Mecca Bingo (formerly called Top Rank) is a British operator of
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** B ...
clubs, with over 70 locations throughout the country. Mecca Bingo is owned by the
Rank Group
The Rank Group plc is a gambling company based in the United Kingdom. Rank was involved in the cinema and motion picture industry until 2006, and continues to use the Gongman logo originally used by the Rank Organisation's film distribution su ...
, which operates bingos, casinos and online gambling in
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and Britain. The Rank Group also own
Grosvenor Casinos and Enracha. Mecca Bingo was established in 1961, and its headquarters are in
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...
. An extension of the Mecca Bingo brand includes meccabingo.com and a number of
online game stations.
As of June 2015, Mecca Bingo's revenue was recorded at £224.4 million, with an operating profit of £28.9 million. The Rank Group reports there are one million customers who visit Mecca each year, with £65.2 million revenue generated from digital. The Mecca network currently employs more than 11,000 people across Britain. Their halls host traditional and electronic versions of bingo, including
slot
Slot, the slot or Slots may refer to:
People
* Arne Slot (born 1978), Dutch football manager, former player
* Gerrie Slot (born 1954), Dutch cyclist
* Hanke Bruins Slot (born 1977), Dutch politician
* Tonny Bruins Slot (born 1947), Dutch assoc ...
-style games. Mecca are licensed and regulated by the British
Gambling Commission
The Gambling Commission is an executive, non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for regulating gambling and supervising gaming law in Great Britain. Its remit covers arcades, betting, bingo, casin ...
and the
Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
History
Eric Morley
Eric Douglas Morley (26 September 1918 – 9 November 2000) was an English television host and the founder of the Miss World pageant and ''Come Dancing'' programme. His widow, Julia Morley, is now head of the pageant and his son, Steve Douglas, ...
, British television host and founder of the
Miss World
Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Mi ...
pageant, is accredited with popularising the game of bingo in Britain during the early sixties, as a tactic to fill Britain's dance halls. In 1952, he was Mecca's general manager of dancing. He changed the company from a small catering and dancing firm into a leading entertainment and catering company. A director of the company from 1953 up until 1978, Morley left the business after a disagreement with its then parent company,
Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...
.
In 1990, the
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the Uni ...
made an offer of £512m to acquire Mecca Leisure Group. This was initially rejected, then accepted two months later. In 2007, Mecca Bingo and its parent company suffered significant losses, attributed to the implementation of the
smoking ban
Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor employ ...
in Britain. Rank shut nine Mecca Bingo clubs, with 230 people losing their jobs. In 2015, Mecca Bingo launched a marketing campaign featuring a
twerking
Twerking (; possibly from 'to work') is a type of African-American dance, dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving Pelvic thrusting, throwing or thrusting the hips back or shaking the buttocks, often in a Partial squat, ...
cactus. The campaign adverts helped to increase Mecca's digital sales by 18 per cent, year on year, in the 20 weeks to 17 May.
In 2022, Mecca Bingo partnered with ''
Britain's Got Talent
''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global '' Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquial ...
'' and became the show's official bingo partner. The deal allows Mecca Bingo to produce ''Britain's Got Talent''-themed bingo games for their online offering and in-person venues.
Controversies
In 1997, members of the
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
community in
Luton
Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census.
Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
were dissatisfied with the renaming of a local bingo hall under the ''Mecca Bingo'' brand, whose name is phonetically identical with
Mecca
Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
, the holiest city of
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
, a religion in which gambling is not permitted. On Christmas Day that year, bricks were thrown through the bingo hall's windows, causing £3000 of damage. Company management subsequently announced that the ''Mecca'' branding would be discontinued at the location as a result of the unrest and offence caused; as of 2018, however, the company's own branch locator on their website confirms that the location is still operating under the ''Mecca'' brand.
In December 2015, Mecca Bingo was ordered to forfeit nearly £1 million after allowing a woman to spend up to £50,000 a month on her gambling addiction.
Awards
Mecca Bingo was awarded "Bingo Operator of the Year" at the 2016 International Gaming Awards. It won the same award in 2014 and 2015, with the Rank Group also winning "Socially Responsible Operator of the Year (Land Based)".
Mecca Bingo won two awards at the 2016 EGR Innovation and Marketing Awards:
"Best
Native App" and "Innovation in Bingo" for their Emoji Bingo game – an app that swaps bingo balls for
emoji
An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...
s.
In 2017, Mecca Bingo won WhichBingo awards for Best Customer Services and Most Socially Responsible, along with the EGR award for Best Mobile Bingo Product.
References
External links
{{commonscat, Mecca Bingo Halls
Official Mecca Bingo siteMecca Bingo on Twitter
Bingo
Gambling companies of the United Kingdom
Gambling companies established in 1961