one is to have the limit to the number of slot machines tied to the size of the hosting bingo hall, with a maximum of around 15 machines. Another option was to allow 20 percent of all machines in a bingo club to offer the 500 pound jackpot.
An industry source said to Reuters that “It makes sense that the number of machines in a hall is related to the number of placers [...] If there was simply a set number of machines everyone could have it would be open to abuse. People would say that they were opening a bingo club but really it would just be a slots hall.”
Last year new gambling laws forced many clubs to remove their 500 pound jackpot machines, which had been highly profitable for the companies. This came around the same time as the smoking ban, which caused a sharp decline in bingo club attendance, and has caused serious problems for many companies in the industry.
The government have not commented on their plans as yet.
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