Bingo clubs will continue to suffer from their downmarket image which limits their appeal as a night out for the majority of consumers. What is certain is that the industry will experience a downturn in turnover in 2007, not as a result of the Gambling Act, but because of the ban on smoking inside clubs which will be UK-wide by summer 2007.

But measured against these negatives is the feeling that bingo can build on its strengths as the most sociable type of gambling, offering far more than the betting shop, the fruit machine or the intense atmosphere of the casino. And despite impressions put about by the media that bingo is permanently old-fashioned, technology has been harnessed to help the game since the 1980s - the National Game would be impossible without it.