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But why has bingo taken such a dive in recent years? The combined force of the growth of online bingo, the smoking ban, and the recession has meant more and more bingo clubs have closed their doors.As new, advanced leisure pursuits have vied for Britain's attention, it has become increasingly difficult to drag people away from their surround-sound TVs, garden gnomes, and crates of cut-price lager. What's more, bingo halls have started to look naff and dated. These unchanging institutions remain trapped in a pre-Costa-Del-Sol era, where families play Bingo at Butlins in Bognor Regis and Blackpool's B&Bs are chock-a-block.Related: Watch our film 'Regeneration Game,' about swathes of London being sold off to make way for luxury housingTRENDING ON NOISEY: The Hierarchy of the Glastonbury Campsite
What's more, the few rather fraught attempts to revive bingo have probably done the industry more harm than good. With the Evening Standard's ES magazine declaring it "hip," and Prince William and the Queen publicly endorsing it, no wonder the game has struggled. Other attempts to modernize the industry have gone as far as updating "bingo lingo"—the slang callers use when they're reeling off numbers. While 71 has been changed from "Bang on my drum" to "J-Lo's bum," 32 has been changed from "buckle my shoe" to "Jimmy Choo."
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