Mecca Bingo Makes the News back in the 80's
Mecca Bingo is thirty years old and a very successful land based and online bingo site. It is one of the most popular and trusted bingo brands in the gaming market today with thousands of loyal players worldwide. However, when it was launched as a land based bingo chain in England, long before the existence of the internet, there was a controversial issue surrounding its brand name.
The owners of this bingo chain decided to name it Mecca Bingo, like the Muslim holy city and this had political implications. It especially offended the Sunni Mufti in Beirut who labelled the bingo chain as blasphemous. After they officially complained to the British embassy in Lebanon the ambassador shrugged it off as a silly objection which should not be taken seriously. After all, there had been a chain of dance halls called Mecca Dance Halls in the UK for some time prior to this complaint and nobody had suggested they were blasphemous at all. According to the ambassador, the complaint must have been fuelled by a dislike of bingo and should therefore not be entertained.
Although admittedly the name of the bingo chain was not the most appropriate because of the religious significance given to it by Muslims, there was nothing nasty or purposely hurtful intended by the owners of the chain. In fact, in England it was often said that St. Andrews was a Mecca for golfers. The word has been regularly used to describe any event or place which attracts a great gathering of people due to popularity or status attached to it. Never is it used in a disrespectful manner and this was also true of Mecca Bingo. When the news of the complaint reached the minister at the time, he seemed highly amused by the whole thing and said he would not waste time entertaining such silly matters as he wouldn't care if there was a brothel called 'The Vatican', let alone a bingo hall called 'Mecca'.
This story has now become an amusing anecdote surrounding this bingo brand and some believe it helped it to become such a big household name. Thanks to the free marketing given to it by the Arab newspaper which first printed the story and the subsequent news ripple effect it had around the world, Mecca Bingo became a well known brand. This is another example that even bad press is good press!
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