| Bingo Club Applies for 2am License |
| Written by Mark Bennett |
| Saturday, 28 January 2012 20:44 |
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The Mecca Bingo Club in Oldbury is hoping to be granted permission to stay open until the early hours of the morning with live music and karaoke events. The bingo club on Halesowen Road is currently permitted to open from 10am until 11pm. The club has applied to the Sandwell Council to extend the opening hours until 2am. Under the plans the club would hold monthly live events which would allow bingo players to play on gaming machines until early hours in the morning. Along with the planning application, Graham Murdoch of planning agents Murdoch Associates, states: “At the moment the club can remain open until 11pm on any day of the week. “Their current main bingo sessions finish between 9.30pm and 10pm each evening but a proportion of members will stay to play the various amusement machines or other ancillary gaming and have some refreshments up to the midnight closing. “As a result of the success of the introduction of a broader and later bingo offer at a number of clubs, Mecca Bingo are in the process of developing this further and introducing it into a number of their clubs. “This involves staging monthly live events, such as talent acts, hypnotists or karaoke alongside newly-developed bingo games such as Binglo and rock ‘n’ roll bingo.” Murdoch added that there would be the provision of an enhanced range of food and drink. He also expects the number of customers enjoying the late night facilities to much less than the number of people playing bingo in the evening. No doubt the club managers are hoping that the events will attract extra customers that maybe do not attend the evening bingo sessions. For many people that have not played bingo in land based clubs attending such an event may convince them to come along to traditional bingo sessions. Around six years ago the site was granted a casino licence, as sister company Grosvenor, planned to develop the site. However Rank, the parent company of Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo, later decided to transfer permission to Birchley Island to avoid further delays.
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