Bingo News: June 2008 Archives

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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!

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.

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.

The go ahead has been given for a building that was once the Vogue Bingo hall to be demolished to make way for a new office block in Keith Street. Plans are afoot and were approved on Tuesday for a four storey building with a landscaped area and car parking to be built in its place. Previously the Vogue Bingo hall was a cinema and the building dates back to the 1920's. 

The Daily Mail today reported that a Practice Manager of a GP Surgery in Wigan was jailed for stealing £68,000 to fund her addiction to online bingo and slot machines. The 36 year old woman, Penny Sudworth, had been awarding herself pay rises, forging cheques and fiddling the books to help pay off her mounting debts. Her theft was discovered after the surgery's bank manger became suspicious when their overdraft limit was exceeded.

In the news today was a press release announcing the launch of Hygge Bingo in Denmark on the St Minver platform. The press release I was reading described the site as using "a warm and inviting colour scheme" although it's more an autumnal colour scheme in my eyes. As with all the online bingo sites powered by St Minver Hygge Bingo uses the Parlay Entertainment software.

Parlay seem to be going from strength to strength as industry leaders in the provision of online bingo software and their newest deal is with Tain, a company that supply poker and casino online already.

The latest promotion at the online bingo site fronted by funny man Vic Reeves, 888ladies Bingo, is a chance to win tickets to Royal Ascot on Saturday 21st June, or if that isn't your cup of tea the second prize is tickets to the England versus New Zealand test match at Lords on June 28th.

Bingo Liner, Bingo Café and King Jackpot have now launched Mega Bingo at their online bingo sites. So what exactly is "megabingo"? It's a game where all the bingo sites on the network join together for a linked game of bingo which means bigger prizes. The first game is due to play on Saturday 14th June with a guaranteed at £2,500 with a jackpot prize of £10,000.

It has been widely reported today that online bingo site Bingo Palace have been granted a licence from Alderney for their online bingo site. The site itself is powered by Azul Europe which happens to be a licensee of Parlay Entertainment bingo software.

One lucky winner from Nottingham took home more than £21,000 from her local Gala Bingo club recently after scooping the National Bingo prize. The winner, a factory worker, has been a member of the club since it opened and plays two or three times a week with different members of her family. Although the National prize on the night she won was actually £60,000 she had to share with two other players, one in Leeds and one in Basingstoke.

A bingo worker in Canada was stabbed during a robbery at the Princess Bingo hall in Fennell Avenue East, Hamilton, Ontario. A man and a woman where in the bingo hall cleaning after the bingo session when four males approached the building, the male cleaner confronted the men when he left the building to throw out the rubbish.

Checking through the Google news as I do daily I stumbled across an article entitled "Player wins 14,000 at Little Bingo Site with Biggie prizes" - the title itself grabbed my attentions at I followed the link to the article only to be taken to Bingo Mania's blog.

Foxy Bingo recently performed a makeover of their online bingo sites home page and not to be outdone Dream Bingo have performed an overhaul of their home page too. In comparison with how the site looked previously and the navigation their new offering is far better. Navigation is easier and information is readily available where as before some details were hidden away.

A man who has been a member of his local Mecca Bingo club in Stevenage for 15 years had a visit from Lady Luck recently when he took home more than £37,000 by winning the National Bingo game. The 42 year old man visits the club twice a week with his family and it's said he is "pretty amazed" by his win.

You wouldn't think it to look at him but the Foxmeister is now 3 years old and the site he's famous for, Foxy Bingo, are truly celebrating in style. All their bingo members, new and old, are in for some great promotions throughout June to help them celebrate and you would be mad to miss out on the celebrations so get you party hats on, your glasses full and toast Happy 3rd Birthday to Foxy Bingo, the best online bingo site around!

The Mecca Bingo club in All Saints Green saw one lucky lady scoop a jackpot prize of over £62,000 on Friday 30th May. The 58 year old lady was playing bingo at her local club with her husband and managed to call bingo in just 42 numbers. This meant she won the house prize of £50, the Regional prize of £2,274 and then the National prize of £60,000.

Bingo Nexus is to be launched in Summer 2008 and will be bought to the online bingo industry by Chartwell Technologies and Parlay Entertainment. It will, according to reports, combine the bingo software of Parlay Entertainment and the back office administration of Chartwell. Parlay bingo software powers the entire St Minver network as well as a few other online bingo sites currently.

Online bingo site Mirror Bingo recently held a charity day to raise money for the charity Children with Leukaemia and it proved to be a roaring success with over £13,000 raised for the charity.