WhichBingo.co.uk has launched its annual ‘Online Bingo Oscars’, which reward excellence among online bingo sites.
The awards were begun in 2003 and are open to all of the more than 250 ‘pay-to-play’ online bingo sites currently operating in the UK. Players can vote for their favorite site through December 31, 2008, with winners being announced in January 2009.
With online poker having reached critical mass and appearing to be maxed out, the next phenomenon seems as though it will be online bingo. Competition for online bingo developers and operators is toughening up and we are seeing huge amounts of cash prizes, promotion prizes and free money being given away in the attempt to draw new members to sites.
Google seems to have had a turnaround regarding their policy of not allowing online bingo and gaming advertising. This rather dramatic situation appears to be as a result of the present economic climate in UK, in fact the same situation applies to the rest of the world too. Large advertisers have had to tighten their belts and some have cut their advertising budgets by as much as half.
Following on the latest trend of bingo halls trying to get highly lucrative £500 jackpot slot machines into their clubs, the latest club to apply for an “Adult Gaming Centre” license is the Mecca Bingo in Oldbury. This licence has been seen as something of a “loophole” for bingo clubs to house high value slots machines to boost their revenues.
One lucky fifty eight year old bingo player from Wrexham is going to be sticking to her guns, and sharing her winnings with her sister after she won over ₤18 000 while playing bingo at the Mecca Club in Smithfield Road, Wrexham. She regularly plays with her sister and they have an agreement to share any bingo prizes they win. The lucky lady, who has not been named, said that this win has come at a very good time as it is her thirtieth wedding anniversary later on in June.
There are all kinds of different bingo lingo, and in the old days bingo lingo was confined to the “bingo speak” of a caller in the bingo club, but times have changed and although, nicknames for bingo callers are still used in some instances, they are often frowned upon in professional bingo halls because of the fact that using them can make the bingo winning number ambiguous.
A backend error by Foxy Bingo led to them having to pay out ₤50 000 in prize money when the jackpot was won. Apparently a game that was supposed to be a coverall jackpot accidentally went out to the public as a guaranteed jackpot and when the lucky player tracy1801 won bingo in sixty calls (not even a very good number of calls) and was supposed to be paid out ₤500, however due to the error, the operating company, Cashcade paid out ₤50 000.
`zulu22’ is the latest winner of the progressive jackpot at Bingopalace.co.uk, although the online bingo site launched in 1999, this is the largest progressive jackpot paid out by Bingopalace to date. The most remarkable thing about this huge bingo prize is that the ticket cost a mere 25p and there has only ever been one prize over ₤10 000 won in the 25p room and `zulu22’ won an impressive ₤16 273.
When the US Government decided to enact the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, many UK online bingo sites suffered extensive financial losses. Since then the UK and the EU have continuously challenged the US Government in terms of this Act and it seems as though they are weakening on their resolve. (more…)
