June 2008 Archives

The Liverpool Echo had an interesting article today about Bingo Night Live presenter Nichola Dixon and the reason for the interest was the Nichola, prior to becoming a Bingo Night Live presenter, was a former weather girl for North West Tonight.

With more and more online bingo sites offering huge guaranteed jackpot prizes it would be remiss of me not to try and bring you a weekly round up of where and when some of the best guaranteed jackpot games are playing throughout the week. For now I will concentrate on the one of the biggest names in online bingo, Foxy Bingo but as more bingo sites hop onto the band wagon the list will grow and grow.

It always amazes me how people come up with songs around the game of Bingo so thinking I had them all covered I was shocked to find yet another Bingo song on You Tube, this time it's called the Bingo Dabber and in this video clip it's performed by a gent called Bannock Boy, he is also the writer of the song.

You Tube serves me well yet again as I didn't even know that 32Red Bingo had started to advertise their online bingo site on television! The advert is very purple to say the least and focuses mainly on the logo visually. There are the usual bingo balls found on most online bingo adverts, a few speech bubbles using some bingo lingo and a couple of smileys dotted throughout the advert as well.

No it's not another game of bingo to play on your TV this is an online bingo site that must have launched quite recently because I have only just stumbled up it. The name insinuates that it's a game of bingo on the television but it is just in fact another online bingo site, this time bought to you by The Palaces Group.

Checking through my Google News alert this evening I was interested to see an article about the launch of a new Free Bingo site and rushed along to the site to check it out. Free Bingo, a slight rip off of the domain owned by the same people as run Which Bingo, seems to be just a marketing tool to get you to play at the online bingo site Jackpot Joy Bingo.

A little while ago now Foxy Bingo launched a competition to find the Mum and Dad of the Year at their online bingo site and all their bingo players where given the opportunity to nominate people that they believed deserving of such a title. The nominations were then whittled down to just three entries and all players where then given the chance to vote for who they felt should be the winner.

Reading through the articles at Bloomberg today I came across one entitled "Online Bingo Industry poised for growth" and was interested to note some of the figures that were used in a quote by Phil Fraser of Which Bingo. Mr Fraser is quoted as saying that the market is currently growing at "about 3% month on month versus about 10% about a year ago". The article also talks about European expansion and bingo on TV.

At last, a newspaper article and interview with a winner from Bingo Night Live - it's been a little while coming but at last details of a winner. Although the official site for Bingo Night Live does list winners this is the first article I have seen with a bit more than just an amount won and a name for one of the winners.

Lily English, a 93 year old woman from Andover, has been hailed as the perfect bingo player simply because she has played the bingo game now for some 40 years! That's a long time, I wonder if she ever got RSI from dabbing? 40 years worth of bingo playing equates to over 10,000 games at her local Mecca Bingo hall which first opened its doors and called "Eyes Down" in 1967.

With the pre-buy option proving popular at online bingo giant Foxy Bingo it wasnt going to be long before Think Bingo, of the same group, introduced the option at their site too. Although the launch date has not been announced yet plans are afoot for a similar schedule to that found at Foxy Bingo.

 

Another online bingo site joins the world of television and it isn't by way of advertising in the case of Bingos.co.uk - since they were bought by NetPlay TV they are part of the same group that run Big Box Bingo and as such all their bingo players can now take part in the TV games with the first being run this Friday, 27th June.

Bet365 Bingo is quite new to the online bingo scene but using the Virtue Fusion bingo software platform and offering £10 free when you make your first deposit of £5 it seems to be that it could soon catch on. As with many online bingo sites Bet365 Bingo offers all bingo players at their site the chance to win extra bonus money by participating in their chat games in the bingo chat rooms.

Wikipedia has to be one of the best known research resources on the web, well it's definitely one of the resources I use most and this evening, out of curiosity, I thought I'd search for the word "bingo" to see what Wikipedia could offer me by way of bingo related information. Boy! Was there a lot to choose from? Maybe I'm just a tad too interested in bingo nowadays and I need to get out more but I learnt a lot whilst looking at some of the links available.

At last! That's the cry from many people in the land based bingo industry as a statement has been issued by the Government after months of faffing about! It was way back in March that Gerry Sutcliffe, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, first talked about the Government issuing a statement about the effects of the double taxation, restrictions on jackpot slot machines and the smoking ban.

Many online bingo sites offer their bingo players the opportunity to take part in Team Bingo but what exactly is it and what are the benefits? Ultimately the main benefit is the opportunity of sharing in a prize pool of loyalty points and cash prizes but one of the fringe benefits is the sense of camaraderie it builds amongst a community of bingo players at any given bingo site.

The National Bingo Game Association web page always provides news of all the latest big winners throughout the country and land based bingo halls. I try and check the page every couple of days, more so at the moment because it's great to read that the floundering land based bingo industry is still bringing joy to the nation despite the adversity it faces at the moment.

This Friday it could be you if you head on over to Foxy Bingo and pre-buy a ticket for the big game at 9pm this Friday. The last Friday in every month sees the best online bingo site, Foxy Bingo, offering all their bingo players the chance to walk away £25,000 richer. Hey, even if you share with another player that's still a lot of pocket change! If you have a night out with your friends planned then you don't have to miss out because if you choose to use the pre-buy option your tickets will still play and you don't even have to be logged into Foxy Bingo to win.

EUBINGO, or if you prefer it's full name, The European Union Bingo Association, has recently appointed a new chairman to be president for the next two years. The lucky man is Javier Cardona from the Spanish Association. There are several members of EUBINGO from across Europe and they include The Spanish Confederation of Organisations of Bingo Games Managers, the Italian Federbingo, The Bingo Association & Star Bingo Group.

Reuters reported yesterday that Wednesday is the day that a statement is due from the Government with reference to the number of slot machines allowed in land based bingo clubs. It was only yesterday that I was writing about the industry being more than a little peeved that despite numerous promises Gerry Sutcliffe had yet to move forward with his promise of help in the bingo industry.

With the huge impression Bingo Night Live has made on the late night TV viewers and the new craze of bingo on TV I was interested to read an article in Bramley Today that talked about one of the presenters, Nichola Dixon playing bingo at a local Mecca Bingo hall with her mum.

I have to admit that I have never heard of Gamesville or BingoZone but when Google sent me the news of a new version of a game I didn't know about I was completely thrown. I was sat here thinking "I know everything online bingo" and it is becoming apparent that I still have a lot to learn - but hey, we learn something new everyday and that is what keeps our minds active.

Sunday June 8th this year proved to be an eventful day at the Deluxe Bingo Club in Hastings and not for the right reasons. I was expecting, as I'm sure you are, when reading this article to be hear about some big winner at the club but that isn't what happened - although I'm sure they have produced a few in their time.

Whilst at the Online Bingo Summit it came to my attention that Bet365Bingo is to launch, another offering to the online bingo industry provided by people who are already part of the online gambling scene. Bet365 already hosts poker, casino, sports betting and games online so it was only a matter of time before they realised the strength of online bingo and came on board.

Bingo Night Live appears to be grabbing the UK insomniacs and bingo players interest and viewing figures are rising daily as well as the number of players taking part. Recently two new presenters have joined Melinda Messenger and Michael Underwood on the show and I have to admit I've never heard of either of them.

I don't really read the Sun (although I do play at Sun Bingo) but this news article interested me simply because Katie Price, aka Jordan, was up until about January this year the face of Foxy Bingo. It was thought that losing Katie Price because of her extortionate price tag may be detrimental to Foxy Bingo but they have continued to go from strength to strength with their new improved advertising campaign for their online bingo site with the rather suave Foxmeister having the limelight all to himself.

The Telegraph today reported that bingo operators are attacking Government ministers for delaying the issuing of a statement about potential help for the floundering land based bingo industry. The chief executive of the Bingo Association, Paul Talboys was reported as saying that many land based bingo halls have closed since Gerry Sutcliffe said in March "an announcement will follow shortly".

Way back in March this year I wrote about InterBingo and how the site had closed well today I bring news that this online bingo site has re-launched on the St Minver / Parlay platform. InterCasino and InterPoker have both been around sometime so I was surprised to find that the original InterBingo had been closed.

Yesterday I logged into Foxy Bingo and found a new button in the "my account" section which said "Self Exclude". I was curious as to what it was and investigated further. On clicking the button I was taken to a page which offered me the option to exclude myself from playing bingo there! Now why would I do that? I love Foxy Bingo! It did however make me question why this has become an option and was it only available at Foxy Bingo?

Yes, I was right! I knew it wouldn't be long before Russell Grant Bingo launched onto the online bingo scene. I cannot be sure of the launch of this online bingo site and I may be wrong in presuming it came about after his involvement with Bingo Night Live but it would appear the Russell Grant may have predicted that online bingo is huge!

Bingo Night Live has been running a couple of weeks now and I will admit to having clicked a few times online to claim my free tickets (when I remember) but I haven't as yet managed to win anything! One of the sections throughout the programme that runs from 12.35am to 1.40am approximately is the Russell Grant and his astrology.

A Flutters Bingo club in Kettering saw one very lucky lady win a huge jackpot of £61,499.14 on Saturday night. Joy Ammon, a 65 year old musician managed to call bingo in the least amount of calls with players across the country to take home this huge National Bingo Game prize.

More and more we are seeing bingo on our TV screens whether it is an advert for an online bingo site, the Bingo Night Live offering from ITV or "press the red button" bingo on Sky TV with the likes of Bingo Joy. Sky Broadcasting has now announced the launch of their new fully interactive game on Sky TV. Sky Bingo will be available to play on your TV as well as at their online bingo site.

One lucky lady from Irvine was more than a little shocked when her bingo session at the local Gala Bingo Club netted her a cool £247,364.05 on Monday. Not only was this grandmother laughing all the way to the bank but all the members at the club that were playing bingo when she won saw their bank balances increase by £1,126.69 as well.

June 29th sees the final of Euro 2008 and Ladbrokes Bingo are running a special promotion to celebrate for all those who don't eat, sleep and breathe football! Two of the rooms at Ladbrokes Bingo will be linking up, The Attic and the Lounge.

Every day I take a look at the National Bingo website to check out all the news about the latest winners and it's always great to read about the big winners at land based bingo and just restores my faith that the bingo industry, although suffering some hard knocks at the moment, changes lives for these lucky winners. Some of the amounts don't mean that people can retire unlike National Lottery winners but the wins do mean the lucky people can splash out and treat themselves.

It saddens me every day that I have to bring news of yet another land based bingo hall closing and today it is a Gala Bingo club in Great Barr, Birmingham that is shutting its doors for the last time. The last session will be played at the club on 23rd June and their will be a loss of 17 jobs although Gala Bingo are trying to relocate the employees to one of its other venues.

I received an email today informing me that the National Bingo Caller of the Year 2008 competition has been suspended! The email simply stated that "Due to the considerable challenges and issues facing the bingo industry at present, it has been decided to suspend the National Bingo Caller of the Year Competition for 2008." It was only recently that I posted about one of the finalists and not so long ago that I wrote about the stages that each contender had to go through.

This year saw the first Online Bingo Awards being presented at the Annual Online Bingo Summit and luckily for me I was their to attend the Awards dinner and see Foxy Bingo win two awards! I was sat at a table with some very handsome fellas and I was the only girlie - to say I was in heaven would be a bit of an understatement! The food was fabulous and the wine was flowing very freely but the company was the best part of the evening!

Well I'm back from the Online Bingo Summit and I have to say in all honesty I had a superb time! The whole event was well organised and I for one learnt quite a bit about the online bingo industry from all angles but the best part for me personally was being able to shake hands with some of the big players in the industry and some of the up and coming names to watch out for.

This advert is definitely from the 1980's and it is just a reminder of how far technology has come since then. The whole Daily Mirror Bingo advert looks tacky and cheesy but hey, it was the 1980's and wasn't everything tacky and cheesy back then?

Things are hotting up in the race to find this years National Bingo Caller of the Year and one finalist is hoping the his numbers are definitely up now he has secured his place in the Grand Final to take place on June 29th in Birmingham. This lucky finalist is from a Gala Bingo club in Wadsley and has battled against some tough competition to reach the Grand Final.

Although I don't often write about the online bingo sites that play in dollars one site caught my eye recently and that was 123Bingo. It caught my eye because of its name initially but then when I took a look at the site its home page looked quite busy and they seemed to have quite a few special offers available for their online bingo members.

Have you ever visited the CM of The Year site and voted for your favourite online bingo chat host? Did you even know there was such a site? Well for those of you who haven't heard of this site let me tell you about it. The site itself is pretty well known by both bingo players and bingo chat hosts alike. When I was working at an online bingo site it was always an honour to see my name in the number one position and always made me swell with pride.

All Bingo Club is one of about four online bingo sites that use the Microgaming software for their bingo games and is becoming more and more popular with many online bingo players. Today I received the All Bingo Club bulletin and was interested to see a section entitled "3 ways to earn a fiver at All Bingo Club". As with many people in life, bingo players or just Joe Ordinary, I'm all for earning some free money so I had to check it.

It would appear that it's not only in the UK that people are turning to crime against their employers in the bingo industry, I read an article today about a chap in Dakota who has just been jailed for six months for stealing $136,000 from his employers, Bingo Palace, over a two year period. Of the six month sentence he received he will have to serve at least three months in prison and part of his sentence means participating in a work release programme.

It's been a while since I looked at You Tube for anything bingo related and like eBay there really are some weird things on there for "bingo" but I did come across a clip of an advert for the National Bingo Game whilst I was trawling through all the clips. I haven't seen this advert on the telly, maybe it's and old one but it did make me giggle.

Time constraints have meant that it's been a little while since I checked for anything bingo on eBay so this morning I logged in, entered the search term "online bingo" and had a look at the offerings of eBay. The only thing listed under "online bingo" is a CD ROM Online Bingo Gu