Charity bingo operators say their struggling operations may be pushed right out of business when Ontario's tough new anti-smoking law takes effect.

Bingo has long been a source of revenue for charities, but the industry has been in decline for the past 10 years.

The Mother of Sorrows Church and Social Hall has been sold and is no longer owned by Archangel Gabriel Parish. Therefore, Bingo will no longer be offered at this location. 1 of 25 Show More Show Less 2 of 25 Harris County DA Devon Anderson, speaks during a media conference at Paradise Bingo Hall,1520 College Ave., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, in South Houston.

Operators blame competition for gaming dollars from casinos, racetracks and slot machines for conditions that have seen about 140 bingo halls – more than half of the total in Ontario – close in the past 10 years.

Those now-shuttered bingo halls used to generate as much as $150 million a year for charities.

The situation is only expected to get worse when the bingo halls are forced to tell their clients, an estimated 70 per cent of whom are smokers, to butt out.

Legislation passed at Queen's Park this week will outlaw smoking in most indoor public places.

• FROM JUNE 8, 2005: Ontario passes tough smoking restrictions
  

Those new restrictions, say bingo operators, could be the last nails in their coffins.

Privately owned bingo halls are typically run in co-operation with charities, with the profits shared between the owners and sponsors.

But as more casinos continue to pop up, Jim Towie of Kennedy Bingo says bingo operators are facing a 'disastrous' decline in customers.

For Towie's business, that situation will get worse next year when it will have to close its designated smoking room to comply with the new provincial rules.

Charities say more bingo hall closures will only make their fundraising that much tougher.

Kennedy Crossing Bingo Hall

The Toronto School of Art is one of 3,000 groups that have lost their bingo revenue over the last 10 years and are scrambling to find new sources of revenue.

Kennedy Road Bingo Hall

'It's very, very difficult, particularly for the organization I work with, which isn't a medical or child or people in crisis [organization],' said school spokesperson Shannon Shields.

'As government funding has decreased, every household is being asked eight ways to Sunday to donate money, so the competition is fierce.'

Bingo operators have sought to remain competitive with casinos by applying for slot machine licences. So far, the province has turned down those requests.

As he was lying on his kitchen floor, alone and unable to get up, Michael J. Fox discovered that his characteristic optimism may have reached its limit. It was the summer of 2018. Mr. Fox had lived...

Early last month, the 75th anniversary of the detonation of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima was marked with remembrances and renewed pleas for a ban on nuclear weapons. A related anniversary passed...

It’s no exaggeration that Lew French has been obsessed with stone for decades. Now that passion is on full display at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, where he’s creating an outdoor...

As 2018 comes to a close, it may be best remembered as the year Islanders learned just how fragile their bridge to the mainland is. And while the Steamship Authority, plagued by unprecedented numbers...

The majority of the storied north shore estate once owned by legendary Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, a diverse and historic stretch of waterfront property in West Tisbury, goes on the...

When U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered a closely watched speech this week to a group of Native American tribal leaders, it was the chairman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) who...

On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to wade into the Wampanoag casino case, tribal leaders said this week they are ready to move ahead with plans to build a bingo hall on the...

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to wade into the legal fight over the Aquinnah tribe’s gaming aspirations, clearing the way for an electronic bingo facility on Martha’s Vineyard. In a...

Reversals of fortune. Institutional turmoil. Environmental stress. This could be a pencil sketch of 2017 in America — and a way to envision the year on Martha’s Vineyard as well. Among...

Kennedy Bingo Hall

Tobias Vanderhoop may have moved clear across the country, but in many ways he finds himself in familiar surroundings: on an Island serving in a leadership role for a tribal community. Mr....