Leisure and gaming group Rank has made one of its bingo halls fully electronic, doubling the number of visitors and increasing the amount they spend.
Rank opened the Fountain Park Mecca Bingo club in Edinburgh two months ago and introduced 500 electronic terminals that allow players to access numerous portals from one machine, for greater interaction and seamless game playing.
The club’s tables also have lighting features that change colour and sounds that can be heard at individual terminals or throughout the club.
‘Bingo has not changed from a manual, pen and paper-based game in more than 500 years,’ said Mario Vilela, director of electronic gaming at Rank. ‘But with competition from electronic gaming and consoles, we needed new ways to present the game to capture a larger market.
‘The technology makes bingo an exciting, reaction-based game where customers are entertained. It can recall preferences and offer customers their preferred games, food or drinks.’
IBM Retail provided the server and touchscreen point of sale devices, vendor ECM delivered the software that runs the games and allows random number generation, and XPress Ordering delivered software that links food and drink ordering.
Vilela says spending per head has increased because customers can make purchases from the comfort of their seat.
‘The game pricing should pay for the technology,’ he said.
What do you think? Email us at feedback@computing.co.uk
Further reading
reader comments