The bingo trade body (CEJ) announced alarming data in a recent press release. Thus, the closure of halls during the state of alarm and the restrictions on schedules and capacity have weighed down the evolution of bingo in 2020, with a fall of 51% in the January-August period. The decline has been moderating from -45.2% in July to -38.6% in August. CEJ anticipates for this year a collapse close to 45% in relation to the 2019 data.
“The situation is dramatic for the bingo industry, says Fernando Henar, president of CEJ, the pandemic represents a very severe blow to our leisure offer and, for greater concern, we do not see in the Administrations - with few exceptions - the slightest sign of support".
The CEJ Executive Committee has met to analyze the bingo situation, and the most discussed topics have been pessimism and the need for public help. If last year the data were bad, with a 1% drop in sales over 2018, the hopeful start of 2020 (+ 1.8% in January and + 4.8% in February) was truncated by the covid-19 and the consequent lookdown that caused the closure of the activity from March 15 to June 8. But faced with a crisis situation, like the rest of the subsectors, “we have found ourselves very little supported by the Administration. We have sent messages asking for help, bonuses in the rates to recover the offer of prizes, and they have almost always responded with the most discouraging silence."
Electronic bingo shows the best projection, with an expected fall of 17.2% at the end of the year: estimated sales of € 223 million compared to € 269 million in 2019. But this complementary game represents less than 10% of traditional bingo, which the last year it reached 1,805 million.
“Entrepreneurs and workers go hand in hand in defense of halls and jobs. We are aware that only in this way, united, we can defend bingo. We await the extension of the ERTES and tax credits. Hopefully the Administrations will respond to our pleas ”, laments CEJ's president.
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