Rank, the bingo and gaming giant, is celebrating increased overall sales as a result of its new brand of attractive casinos. The positive results are helping to overshadow the poor performance of the bingo clubs and Spanish operations.

The company, which is the one of the biggest operators of bingo clubs in the UK, under the brand of Mecca Bingo, and the Grosvenor Casinos said that revenues grew by 3 percent in the year to 27th December, with a boost of 6 percent in the final 12 weeks.

With the latest casino venue opening in Dundee in the last quarter and the Grosvenor brand aimed at those that are unaccustomed to such gambling but looking to enjoy such entertainment, reported like-for-like visits up by 5 percent over the year and similar revenues up by 3 percent.

While like-for-like revenues in the Mecca Bingo brand were flat, customer visits showed a 4 percent decline. However, the results were better thean expected according to Shore Capital analyst Greg Johnson. He said: "The consumer side is not bad as far as previous years are concerned when the bingo industry was hit by the smoking ban and wasn't a growth industry. If you look historically at bingo they have seen sharp declines in spend."

He added: "Rank has seen improvements in recent weeks and its online division has gone up."

Rank's Spanish arm, Top Rank Espana, which has 11 bingo clubs declined by 9 per cent.

Johnson said: "Bingo in Spain draws ABs, rather than the Cs here. Bingo players in Spain are more likely to have a decent glass of wine rather than players, say, in Glasgow.

"The Spanish economy has been hit far harder than us. While like-for-like sales are down 4 per cent (over 12 weeks] it looks worse than it is because of the euro movement."