Irish PM says new laws won’t close bingo halls

Bingo operators in Ireland are worried that a new gambling law will force them to close halls but the Prime Minister said that won’t happen.

Ireland.- Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the Prime Minister of Ireland, has talked about the new gambling law that threatens bingo halls in the territory. The comments come the same week as bingo players protested outside the Dáil.

While the new law would send 25% of the proceeds to charity, Varadkar says that such a thing would not force bingo halls to close. “I want to reassure people that there are no plans in this legislation at all that would cause the closure of any bingo halls in Ireland,” he said, according to breakingnews.ie.

“Rather the legislation seeks to ensure that bingo halls – many of them big commercial operators – actually provide money to charity as they are required to do.”

Moreover, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice David Stanton said that the changes are modest and would not have any impact on bingo games in Ireland.

”I am proposing that a maximum of 25% of proceeds can go to bingo operators while a minimum of 25% would go to charity and 50% would go to prize-winners,” Stanton said. “Given its social appeal, people do not play bingo based solely on the prize level. If they did they would likely gamble elsewhere,” he added.

The measure would cap prize money of 50% of a bingo hall’s takings every day, which is a significant decline from the current 75% to 85%.

Emma Lavelle, head of operations at Jack Potts, which is one of the largest bing operators in the country, said that the legislation has created uncertainty in the industry. She believes that the legislative piece would lead to the closure of bingo halls as it is impossible to operate in such a structure. “Customers have already told us they won’t be coming at those prices,” Lavelle said.