The Government doesn't know and apparently doesn't care how many bingo club have closed in the last two years.  In fact due to the Governments attitude towards the gaming industry nobody knows how many clubs have actually closed.

The MP for North East Cambs, Mr Moss, tabled a Parliamentary question asking the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many clubs had closed in England since January 2008, and how many had closed in his constituency since then.

He clearly knew the answer to the latter question.  The Hippodrome bingo club, loacted in the area (no ties to the Hippodrome in Bishop Auckland which is reportedly thriving in recent years) closed in March. It was apparent that the rest of England the Government doesn't know, or seemingly care to know.

Hansard notes the response from Dawn Butler, described as 'assistant Whip, funded by HM Treasury, Brent South, Labour'. She was of little help and passed it to Jill Matheson, a national statistician.

"Annual statistics on business births, deaths and survival are available from the Office of National Statistics Release on Business Demography at www.statistics.gov.uk," she wrote.

"However, the industrial classification is not detailed enough to separately identify bingo clubs."

Ms Matheson added: "Does this answer the above question?"

We don't think so!