Wales has reached a year since it first banned smoking in all public areas, which includes bingo halls. The result of this decision has turned out to be of great impact and is truly affecting the bingo industry there.

On one hand, the bingo industry has been affected by the new law, resulting in an important decrease of the income. A spokesman from Top Ten Bingo in Wales said: “Across the whole of the UK Bingo Halls have seen a 25 percent drop in admission over the last year. Profits have been hit. It started to fall after around 8-10 weeks and promotions that have proved successful are not quite successful anymore. Now we’re looking at new ways of promoting the business.” As many of the bingo halls were old buildings, he also stated that: “it was impossible to build smoking areas there.”

On the other hand, the smoking ban has helped some people to make the decision to eliminate this awful habit, resulting in an important improvement on the public’s general health. Also, there weren’t as many smoking related hearings as expected by the Welsh Assembly Government.

What can be concluded from the smoking ban in Wales? Well, it’s hard to determine. As most matters in life, it depends on whose point of view you chose to look through. One thing is for sure: smoker’s rights are quickly being eliminated across the world, so if you’re a regular smoker, you might consider your next destination to be France. Each restaurant there was given the choice of deciding whether or not they wished to convert their restaurant into a smoke-free area. Now that’s what I call autonomy!