The UK’s Bingo Association is preparing to launch a campaign caled “Stop Destroying My Bingo”, which calls for bingo players to sign a petition addressed to the government. The move is hoping to rouse the 3 million regular bingo players in England and Wales to support the industry, which is perceived to be under threat.

The petition urges government to address the current heavy taxation on bingo players, and the upcoming smoking ban that threatens the future of the UK Bingo industry.

The Scottish city of Aberdeen topped a recent survey on the ‘luckiest cities in Britain’ when it comes to the numbers of gambling and lottery of winners in the whole of UK.

Numbers showed that an impressive 47 per cent of Aberdeen residents have won £10 on the national lottery 10 times, and that one in 10 has won a mind-blowing £2,000 or more.

According to the ‘Survey Data on Remote Gambling Participation’, eight percent of UK’s adults have participated in at least one form of Internet gambling in the previous month, including online bingo.

The survey also says the National Lottery was the most popular form of online gambling, with over five percent of respondents admitting to having gambled remotely on the Lottery in the last month.

Nine Mecca Bingo clubs in England and Wales will temporarily close in preparation for July’s smoking ban. Rank, the gaming group that manages the clubs, said that it wanted to improve the quality of its clubs portfolio ahead of the ban, but added that it did not expect the closures to have a material effect on its 2007 profits.

The nine clubs facing closure are located in Fulham, Islington, Kingston-upon-Hull, Liverpool, Reading, Sheffield, Swansea, Welling and Wolverhampton.

Edinburgh bingo boss Mike Lowe has presented the Scottish Parliament with a petition calling for tax breaks on the industry to help it recover from the effects of the smoking ban.

Lowe, operations manager at Premier Bingo, gathered over 1400 signatures from members asking for VAT on stakes to be cut, bringing the industry in line with the rest of the gaming industry.