Yet another bingo hall has fallen victim to the ongoing crime wave plaguing halls across the country, this time in South Hampton. A popular Mecca Bingo hall was held up recently when two masked robbers broke in and stole thousands of pounds in cash. A Mecca Bingo spokesperson had this to say about the incident:

“We can confirm that a burglary took place at Mecca Bingo Southampton on Wednesday night after the club had closed. Thankfully, this meant that no team members or customers were in the club at the time. The club is always closed on Thursday afternoon, but we decided to keep it closed during the evening as well to enable the police to complete their inquiries and so that we could prepare it for yesterday’s bingo sessions."

The burglars broke into the club from the back, and broke through 20 bingo machines to get to the money inside. While police and Mecca spokespeople have not disclosed the amount stolen, it is reported to be “significant”. Police detective Matt Taylor said, “It was clear that it was a very well planned break-in and those responsible have caused a considerable amount of damage to the property.

A significant amount of cash was stolen and a number of gaming machines have been damaged in the process. It is not known how long the suspects were inside the building but I would ask anyone, particularly residents of Tennyson Road, to speak to us if they saw anything suspicious in their neighbourhood that evening.” One thing is for sure, it seems to be a far safer option to play bingo online in light of all these incidents of late.