It's fair to say 2020 has been a tough year for many all over the globe. In the UK, we saw many offices and industries close their doors temporarily as a four-month lockdown kicked off.
Along with casinos, restaurants, pubs, bingo halls were also closed, and as many as 30 called their last ever number as they shut down indefinitely.
While there are more bingo hall closures expected, some community centers have taken the plunge and digitized their weekly bingo evenings.
Westmeath Community Center goes Online
In order to get back on its feet and keep offering weekly bingo games, the Streete Parish Park was busy looking at different ways to get back to business, especially as bingo is vital to generating income to keep the community centre open.
Over 1,300 people regularly used the community centre prior to the March lockdown, and income from bingo was indispensable to their operating costs. Taking the plunge, the community center opted to offer online bingo to bring the game back to the fans.
A committee spokesperson said:
In light of the public gathering ban due to the coronavirus, we have had to do a lot of thinking to come up with ways of supporting the financial demands of keeping our community centre open.
Bingo on a Monday night has been our main source of income over the years, sadly Covid-19 has put a dampener on the usual gathering of bingo goers on Monday nights; so to meet the demand we have decided online bingo is the way to go.
This will be a new and exciting challenge for us here at Streete Parish Park and to be one of the first in the midlands to try it out and get it right will be a challenge all of its own.
We are starting a new game with new money, our jackpot starting off at €2000 We are starting a new lotto as well at €2000 so if you don’t fancy your chances at bingo you can play the lotto online as well.
If you want to join Streete Parish Park bingo, you can do so through their Facebook page.