But punters are determined to mark its closure in style and will be bussed from Skene Street to a farewell party at another bingo hall owned by the Caira family, the Ambassador in Nairn, which is also putting up the shutters that evening.

Owner, Dominic Caira, from Buckie has sold the hall to a property developer, and his brother Remo has been leasing the hall from them, and carrying on the business.

Remo Caira told "The Banffshire Journal" the venue will shut down for good on June 17 and the decision was a commercial one.

He said: "The smoking ban has been the final nail in the coffin - but admissions have been dwindling over the past five years.

"It has declined from 1,000-1,500 a week down to the current levels of 200-300.

"We are heartbroken about it - but you can't keep pouring money into a black hole."

The hall employs up to six people, and recently has been open five evenings a week.

When the smoking ban began in March last year, a number of the club's 700 members left, including some long standing regulars, said manager at the time, Ms Toni Caira.

She insisted that many bingo-goers were in the habit of smoking continuously during their bingo nights.

And some customers were arriving later, missing the early session, and in the intervals between the main 'book' games, punters were used to spending time and money playing the cash bingo machines.

The Bingo Association said that although some punters had welcomed the new smoke-free environment, the organisation had been reporting many independent bingo halls going to the wall in the past year.

Ten Scottish clubs have already closed since the smoking ban started and recent statistics said 70% of bingo players were also smokers.

In February, a deputation of bingo players took a petition to Holyrood, calling on the Scottish Parliament to act to stop more bingo clubs from closing in Scotland.

They also claimed that the tax system targets bingo unfairly compared to bookmakers, and that new legislation would increase operating costs but reduce income options for the clubs.

Speaking at the petition handover Mike Lowe, operations manager of Scottish company Premier Bingo, said: "Scotland's bingo clubs are having a tough time and members have come together to highlight the seriousness of this situation.

"We have already had to close one of our clubs in Denny and smaller independents in the North have also recently announced closures.

"As a result of an unfair tax system, overbearing legislation and the impact of the smoking ban, the industry's back is against the wall.

"The industry in Scotland needs the Scottish Parliament and Executive to recognise this plight and use their influence to press the UK government into action.

"Without this much-needed support operators will be forced to wind up their businesses and many communities will lose an important social amenity."

The Scottish based Carlton Bingo, the UK's biggest independent bingo company, announced a huge drop in profits at the start of the month.

The Macduff Regal was built as a cinema in the late 1920s, and closed in 1963 before being bought by the Caira family.

Like many other North-east picture houses, it then found a second lease of life as a bingo hall.

boardman_g@spp-group.com

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