More Than a Third of Britain Lives Over Five Miles From a Local Bingo Club

Some 25.3 million people in Great Britain, 37.5% of the population, live more than five miles from their nearest bingo club. The figure comes from Britain's Bingo Deserts, a study by the bingo guide Bingotastic.com that measured the distance from every neighbourhood in the country to the nearest of the 230 clubs still open in Great Britain at the end of July 2026.

The headline numbers

• Nearly 12 million people live more than ten miles from a club.
• 5.75 million, roughly one in twelve, live more than fifteen miles away.
• The median distance is 3.5 miles, so the typical person is still close to one.
• Sixteen clubs are more than 20 miles from the next nearest, and four are more than 30.

Town against country

The study found the split runs between town and country rather than north and south. In London, 9.8% of people live beyond five miles from a club. In England's county areas the figure is 59%, and the median distance there is 6.1 miles.

Wales is the hardest hit of the three nations, with 47.5% of people beyond five miles. Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire have no traditional club, and Powys holds no bingo premises licence at all.

Scotland keeps its clubs

Scotland has 6.67 clubs per million people, more than twice England's 3.04. Its independent operators are a large part of the reason, holding on in towns where the big chains never arrived or left long ago.

Why five miles matters

Bingo's players are more often women than the population as a whole, and Gambling Commission survey data puts women at nearly twice as likely as men to have played in the past month. Department for Transport figures show more than a third of women in England aged 70 and over hold no driving licence. Meanwhile local bus mileage outside London has fallen 28% since 2005. For someone without a car, a club five miles away depends on a bus route that may itself be shrinking.

Local examples

When Mecca Exeter closed in June 2026 after 63 years, the nearest club became Torquay, 17.7 miles away on the study's measurements. Ashford in Kent now looks to Maidstone, 16.7 miles off. Apollo Bingo in Camborne is the only club left in Cornwall and sits 52.5 miles from any other.

The full findings and methodology are published on Bingotastic.com. Bingotastic also has a complete directory of every UK bingo hall currently open, listing a full schedule of opening times, prices and session game times.