Crossword Genius

Dances held in empty bingo palaces (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

bops

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'dances' is the definition.
(bopping is a kind of dancing)

'empty bingo palaces' is the wordplay.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'palaces' becomes 'ps' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bingo' with its centre taken out is 'bo'.
'bo'+'ps'='BOPS'

'held in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bops that I've seen before include "hits" , "Dances to pop" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app