Whole new game for bingo fanatics

Bingo halls are making a come- back, attracting a new breed of younger customers. MARK ANDREWS went along, and found it was a full house

A candle flickers in a red glass in front of the youngish blonde, who takes a sip from her drink. "I like to come in here to chat with my friend," she says, as she leans across the dark wood table.

"This is the modern room, where the younger people come." A trendy gastropub? And edgy wine bar or nightclub? Not exactly. We're at the Mecca bingo club in Oldbury.

Okay, it's not quite Monte Carlo, but it is a world away from the converted cinemas packed with roller-wearing, chain-smoking grannies of old. This is bingo, but not as we know it.

Manager Andrew Smith says the club received a £1.7 million makeover two years ago, and one of the most successful moves was dividing it into two rooms.

One side of the glass partition is the informal social lounge, with soft lighting, where customers chat over a drink during the games.

The other side is the auditorium, a more formal, quiet area, where the tables are arranged in ordered rows, to appeal to the bingo traditionalist.

Not that the blue-rinse brigade have vanished completely, although they do appear to be in a minority.

Kelly Atkins, a 36-year-old housewife from Tipton, is typical of the new generation of bingo players.

"I've been coming for around two years, my sister introduced me to it," she says, while casually striking off her numbers with deft hand of a seasoned pro.

"It's better than going to the pub, at least you've got something to do," says her friend, 41-year-old Barbara Brahimaj.

Andrew says the average customer's age is now 51, with a quarter of the members being under 35.

If anything, the crowd seems to be younger during this visit.

"You do tend to get the older people in during the day, and the younger crowds at night," he says.

"On Saturdays we have our late night Bin-glo sessions, which are predominantly for the under-35s."

These neon-lit sessions, which start at 9.30pm, have a "more outrageous the better" dress code, and customers are invited to join in a series of free novelty games after the main session has ended.

Andrew says the industry had little choice but to adapt after some pretty lean times following the introduction of the smoking ban. "That affected bingo clubs quite badly, a significant proportion of our members were smokers," he says.

"It meant they either stopped playing or they went outside during the interval."

But he says it also forced clubs to re-evaluate what they offered and find ways to attract new members.

"It gave us a watershed moment to look at the offer we had, and has given us the kind of club we have today."

The bingo comeback is highlighted by the fact that Mecca is now looking to return to Wolverhampton, five years after pulling out of the city centre.

For many visitors, it is not just about the game.

He says the Oldbury club, which is the chain's biggest in the Midlands, has just had its best year since the smoking ban came into force.

"Over 5,000 people will visit this club over the course of a week, and we regularly have nights where over 1,000 people play bingo.

A few months ago, Rowan Laybourne would never have considered setting foot in a bingo hall, but she has become hooked completely since joining the club around a month ago.

Perhaps it's the £700 that she has won during her first few weeks, but the 20-year-old says she has been very surprised by the bingo experience.

"I thought they still used the machine with the little balls in to pick the numbers, and that it would be full of 90-year-olds," she says as she takes a break from the coin-operated, electronic touch-pad Mecca Max game.

Rowan, who recently moved to Halesowen from her native Newcastle, was introduced to the club by her boyfriend's aunt, Gail Sinton.

"I come here for the excitement, and it's a very friendly club," says the 46-year-old regional manager for a cleaning firm.

Keeping it in the family are Susan Smith, from Oldbury, her mother Anne Prince, from West Bromwich, aunt Sylvia Joesbury, and sister Carla Dandy, from Great Barr.

"We've been coming since the day it opened," says Susan, who is 44.

"Sally and Kevin out of Coronation Street did the opening, before that we used to go to the Rex at Blackheath.

"We liked it there, but it's better here," she says. "Everybody talks to everybody else. I'm a very talkative person, I talk to everybody."

The family go to the club around twice a week and, like many regulars, they share their winnings between them.

"We had a good win on Wednesday last week, we won the £500," she says.

Anne, who is 64, is a relative newcomer to the outings, having only become a regular since she retired from her job as an office administrator last year.

"There is never any trouble, like you sometimes get in a pub," she says.

Carla, a 38-year-old caterer, adds: "It's just about getting together, and having a drink. I look forward to my nights here."

And so does manager Andrew.

"The thing I like about it is the people, you have to be a people person to manage a club like this."

And he says it is always a great joy to see people win the jackpot on the big national game.

"We had somebody win £25,000 a week ago on Monday, she was a 19-year-old girl, and it was her third time at the club," he says.

"For somebody like that, it could be the deposit for a house.

"It can change people's lives."