Bank Holiday Day

Join Mecca Bingo for a Manic Bank Holiday Monday on the 25th from 8.45pm and a massive £25,000 is guaranteed. The online bingo promos at Mecca Bingo are more exciting then ever. This bingo site always provides great variation of games.

Music and Bingo

Businessman has developed a brand new bingo game with a musical twist. Instead of numbers, songs can be called , bingo cards are filled with popular songs and when music comes up from the audio system, you need to mark it as it would be number. In place of numbers there are pop songs and these songs are called instead of traditional bingo numbers. Easy! And I hope it will be available as online bingo soon.

How to recognize an addiction to playing online bingo

Gambling addictions have been around for as long as the different types of gambling. Some individuals just have issues with playing the game for fun and leaving once they are out of money. It may be a negative topic to discuss, but it is relevant to the online bingo world. You don’t want to get in a situation where you owe a lot of money to various places and you can’t pay the debts off. This type of situation can sometimes have terrible consequences, your peace of mind, the increasing debt that you’re unable to pay off, losing the support of your familiy and friends, maybe even lose your house. We have a few things you might want to consider on the subject of bingo addiction.

We want you to be able to recognise the signs of bingo addiction to help you get help before it is too late. With a bingo addiction you tend to play bingo online at several intervals during the day and night. In fact you might lose sleep because you are playing bingo. You might play bingo at work, during hours where you should be finishing a project and doing the job you get paid for. Your credit cards may be maxed out from the cash withdrawals to bingo sites when you have a bingo addiction.

You might ignore the bingo addiction even though your family and friends are worried about you. When the bingo addiction gets out of hand you could lose your job for playing the game during working hours. You may start to miss work just so that you can play bingo. There are many indicators or signs that suggest you might have a bingo addiction and the vast majority of bingo sites are looking out for you.

Most online bingo sites have in place an estimation of how much you will play during the month, and will monitor you any time you seem to play more often or ask for a higher amount to be used during the month. These monitoring systems can’t get you the help you need for a bingo addiction, but it can help stave off the worst of the gambling debt a bingo addiction can get you in.

If you are worried you might have a bingo addiction talk to other players. Visit the chat rooms and ask if anyone has experienced some of the issues you have. By talking with others that have an interest in your hobby you can get the help you need. Sometimes you might think you have a bingo addiction, but it it could be due to other reasons that you started playing more bingo games than usual, and once those issues are solved you go back to your regular usage. Monitor yourself and stave off that bingo addiction.

Huge online bingo cash prizes

If you are not used to playing bingo online you may be unaware of the huge cash prizes you can win. The ease of signing up online is safe and secure and it allows you to get right into playing the bingo games. You will find many ways to get online bingo cash prizes. While these sites have slot machine games as well this article will focus only on online bingo cash prizes.

You will have many opportunities to play many different bingo games online, depending on which website you decide to play bingo at. Each individual bingo site has its own bingo promotions and special bingo games, usually a wide range of smaller bingo games and advancing up to the more serious progressive jackpot bingo games. You can also find huge online bingo cash prizes with coverall jackpots.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the different types of prizes it will depend on what you play and how much you pay to get into the online bingo game. You can purchase bingo cards for as little as 5 or 10p per card, or even 1p on some bingo sites, but these bingo games usually offer smaller cash prizes. It will also depend on how many people are playing the game at the same time. These factors determine what the cash prize will be. You will generally have a fairly large selection of bingo games that you can play within this group.

After you feel comfortable with these online bingo games you might want to go on to a coverall jackpot, where the first person to cover all the squares on their bingo card wins – if you can win within a minimum set number of ball calls the bigger the prize. You can play Coverall bingo games on 75 ball game of a 90 ball bingo game and your cash prize can be very lucrative. Many of the sites have an established amount you will win for this type of game, but the prize value can also be tied to the number of bingo players in the game.
The next level of online bingo play might be a progressive jackpot. The money will accrue from game to game if there is no winner. The money can become quite a large online bingo cash prize. If for instance you would have won £250 in the first game but no one was a winner this amount would be applied to the next game and continue on until someone finally wins the bingo jackpot.

Whether you are an experienced online bingo player or not you are sure to find a type of cash prize that will appeal to you. When you play bingo online you could end up a bingo millionaire if your numbers come in on a huge game!

Written by Bingo Lady

The team of Tombola Bingo are a booming bingo bundle of surprises, as I found out this weekend when I signed up to play bingo with them. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, there’s been a lot of hype floating around the bingo industry about Tombola, and I guess I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I was pleasantly surprised, the Tombola games are really fun and refreshing - it’s nice to see a good selection of online bingo games presented in new and different formats. What’s more, as Tombola do their own bingo software, their games are totally unique and you won’t find these bingo games anywhere else online!

Their latest bingo style game just released is Roller-Coaster - wow what a thrilling ride this is! And I love the concept - 40 bingo balls each get a name, face and catch-phrase, and everytime the roller-coaster loops the loop one of them falls out - and you gotta hope it’s got one of your names on it. All you have to do to play is pick up to 4 carriages with 5 empty named seats, and wait for them bingo balls to fill up your empties.

Tombola have really gone to town on this new online bingo game, there’s even a separate flash animation introducing the new game with all the bingo ball characters, click on each bingo ball to hear their catch-phrase - cool!

Of course when you see the Roller-Coaster looping round your computer screen, one bingo ball after another falling out with a scream, and the mad chatroom buzz as everyone shouts out the names they need to call bingo - LOL much fun was had by little old me, and kudos to Tombola for a new take on the great game of bingo online.

PS. Tombola are rumoured to be having a massively hot bingo promotion lined up for December – you will NOT want to miss their Wonderland promo - soon as we have more news on this fab bingo promotion we’ll bring it to you.

Written by Bingo Lady

Say bingo with flowers

The famous Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is about to become a part of the online bingo community thanks to an interesting promotion by online bingo hall Crown Bingo.

In a statement from Crown Bingo.com we learn:

“In honour of this fantastic display of horticulture, we are giving you the chance to win a bouquet of flowers for every day the show is on (the 8th to the 13th July).

“To win a beautiful summer flower arrangement, all you have to do is buy the most cards in room 2 throughout the day. You do not need to do anything else, just sit back, play and you could win yourself a fantastic bunch of flowers!”

This flower show is part of the legacy left by Henry VIII, who never had the chance to play online bingo, who built one of the finest gardens in the world at Hampton Court Palace. Today it is the home of the one of the world’s largest horticultural shows. Up to 150 specialist nurseries take part.

So all you green thumbed online bingo games players out there, if you fancy some pretty flowers to put beside your gaming computer, go to Crown Bingo and start playing bingo online.

Written by Bingo Lady

Investing in online bingo proving a winning strategy for 888.com

The dramatic decrease in 888.com’s profit over 2007 is yet more evidence that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has proved very damaging to the online bingo games industry. To its credit, 888.com went on to invest in online bingo halls in the UK as it withdrew from the US market to avoid possible prosecution by US authorities. Despite the company losing nearly 55% of its sales due to the loss of the US market, 888 believes it can look forward to a bright future. “2007 was a year of transformation,'’ Chief Executive Officer Gigi Levy said in a statement after the company released its 2007 results. “With many strategic initiatives now underway, we see a bright future.'’ I would say that a major contributing factor to 888’s optimism is its continued investment in bingo online and in the belief that the amount of people who play bingo online will grow. Online bingo is still one of the fastest growing niches in online gaming and with the growth in the Scandinavian markets assured it’s a pretty safe bet that companies that follow a bingo investment model will do well.

Written by Bingo Lady

Facebook and the Feds

The US government went after online gambling and online bingo in a big way with its Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and caused untold damage to the law-abiding businesses involved in the industry as a result. Now its seems it’s the turn of community websites like Facebook which are now on the FBI’s radar for possible online betting violations.

A Computerworld has reported that so-called March Madness office pools on social networks have caught the attention of the FBI. “There could be a violation if there’s a payout and if the operators take a cut,” an FBI spokesman said according to the report.

Really? Seriously? Doesn’t the FBI have better things to investigate than March Madness pools?

Note to potential Facebook fugitives – try online bingo games instead. Bingo online is the most community online gaming experience out there and UK online bingo halls are the safest bet in bingo.

Big win at Wink Bingo good for online bingo

I like hearing news about people winning in online bingo. The recent win of Wink Bingo’s £10,000 Guaranteed Jackpot by one Joelybay marks a first in the industry and I hope it means we’ll see more of this type of innovation in other online bingo halls.

The concept of a £10,000 Guaranteed Jackpot is as simple as it is attractive to online bingo players. Each month on the 10th, at 10pm GMT, Wink Bingo gives away £10,000 Guaranteed. Cards are £1 each and each player can buy up to 24 cards. In an innovation unique to Wink Bingo, players can even pre-buy cards anytime before the game.

I’ll let Joelybay explain what it means to take part and win in a £10,000 Guaranteed Jackpot:

Never slept a wink that night and I don’t think it has actually sunk in yet! My young son is getting a nintendo wii and the rest will be spent on a luxury holiday for the family after a good shopping spree.

May I wish all the players the best of luck for 10 April because if I can win it anyone can!!

Many thanks to Wink Bingo for this fantastic boost to my life.

Best Wishes

Joelybay

Well done Joelybay. We’re just glad that you found your way to Wink Bingo via Bingo Street. Best of luck in your future online bingo games action.

Written by Bingo Lady

Online bingo must adapt to economic downturn

With world economic headlines starting to paint a dreary picture of a global economy sliding into recession, many investors and online gaming operators may feel a little more optimistic than some secure in the knowledge that so-called ‘sin’ investments such as gambling are usually considered recession proof.

However, this should not alter the fact for many online bingo games operators and online bingo halls an economic downturn does not alter the fundamentals to running a successful online bingo game. Complacency is not the game to play when online bingo players may be contemplating cutting back on their online spending.

So what’s in it for your average UK online bingo player to play at your online bingo site? This I think is the fundamental question every online bingo operator should be asking at this time. A look at what the competition is doing is probably a good place to start and Bingo Street is an excellent resource to search this out.

On the upside, and in the face of a probable economic downturn, it’s still good to be one of the few industry blogs that can actually report on positive developments. Long may this continue.

Written by Bing Lady

Count on Rank to be dropping balls for some time to come

Claims by UK gaming company Rank that its bingo operations should stabilize as the year unfolds will be some comfort to those fans of its Mecca Bingo brand. Mecca Bingo is a major name on the land-based bingo scene and also enjoys one of the more recognizable brands in online bingo.

While Mecca Bingo’s online bingo games operations should easily weather the current downturn being experienced by the land-based bingo sector, it remains to be seen if Rank fully turns things round over the course of the year. The company referred to the next 12 months as ‘challenging’, and given the current world economic mood I would say that their assessment is an accurate one.

However, being a gaming company, Rank can hold out hope based on an old investors lore that ‘sin’ stocks are usually a good bet in an economic turndown. Traditionally, gambling is seen by investors as being in the same company as alcohol and tobacco stocks which usually do well during times of stress. I think we can safely bet on the Mecca online bingo hall being around for some time yet.

Written by Bingo Lady

Parlay bidders down to two as number of buyers fluctuates

The bidding action surrounding Canadian online bingo software developer Parlay Entertainment is starting to resemble a saga with the number of bidders yo-yoing on a daily basis it seems.

Media reports have tracked offers first from Chartwell Technology which eventually collapsed with the emergence of UIGEA, and then a more recent offer from PEIC Acquisitions for C$12.3 million. That offer came under pressure from rival bidders when it failed to complete the deal by its deadline. At one time, and including PEIC, there were three bidders in the action, but now that figure is down to two.

Rumours have it that the other bidder along with PEIC is UK gaming giant Ladbrokes. However, Ladbrokes, which also runs its own online bingo games operation, is remaining tight lipped about the speculation. It may be that Parlay’s US connections are causing pause for thought at Ladbrokes given the legal hassles stalking the free online bingo market in the wake of UIGEA.

Written by Bingo Lady

Net Entertainment reports strong 2007

n keeping with the recent emergence of Swedish online gaming companies asserting their presence in the online bingo world, online gambling software developer Net Entertainment has revealed a successful 2007 with an especially good fourth quarter.

CEO Johan Ohman said: "Net Entertainment's Q4 development was good, and net sales increased 12.5 % compared to Q3. The 32.4 % total net sales increase for 2007 should be compared with an average 23 % increase for European online gaming, according to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants estimates.

"Successful product development and continued strong market growth are major reasons for our success. Incoming orders continue to pour in, and we signed five new CasinoModule license agreements during Q4, for a total of 18 in 2007."

Net Entertainment is also planning the start of their entry into the Ukrainian market during 2008.

Ohman concluded his assessment of the last year saying: "The online gaming market is predicted to continue to grow positively, which benefits us through the organic growth of our current licensees. I believe that we are also better equipped than ever to win new strategic deals and thereby further reduce our dependency on existing customers."

Net Entertainment offers online bingo games and supplies software support to a number of online bingo halls. The company also has a strong involvement in Sweden’s land-based bingo industry provoking speculation amongst online bingo industry watchers that they may seek a stronger presence in the online bingo market.

Written by Bingo Lady

Entraction goes NYX for its online bingo operations

Swedish online gaming company Entraction has signed Scandinavian software provider NYX Interactive to provide its online bingo products for its launch of its new Spring offerings.

Entraction says its move into online bingo games complements its existing operations by bringing in a new target market attracted to games of luck. Free online bingo has gained in popularity in the Scandinavian market, particularly with female online bingo players. A number of established Scandinavian gaming companies have identified bingo online as a growth industry worth investing in.

Peter Astrom, Entraction’s CEO, claims online bingo completes the company's product range along with poker, sports betting and casino action.

Staffan Lindgren, CEO at NYX Interactive says the deal with Entraction is important to the global ambitions of his company. NYX Interactive online bingo product incorporates a user friendly chat function designed to enhance the experience of those that play online bingo.

Written by Bingo Lady

Patrick Duffy is playful in a bingo sort of way

Just a little notice to my regular online bingo industry readers – my computer needs a little maintenance which means I will not be posting any updates for two or three days.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with this little tidbit of info I picked up from the US. If there are any bingo online players out there who remember a certain Patrick Duffy of 80’s TV Dallas fame, you might be interested to know that he’s just picked up the job as Bingo America’s host. Bingo America is a GSN TV quiz show with a bingo game element to it created by National Bingo Night founder Andrew Glassman.

“Bingo is such a family pastime,” says Glassman, adding that: “Patrick embodies everything we whished for – not only is he TV’s marquee good-guy leading man, he is also playful and has a great sense of humour.”

My comment: So ‘Bingo is such a family pastime’ in the US is it? Then why does the US need UIGEA to protect it from UK online bingo halls and free online bingo operators? This smacks of hypocrisy – no matter how playful ol’ Patrick is.

See you in a two or three days…

Written by Bingo Lady

Costa Rica joins fight for US compensation

The US’ recent withdrawal from its obligations under the World Trade Organization over online gambling issues has triggered another compensation claim, this time from the Central American nation of Costa Rica.

Costa Rica now joins Antigua in the pursuit of compensation following the US’ unilateral WTO withdrawal from its gambling commitments.

Costa Rica is host to a number of online gambling operators, including some online bingo games companies and free online bingo halls. Online gambling is a significant contributor to the small nation’s economy.

It’s speculated that the new claim could derail an agreement reached between the European Union (EU) and the US on the same issue due to the arbitration filing making it possible for the EU to reconsider the existing settlement. The EU’s deal attracted a lot of criticism from European online gaming and online bingo companies who will see the Costa Rican move as an opportunity to re-focus attention on the perceived lack of compensation offered by the US over its anti-online gaming policies.

"The decision by Antigua and Costa Rica to take the United States to arbitration will test the limits of the WTO process and squarely challenge the U.S. resolve to withdraw its GATS commitments," said Nao Matsukata, formerly Director of Policy Planning for US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and now a Senior Advisor for Alston and Bird LLP.

"If the U.S. finds the decision of the WTO arbitrator unacceptable, under procedures outlined in the General Agreement on Trade and Services, it could unilaterally withdraw, creating an unprecedented crisis of confidence in the global trading system.

"The best solution remains for the US Congress to pass legislation that would create a legal and regulated framework for online gaming in the United States and for the United States to remain in the GATs schedule to provide all providers legal protection under the WTO."

Written by Bingo Lady

Rank trying to raise cash?

Observers of the UK online bingo industry will have probably noticed that online bingo games operator The Rank Group has been under quite a bit of pressure lately with takeover talk, plunging profits and an underperforming land-based bingo network taking its toll on the company.

The most recent talk is of a bid by US financial giant Goldman Sachs possibly buying Rank’s pension scheme valued at £700 million. How this is developing is unclear at this time, but if the sale goes through it will mark the biggest of its kind.

However, things are not going so well for a former bidder for Rank’s operations. I refer to the US gaming and entertainment giant Hurrah’s Entertainment. To give you an idea of how bad things are out there in the macro world of high finance, the leveraged loan market is in “disarray” thanks to the failure of efforts to syndicate $14bn of the debt used to finance the $30bn buy-out of Harrah’s Entertainment – this is bad!

It seems the banks backing Hurrah’s potential have run into a bit of trouble selling on the leveraged buy-out debt to third parties. This is largely due to the current credit crunch playing havoc with the finance markets which has led to a virtual freeze in the debt market. Further, it means the banks are sitting on a sizeable loss.

Given these troubles, it makes sense that Rank may be looking to generate cash through the sale of its pension scheme, especially since Hurrah’s is facing so much trouble, though what the long-term effects are of such a sale is open to question. Is this a viable gamble by one of the UK’s top gaming companies to dig itself out of its current problems? Maybe there is an online bingo player out there with more insight than me into these matters. If so, let’s hear from you…

Written by Bingo Lady

$42 billion or UIGEA? - What would you choose?

PricewaterhouseCoopers, heavy hitters in the world of high finance and accounting, have released a report that concludes the US could raise as much as $42.8 billion in tax revenues over the next ten years if they simply legalize online gambling.

Of course, that would mean the end of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the US, but then who cares about making a paltry $42 billion when you can have UIGEA?

How much online bingo, and particularly UK online bingo halls would contribute to this number is not stated in the PricewaterhouseCoppers report, but it’s fair to say that the fastest growing niche in online gaming would contribute its fair share.

However, despite reports like the PricewaterhouseCoopers document, it’s unlikely free online bingo games operators will see a relaxing of US anti-online gaming laws anytime soon. It’s a shame, but US policy seems to be here to stay for some time yet.

Written by Bingo Lady

PartyGaming well in the black - are the good times back?

PartyBingo is one of the Internet’s more popular online bingo games destinations and the company that operates this online bingo hall, PartyGaming, has just announced better-than-expected profits for the last quarter of 2007.

While this is something to be celebrated by the online bingo industry as a whole, especially in the wake of the horrendous financial losses incurred by UIGEA throughout 2007, there is also another side to the PartyGaming story that lends hope to a brighter future for the online gaming industry.

PartyGaming are currently talking to US authorities along with other major online operators like Sporingbet and 888.com in the hopes of avoiding action against them for accepting wagers from US customers prior UIGEA. Apparently the talks are going well and this is prompting speculation that a re-entry into the US market could be on the cards.

I know – we’ve heard this all before and re-entry to the US market has become somewhat of a holy grail for free online bingo operators here in the UK. But should this be the real deal this time, analysts are saying such a relaxing in US regulations would trigger a spat of consolidations within the online gaming industry.

Should this prove to be the case – and that is a mighty big ‘IF’ – then my own assessment at the beginning of this year that we would see a jump in mergers and takeover activity during 2008 may prove a bit understated. Expect to see the sector go into mergers and acquisition hyperdrive!

Written by Bingo Lady