Traditional Bingo in Decline Across Canada
While bingo has always been a hugely popular pastime in Canada, recent statistics show that traditional bingo halls have reported a decline in revenue.
Competition is tough and bingo charities report that their revenues have dropped due to traditional bingo's inability to cope with the fast paced action of online bingo and casino sites.
A decade ago, bingo charities were raking in $250 million a year across the country from income generated at bingo halls.
Fast forward ten years and only 3,000 charities out of the original 6,000 are relying on bingo halls for at least some of their income.
Ontario is one of the hardest provinces hit by this decline.
Ten years ago, there were 200 bingo halls, but there remain only 70 today.
"The industry has declined due to competing forms of entertainment and that's not only the rapid expansion of government gaming in the past 10 years - race tracks with slots, charity casinos, the large commercial casinos - but also other forms of entertainment that people have today, like movies and the internet, home theatre and that kind of thing," said Lynn Cassidy, the executive director of the Ontario Charitable Gaming Association.
Bingo halls are now turning to electronic means in order to attract younger players and to increase the excitement.
"We need to update the whole industry, we need to modernize the industry," said Cassidy. "We're in a world of technology and we need to move forward that way."
For that reason, Ontario has gradually increased its electronic bingo halls, and there are currently five eBingo centers in the province.
These include a combination of traditional as well as computerized bingo options. One of the main benefits of these new eBingo halls is that they also attract a growing male audience.
The industry is now lobbying the government to expand these types of bingo halls and allow them to include slot machines and other gaming technology.
