Regent Bingo Hall on Deal seafront is to close on January 9, making staff redundant and ending a family’s long business link with the town.

The distinctive Beach Street building was formerly a cinema and was converted after the bingo boom in the 1960s.

Managing director and owner Robin Bloom said the decision to shut had left him broken-hearted.

He added: “My family took over the Regent just after the Second World War when it was a cinema and I was the first manager in 1965 when I was 18."

He said the bingo hall flourished when employment in the area included the Kent Coalfield, the Royal Marines barracks in Deal and the industrial estates on the Sandwich Road.

“Unfortunately I have seen Deal go from a thriving town with lots of jobs to now basically a retirement community.

“I would have been pleased to continue in business, but last year we were hit very badly by the smoking ban. A large number of our customers were smokers.”

Mr Bloom, who lives in Bromley, said changes in the Gaming Act also opened the opportunity for online gaming and the business had been hit by tax and licence increases.

He said a new bingo club at Westwood Cross Shopping Centre in Thanet, which opened in February, also hit his trade.