The combination of Apple’s iPhone, Android powered smartphones and online bingo applications are costing businesses a huge amount of money. It has been estimated that the cost to businesses in Great Britain could be as much as £800 million a year in terms of lost time when workers are surreptitiously playing bingo during work time.

In a large survey of smartphone users over half of them admitted to using their smartphones during working hours to play games on online bingo sites, and online bingo was one of the more popular activities. The average amount of work time that these people spend playing games on their smartphones is on average around one hour a week. That might not seem to be very much for an individual, but when it is multiplied by the total workforce which use smartphones, then the total equates to over 55 million working hours.

Although bingo is one of the more popular games it is not the only one that is played regularly whilst at work. Many play other casino games and even poker, whilst others play games such as Angry Birds on their phones.

It is not just game fans that cost the economy. A recent survey of the web browsing habits of civil servants during the time that they should be working has shown that many of them regularly shop online, visit news sites, communicate with Facebook, keep in touch with sporting fixtures, as well as betting and playing casino games.

The revelations came to light following a request to the Department for Transport under the Freedom of Information Act. The numbers of visits civil servants made to 1,000 websites was disclosed. The most popular was Google but even a site that is devoted to belly dancing received several thousand hits over the period of tome that was investigated.

Online bingo players who are also civil servants will need to take care in the future at the civil service is now coming down heavily on players who access non-work websites during working hours. Players are allowed to access the sites for up to one hour a day, but they must do so in their own time such as during lunch breaks.