The number may finally be up for your local bingo hall because of unstoppable online competition, a gambling staff union is claiming.

The UNI Gaming Global Union — which represents 15 million casino employees around the world — says online gambling is threatening the very existence of geographical gaming.

Prophets of loss

UNI’s annual conference in Nyon, Switzerland, heard that online casinos threatened jobs, created revenue that was not always shared with the workers it depended upon and created problems of unmonitored, addictive gambling.

The union claimed the first victim of the online assault could be local bingo halls. Operators were now seeing real substantial losses as punters stayed away, and online bingo was directly responsible for the growing tide of bingo hall closures.