Bingo has always been a popular source of entertainment in Canada however statistics show that traditional bingo clubs continue to report a decline in income regardless of the fact that there 65% of clus have closed in the last 10 years.

Competition in the industry is tough with the introduction of online bingo and casino sites, and bingo halls provided charities with much needed cash and many of them are now also struggling.

A decade ago, bingo charities were raking in $250 million a year across the country from income generated at bingo halls. Ten years later and half of the 6,000 charities rely on bingo halls for some of their income.

Ontario is one of the worst effected areas of the decline.

Ten years ago, there were 200 bingo halls, but today only 70 remain open.

"The industry has declined due to competing forms of entertainment and that's not only the rapid expansion of government gaming in the past 10 years - race tracks with slots, charity casinos, the large commercial casinos - but also other forms of entertainment that people have today, like movies and the internet, home theatre and that kind of thing," said Lynn Cassidy, the executive director of the Ontario Charitable Gaming Association.

While the Canadian operators are less concerned with gambling tax laws that effect UK bingo clubs they are under significant pressure with other laws that have dramatic effects.

Canadian operators are now turning to electronic means in order to attract younger players and to increase the excitement something that their European counterparts were able to freely do a decade ago.

"We need to update the whole industry, we need to modernize the industry," said Cassidy. "We're in a world of technology and we need to move Read more...forward that way."

Ontario has gradually increased its electronic bingo halls, and there are currently five eBingo gaming sites in the area, which inclue both computerised and traditional bingo options. The benefits of which attract a younger audience and improvement in the number of male participants.

The industry is now lobbying the government to expand these types of bingo halls and allow them to include slot machines and other gaming technology.