Obama-bingo -- whatever next?

I just had to laugh out loud when I saw the bingo headlines this morning, Barack Obama with his own online bingo website! OK, so it’s not quite true. Apparently a couple of guys set up www.obama-bingo.com to bring two dynamically opposite worlds together - politics and bingo. (Reminds me of one of our recent bingo polls - who would you prefer to play bingo with, Obama or Hillary Clinton? - It was very close, but Hillary beat Obama by 1%)

There is a deeper meaning to Obama-Bingo that makes it a very worthy cause, winners get to donate their prize to their favourite charity. And there’s a really nice twist in this online bingo game that’ll be put to the test tonight in the US, when Obama makes his next convention speech.

The bingo cards have keywords instead of numbers, that featured in previous Obama speeches. There’ll be an electronic link from the convention to the online bingo site, and as soon as he opens his mouth and pops out a featured word it’ll be transmitted to Obama-Bingo players. First person to Bingo on a line wins the grand prize - and their lucky chosen charity gets the full benefit. Just another reason why I’m mad for online bingo!

Written by Helen

Paddy Power Bingo-- thank you for the free online bingo room

I’d like to dedicate this post to Paddy Power Bingo – for providing an exclusive Free Bingo Room for Bingostreeters earlier this week. This was the first ever bingo promotion of its kind that we’d ever done at Bingostreet, and I think that some of my colleagues were secretly concerned that it might not go down well, just because it was so new.

However I’m very pleased to report that it was a roaring success and the free bingo room was totally buzzing with Bingostreeters meeting and chatting with other Bingostreeters while they played free bingo. Tons of free cash prizes were won by happy Bingostreeters, the CM was an absolute delight, and we got a lovely bunch of thank you emails from contented Bingostreeters after the free online bingo event that really warmed our cockles!

Paddy Power Bingo also said that it went really well – it was a first for them too – and I’m pretty sure we’ll be holding more of these great free bingo room events in the future!

Paddy Power Bingo might be relatively new to the world of online bingo but they sure know how to party in real bingo style! WTG guys, and thank you for your generousity in giving our Bingostreeters a really fabulous evening of top free online bingo!

Written by Bingo Lady

Wink Bingo "highly offensive" advertisment banned

Ok, so here’s the deal, something’s really bitten my goat today. You’ve probably read in the news that the advertising agency for Wink Bingo has unintentionally landed its sponsors in hot water - their latest ad being banned by the ASA - the Advertising Standards Authority.

You might think that the advert must have been pretty racy, raunchy, offensive, aimed at minors, or something of that order to have offended the stuffy bigwigs of the ASA. But check this out - the ad shows a nurse in the maternity ward, she’s celebrating her bingo jackpot win at Wink Bingo - you can see her laptop on her trolley, and in the background is a woman giving birth. The catchphrase is: “Find the appropriate moment…”

So somebody please tell me what’s wrong with that, or am I the only one with a sense of humour here? The ASA says that it’s inappropriate (funny choice of word when you read the catchphrase) as it means that a professional health-care worker is ignoring the poor woman suffering in labor because she’s just hit the jackpot at Wink Bingo.

It’s so obviously a joke that their decision to ban this ad isn’t funny. The UK is becoming so flipping PC it’s ridiculous. The advert doesn’t show sexy young things winning the jackpot, nor does it promote Wink Bingo to underage kids (unless you count the unborn baby), nor does it use bad language, so does that mean it’s offensive?

We all know that bingo players and online bingo players alike are mostly women, though it’s becoming much more popular with the menfolk too. So here’s my question - what’s the big deal with this? I think the point of the advertisment is simply to show that anyone can win the bingo jackpots at Wink Bingo at anytime. Simple as that. And I for one do not find that offensive in any way!

Written by Bingo Lady

EiG to bring out the legal big guns to discuss UIGEA

I will be looking forward to the 2008 European Interactive Gaming (EiG) conference in Barcelona, set to take place on between 23 and 25 September. Why? Because this year we will get to hear some pretty prominent online gaming industry experts debate the state of affairs regards the US legal situation.

Those readers of Bingo Street who have been following this blog will know about the devastating effect the US’ UIGEA legislation had on non-US online gaming companies when it was introduced in late 2006. Online bingo games operators and UK online bingo halls were all, with one fell swoop, banned from operating in the US market – it was a major dislocation to business which forced many to seek new markets in able to recover.

Clarion Gaming, the organizers of the EiG event are to be congratulated in assembling this array of experts willing to discuss the ramifications of US legislative policy. I for one am going to be very interested to hear what they may be predicting regarding the future of the US online gaming market.

Written by Bingo Lady

Alberta approach to problem gambling not the answer

If there is one thing you cannot accuse the online bingo industry of doing, and that’s not recognizing its responsibility in limiting the effects of problem gambling. I would say that bingo online as an industry practices some of the most aware policies in trying to negate the effects of problem gambling and its social consequences.

A story out of Alberta, Canada, recently caught my eye in which an attempt has been made to get problem gamblers to sign onto a list of people who have voluntarily banned themselves from going to casinos. Guess what? The scheme has not worked.

The problem gamblers who signed on have subsequently found it all too easy to sneak past security who can’t be expected to remember the faces of all 1,500 people on the list. Oh well,… at least they tried.

I prefer the way in which UK online bingo halls are able to minimize problem gambling through being able to operate in a well regulated gaming environment. The UK leads the world in this regard and online bingo games have maintained their sociable nature as a result.

There are always going to be people who take things too far and problem gambling is a serious problem for those affected by it. However, the Alberta experiment has shown us the way not to deal with this problem – Online bingo seems to be doing a much better job,… at least here in the UK.

Written by Bingo Lady