Britain Has 232 Bingo Halls Left, Bingotastic's 2026 Census Finds

The UK has 232 traditional bingo halls still open, down from around 1,360 in the 1980s, according to the Great British Bingo Hall Census 2026 published by Bingotastic.com. The independent bingo guide counted every club it could verify as of 9 July 2026, checking each against the operators' own club finders.

Excluding Northern Ireland's four clubs, the Great Britain total is 228.

Twelve closures, three openings

Between July 2025 and July 2026 the census recorded 12 permanent closures against three openings. Mecca accounted for nine of the closures and Buzz Bingo for three.

Eight of Mecca's closures came on a single day. On Sunday 7 June 2026, halls in Birkenhead, Croydon, Exeter, Kingstanding, Sheffield, St Helens, Sunderland and Taunton all shut. Three of them, Kingstanding, Sunderland and Croydon, closed without any press coverage.

Who runs what

• Buzz Bingo, 76 halls
• Independent operators, 65 halls
• Mecca, 41 halls
• Club 3000, 24 halls
• Castle Bingo, 11 halls
• Carlton Bingo, 10 halls

The two largest chains hold barely half the estate between them, and the independents, which no official body counts nationally, are a bigger share than many would assume.

Why the official figures point the other way

Gambling Commission statistics show licensed bingo premises in Great Britain rising from 631 to 684 in a year. The census traced the increase to Merkur Slots, which holds 227 bingo premises licences and operates no traditional halls. A bingo licence has become a popular choice for high-street slot venues, so the licence count no longer tracks the number of places where you can sit down to a game.

The tax went, the closures didn't

Bingo Duty, a 10% tax on club profits, was abolished on 1 April 2026. Nine weeks later came the eight Mecca closures. The reasons given across the year's closures concern leases, landlords, repair bills and listed buildings, several of them former cinemas, rather than falling demand.

There is some expansion. Club 3000 opened a club in Leeds in August 2025 and is building a £5m club in Sunderland, in the same shopping centre Mecca left in June.

About the bingo hall census

The count draws on Bingotastic.com's halls directory, which keeps closed clubs on record alongside the open ones, and the census is due to be repeated each year. The full closure list and methodology are published on its research hub. If you want to compare all the local bingo halls currently open, Bingotastic has a directory of all the places to play near you.