Gambling consultant Craig Morgan has suggested bingo clubs and AGCs are “the last true social spaces” on the UK high street, as customers continue to seek out places to interact with their local community against a backdrop of retail decline.
With multiple high streets blighted by bank, department store and chain brand closures, Morgan observed that though licensed gaming premises are often lazily associated with gambling harm, that framing “ignores a broader economic social reality.”
“Bingo clubs and AGCs are communal spaces,” said Morgan. “Customers return weekly, often multiple times, creating stable repeat footfall. The venues support local employment, contribute needed business rates, and sustain surrounding economies (transport, convenience retail and food outlets.) They are embedded, not transient.”
And it’s not just an economic case, their role run much deeper, he argues. “Retail has lost ground because products have moved online. A bingo session isn’t Amazonable. An AGC visit, for many customers, is structured leisure and social contact.”
And there’s a swipe, and a fair one too, at the prohibitionists, both the ideological and the insipid carpet bagging politicians hauling their arses out just for a vote. “Critics often reduce these spaces to ‘machines on a high street’,” Morgan observed. “The reality is that they are regulated, staffed, supervised environments with high levels of compliance.”
Noting that bingo clubs and AGCs are among the few businesses still delivering local jobs, physical social interaction, regulated leisure and footfall in many towns, Morgan concluded: “If we genuinely care about our community economics and sustainable high streets, the conversation needs more credibility than the simple prohibition narratives.”
Originally published on Coinslot on March 2, 2026. Republished with permission.