The local bingo club in Gainsborough has reportedly seen a boost in business after local media, The Standard, reportedly that that the club was struggling to survive and needed locals to support the club.

King’s Bingo Hall, previously known as King’s Theatre and the Albert Theatre, has been a bingo club for more than 50 years. In December it was reported that dwindling customers meant that the King's Bingo club was struggling to survive. The club faced significant competition from online bingo websites and local players have less money to spend as a result of the economic crisis.

“The Standard made a sterling effort to us raise awareness of our problems and get people back into King’s Bingo,” commented owner Roger Whitnall.

“It was a superb write-up and really got our message across - we can’t thank them enough.”

He added: “Things are looking up, but we aren’t out of the woods yet.”

While Roger thanked the residents in Gainsborough for their support, he added that the club was still in danger of closing.

“We’re reducing our opening times to just four nights a week now on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.

“Now we’re just about covering our costs each month, and we’ll be looking at things on a monthly basis to see if we can continue.”

“Following our appearance in the Standard, we were approached by the radio and everything has worked towards business picking up a bit. We had a better run up to Christmas and we’ve been doing OK since then.”

Roger added: “We still need people’s support if we are going to stay open and continue in the coming months.”

Sue Hollingworth from King’s Bingo said that King’s Bingo was a great way to spend an evening with friends or to meet new people.

“Things have certainly improved since we were in the paper,” she said.

“We’ve seen a fair few new customers but not as many as we’d like.”

She added: “It’s still a fight for survival.”