A firm that builds traditional bingo halls claims the first outlet to open in South Africa has been such a roaring success that it will be able to spread the game quickly across the whole country.

But not everyone is happy at the relaxing of gambling laws that brought about the bingo success.

In a dark roomy hall in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, 400 South Africans stare at paper cards that are the hallmark of traditional bingo.

A machine selects numbered balls at random and when the selected number is projected onto a screen, the players cross it off on their cards.

The first one to get a horizontal line of crossed off figures shouts "Bingo" and wins. Everyone else groans in disappointment but keeps playing.

Laws relaxed

Galaxy, the company which brought paper bingo to South Africa for the first time, took advantage of new relaxed gambling laws which came into being after South Africa's white minority regime lost power.

That change is also responsible for the spread of casinos across the country.

They were previously confined to the so-called "homelands" areas, where the apartheid government had allowed some autonomy.

Even so, Boksburg is the first place where traditional bingo can be played.

Not everyone is happy with the profusion of gaming in South Africa and church groups have complained.

But bingo may escape serious censure because it is seen as low cast entertainment even for the addicted.