Mecca Bingo owner returns to profit as it targets under-35s with club nights

The owner of Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos has returned to profit as it enjoyed more tourists and targeted under-35s with club nights and cheaper drinks.

Rank Group said it was doing much better after a difficult few years impacted by the pandemic and cost-of-living squeeze.

The group, whose shares listed on the London stock market, reported a pre-tax profit of £15.5 million for the year to the end of June.

This marked a return to positive earnings having sunk to a hefty loss of £123 million the prior year.

It was driven by a 9% increase in net gaming revenues – meaning the total amount of cash pocketed after paying out winnings to punters – compared with the prior year, totalling £734 million.

There were 9% more visitors to Grosvenor casinos and 2% more to Mecca bingo halls than the previous year.

Some 44% of the 187,000 new Mecca customers during the year were under 35-years-old, the group said.

John O’Reilly, Rank’s chief executive, said people were increasingly attracted  to a “great value night out in what is quite an expensive world”, and said its customers were “much younger and more vibrant” than is typically assumed.

“We are increasingly making it more experiential,” he said.

“We have got hundreds of events up and down the country, typically on Fridays and Saturdays, where bingo is part of an evening that might include a garage music DJ, a comedian or a magician.”

He said these “high energy” events were just as important as the more “cheap and traditional” bingo games.

Rank has drastically cut the number of venues it runs since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted the group due to social restrictions and its high proportion of older customers.

It now has 52 bingo halls, cut from 82 in the year prior to Covid.

Rank said its city-centre Grosvenor casinos which attract tourists, particularly in London, performed strongly over the past year.

But its higher-end venues, which typically attract high-net-worth international visitors, have experienced weaker sales since Brexit.

Mr O’Reilly said the sector was hoping for reform which will make it easier and cheaper for international tourists to spend money at casinos, and bring more people to the UK rather than other cities around the world.

It was also waiting on new gambling legislation that will mean cash-free gambling and sports betting can be brought into casinos.

Shares in Rank jumped by 8% on Thursday.