With the country going out of the lockdown, UK bingo halls are slowly resuming their operations. One of the recent reopenings was the Barrow-in-Furness location of Opera Bingo.
Right off the bat, the Opera Bingo Barrow hall saw its first group of bingo players winning jackpots. There were four big winners, two each for Sweet 16 and Jackpot Sunday. The highest prize went to Donna, who won £994.40. The other Sweet 16 prize was just shy of £660, while the biggest Jackpot Sunday winner, Rose, took home £563. Still, the big £1,600 jackpot remains, so there are more chances this month to win big at this bingo hall.
All of the winners at Opera Bingo were excited about the jackpots, but more so about finally being able to play their favourite game at a bingo night, instead of online. Paul Holland, the general manager of the bingo hall, shared the excitement and looked back at the successful reopening.
“It always creates a fantastic atmosphere when you get a big winner in the club, and after everything we’ve all been through during the pandemic, it just made things that little bit sweeter having something nice to celebrate. Hopefully, our luck can continue, and we can have many more big winners to celebrate in the coming weeks and months,” said Holland.
The global pandemic was devastating for bingo halls. Since the players couldn’t play in person due to restrictions and social distancing, they had to switch to playing bingo online if they wanted to continue playing their favourite game. For many bingo hall owners, that meant going online and closing their shops for good.
On the other hand, this was a chance for many new bingo sites to thrive. But with the current state of affairs, it’ll be interesting to see whether the balance between in-person and online play will shift.