Sunday bingo for Northern Ireland

If you live in Northern Ireland and you ever fancy popping down to the local bingo club, you will be frustrated. Currently Sunday bingo is banned in the country, but with a bit of luck, this might not be for much longer as there are plans afoot to allow Sunday bingo to be played.

In terms of gambling laws, Northern Ireland lags behind those in the rest of the UK. The Northern Irish Social Development Minister plans to completely overall all the gambling regulations. She believes that the existing legislation is no longer relevant to modern times and that it is impenetrable and ambiguous.

The fact that gambling is not allowed on a Sunday has led to a large amount of totally unregulated illegal gambling. As with many kinds of prohibition, the more restrictive the legislation, the more ingenious ways people find to get round it. Many feel that if Sunday gambling is allowed, illegal gambling activity will decline.

Many of those involved in the gambling industry consider Irish gambling laws to be draconian and old fashioned. They say that opening on a Sunday is absolutely necessary. They agree that there are other issues in the gambling regulations that must be attended to, and that this will take some time to bring to legislation, but the general sentiment is that the issue of Sunday gambling should be given priority and fast tracked ahead of the other regulation changes. Sunday gambling will also increase jobs and increase tax revenues for the government.

Naturally there is some dissent. Certain groups in the country are against playing bingo on a Sunday as they believe that Sunday should be kept special. However, as the supporters of Sunday gambling point out, the fact that it is against the law does not prevent it from going on. Apart from illegal gambling, people can still gamble online and many people cross the border to Southern Ireland where Sunday gambling is legal.

Irish bingo players might need to be patient for a little longer yet, but it looks as if change is on the way.

In comparison to other gambling games, bingo games are not strictly gambling according to some people. Despite these laws that impact bingo halls, bingo players can alternately have a game of online bingo instead.