Bingo News: December 2008 Archives

Ladbrokes Bingo look set to carry on the New Year with the same great attitude it had during 2008. The year has seen a lot of great changes at the site including a smart new looks, a highly successful television marketing campaign and plenty of well thought out promotions that have seen a lot of lucky players winning a lot of money. There is a lot of money up for grabs this month to so why not check out Ladbrokes Bingo's January Promotions.

When I retire from my job as the worlds best bingo writer (I am safe to say that while Betty is on the other side of the world) I want to retire somewhere nice and quite, somewhere like Emmerdale but without the mass murders, family feuds, dodgy dealing and tragic Christmas storylines. I have my heart set on a little barn conversion at Game Village and now I have seen 7 good reasons to play at Game Village Bingo I wish I could move tomorrow.

Crown Bingo are not giving you time to recover from their hectic Christmas schedule before launching you into the New Year with a month packed full of big jackpots and superb prizes. You will only have a few days to recover from tonight's festivities and tomorrows hang over before you need to head over there and join in the January fun at Crown Bingo.

Sun Bingo is always adding new games to their repertoire but recently they seem to be having a few problems coming up with ideas of their own and seem to be borrowing heavily from Tombola Bingo. First was Poochie Racers and now they have launched Snap which draws heavily from Cinco again from Tombola Bingo. I can't say I blame them though as Tombola are masters of instant games and the Sun Bingo snap game is sure to be a huge success.

How many hours a day do you spend sitting on a bus trying not to look at the person next to you who is telling you about how when they were a lad they used to walk bare footed thirty miles a day to work down the pits before walking thirty miles home in six foot deep snow only to spend the night sweeping chimneys so they could raise enough money to go off and fight for the country. Well instead of looking out of the window why not play mobile bingo at MMM Bingo.

How are you going to celebrate New Year? Are you going to have a quiet night in and watch Jools Holland with a cup of cocoa? Maybe a small family party with a few bottle of cheap plonk? Or are you going to go wild and party the night away in a foam filled club that charges £10 for a bottle of water? Well all of that sounds a bit too energetic why not join me and spend New Year with Bingo Hero.

Bingo Playground is still quite a young site but in the short time they have been in operation they have gained a lot of fans; myself included. This month they are going all out to make sure we all have a great New Year at Bingo Playground.

Big Heart Bingo is a totally unique bingo site in that it's the UK's first and only charity bingo site that was established to raise money for a range of good causes. The site uses the Cozy Games software to offer 90 ball and 80 ball bingo as well as a full range of slots and instant games. All new players that register get £10 free and a 150% first deposit bonus; there is a new incentive for joining now as well as you will also get a free gift from Big Heart Bingo.

I was flicking through the hundreds of TV channels on my Sky box looking for something that was not a repeat I had seen at least a dozen times before when I stumbled across Challenge Jackpot which is a multiplatform casino that can be accessed on Virgin channel 141, Sky channel 860 and online. Essentially Challenge Jackpot is an online casino where you can play games streamed live to your television and control them using your remote control or keyboard.

How are you feeling today? Have you recovered yet from forcing a weeks worth of food down your throats in one day? Have you gotten over the hangover from the two bottles of wine, ten cans of beer and half a bottle of vodka you used to wash it all down? Have you thought about how you are going to fund it all when all of the bills start dropping on your welcome mat? No? Me either. I am banking on some Holiday Recovery from New Sun Bingo to come to me rescue.

As you may remember from a previous article of mine the great Paddy Power Bingo has recently undergone a makeover to make it all girly and pretty. Gone is the old green and semi manly site in favour of something that looks like an explosion in a pastel paint factory. It would however look like they now want their players to be just as pretty by giving you a chance to win a makeover at Paddy Power Bingo.

Well Christmas is over again for another year and I have restocked my pants and socks drawer and added to my life time supplies of Old Spice and Brut aftershave. I spent all day yesterday eating, drinking and arguing with people who refused to believe I could watch Doctor Who with my eyes closed. As per usual Boxing Day is the start of the sales even in the world of Online Bingo so I suggest you check out Gala Bingo's January Sales.

Tombola Bingo certainly do not hang about, their superb £100,000 Winter Wonderland game only ended yesterday and they are already teasing us with a new free side game that will be launching on Monday January 5th 2009. Cannonball from Tombola Bingo will be free for all registered players and promises to give away over £10,000 each week.

ChitChat Bingo is one of the many excellent sites running the superb St.Minver Software. It is a well designed site with a nice bright colour scheme that is easy to navigate. They offer all new players ten free games and a 100% cash match bonus on their first deposit up to a maximum £125. The main focus of ChitChat bingo is 90 ball but they also offer a great range of side games too. In recent weeks it has been a very lucky place to play at, just ask these ChitChat Bingo Big winners.

Christmas Day is finally here and it is a day for us all to reflect and be thankful for the things we have and the people we have around us.  For me I am really thankful for meeting up with my old friend Betty Pandora again and for her introducing me to this crazy world of Online Bingo because it has changed my life in so many positive ways.

The Christmas celebrations are well under way at 32 RedBingo this week with plenty of extra jackpots to make your festivities go off with a bang. If you have not yet discovered the joys of 32 RedBingo now would be the ideal time to join and claim your £10 for free and 100% cash match bonus on your first deposit. As soon as you have registered you will be able to join in all of the fun this excellent Microgaming software powered site has to offer.

Christmas Day is usually a time of over eating, over drinking and generally slobbing around the house watching naff television trying to tolerate the family you have managed to avoid for the past 364 days. This year why don't you join me and spend the day playing everyone's favourite pastime as there is plenty of bingo fun this Christmas.

Two days ago when I introduced myself to you I told you about how one of my pet peeves is bingo sites that seem to forget that men enjoy bingo too. Well thankfully it looks as though I am not the only person thinking like this because there is a new site that has just launched and it is geared just to us blokes and the things we enjoy; This innovative and ground breaking site is Bloke Bingo.

Tombola Bingo is without doubt one of the rising stars in the world of online bingo. Since their split with Sun Bingo the site has gone from strength to strength and now hosts some of the best looking and most enjoyable side games to be found anywhere. Hamster Race, Cinco, Battle Ships and Roller Coaster are all superb and now they have had their first big winner at Bandit from Tombola Bingo.

The new Paddy Power Bingo site seems to be a big hit with all of their loyal players. The new standalone format combined with improved navigation and easier to understand promotions has made a good site into a great site. The site is riding on the crest of success and won the Best Newcomer Award 2008 at the Bullet Business Bingo Awards. To show the loyal players how grateful they are for this success there is plenty of free bingo at Paddy Power Bingo.

We all love our online bingo and see it as good old innocent fun but what if your favourite pastime got you arrested? Well that is exactly what has happened to six British Holiday makers who were arrested for playing Bingo on Friday night in a bar in Altinkum, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkey.

Wink Bingo (in my humble opinion) is currently one of the stars of Christmas 2008, their superb Winkmas promotions have seen them give away loads of great gifts in their advent calendar and let's not forget they will be giving away a super cool Mini and five £1,000 guaranteed jackpots before the month is out. Today I bring you news of an innovation in online bingo though, WinkMe at Wink Bingo.

I must admit I am a bit of a music fan .... OK maybe more then just a bit I am in fact a music fanatic who owns thousands of legally downloaded albums, in fact I have so many I had to purchase an extra hard drive for my pc just to be able to cope with it all. The trouble is my aging MP3 player can't keep up with my demands any more so I really need to Win an iPod from Foxy Bingo.

You may be wondering who is McDabber? so I thought it was about time I introduce myself. I am McDabber and I will be writing for you over the next three weeks while your usual hostess the gorgeous Betty Pandora is sunning herself on the beaches of Florida. I am a 34 year old male and I love Bingo and am not ashamed to say it. For too long now men have been considered second class citizens in the world of online bingo and I am here to put that right.

Next week, whilst I'm off sunning myself in Florida, is free bingo week at William Hill Bingo and the fun starts on Monday 22nd December and ends on Sunday 28th December. There will be one free bingo game at the tope of each and every hour throughout the day starting at 9am and finishing off with the last game at 5pm with all prizes at £50; from 6pm right through until midnight the prizes increase to £75 per game.

If you like the community feel at any of the hundreds of online bingo sites then you have no doubt come across many that offer Team Bingo. What you many have seen as prizes for the team that score the most points is bingo points or loyalty points which in essence is bonus money. Team Bingo from bet365 Bingo brings a whole new prize structure to their Team Bingo games by way of actual cash prizes!

Many of us will have seen much merriment over the Christmas period and maybe even held a house party but when all the decorations come down you may notice that the house is looking a little dull. One online bingo site is offering you the chance to win one of ten vouchers from Home Base; it's the House of Bingo makeover promotion.

I have one of the Sun Bingo Christmas promotion cards so since December 6th I have been logging in everyday to see if I am a winner in this promotion. Today I was surprised to see a new game launched; it's the new Sun Bingo Snap game and to be honest I was really shocked to see that it is a take off of Cinco at Tombola Bingo. It was only recently that the new Sun Bingo launched Poochie Racers, a blatant copy of Hamster Races.

Finally the wait is over, Bandit at Tombola is now ready to play and I'm excited to see what this new game from Tombola Bingo actually holds in store for bingo players. It would seem now that Bandit is live at Tombola people are going made for the new game as all of the rooms where full when I logged in to try the game out. Surely they are teasing me!

Back in March 2007 888 purchased the Globalcom network for a staggering $32.4 million but the latest news is the 888 are to launch three more networks at the beginning of the New Year. Now I'm not someone who has a real head for all the business side of online bingo but I do know that the Globalcom bingo software is probably my favourite platform on which to play online bingo.

Today I read that NetPlay are the first interactive gaming company to be granted a digital terrestrial television licence so they can now operate a dedicated Freeview channel 24 hours a day. The plans are that on January 8th NetPlay will be broadcasting its services on Freeview channel 48; this will include SuperCasino and Live Bingo. NetPlay are the people behind Bingos on TV but how many players actual play bingo on TV?

Mobile bingo has been around for a little while now with the likes of Mecca Bingo and Foxy Bingo all having mobile versions of their online bingo games and although I'm not fan of mobile bingo I was surprised to see one of the smaller network of bingo sites take the step into mobile bingo. The Best Bingo Network is a network of Cozy Games sites and the news is that one of these sites, House of Bingo goes mobile.

If you are a fan of the online bingo sites that use the Cozy Games bingo software then the Harrys Bingo championships might just appeal to you. This bingo promotion started on 1st December but doesn't end until 28th December when the Grand Finale takes place so you have plenty of time to secure your seat in the Grand Finale of the Harry Bingo championships.

There are loads of promotions running for Christmas at Game Village Bingo and although not one of the internet bingo sites that I tend to frequent it has some really unique games to play. Game Village Bingo use their own software platform so if you are looking for a completely different online bingo experience then this is definitely a site to try. Christmas at Game Village sees specials like the Christmas Day £10,000 Super Game.

I don't usually frequent the online news from the Guardian but one article caught my eye this morning and it was about the Gala Coral losses. According to the news article by Simon Bowers Gala Coral are still seeing losses in trading for bingo and casino and are struggling to "service their huge debts". Gala Coral is private equity owned employer and have recently had a £124m "hand out" from three backers, Permira, Cinven and Candover but despite this there has still been a pre-tax loss of £397m for the 12 months prior to September 27th.

Have you visited Paddy Power lately? If not I suggest you take a wander over there today as there have been some big changes not least of which is the Paddy Power Bingo Makeover. Where as previously the site was incorporated into the much larger Paddy Power site, it now has a more standalone feel.

There is a new online bingo site preparing for its launch by the name of Bunny Bingo and it would appear that we have seen the influx of St Minver sites, then the Parlay ones and now it is the turn of Virtue Fusion as the software platform of choice for new online bingo sites. You can register for Bunny Bingo now but the site is not ready for playing at as yet although the promotions are listed for the site.

I have been very remiss this month with so many Christmas promotions around the world of online bingo some were bound to pass be by and one of them comes from Virgin Bingo who are offering a different special offer throughout the whole of December. A Virgin Bingo Christmas will be a good one for both the lucky players amongst us and the not so lucky.

Do you have any plans for Thursday 18th December? If not then why not join in the festive fun of the Xmas party at Bingo Scotland where they will be a huge raffle draw offering up some fantastic prizes to their lucky online bingo players. The fun starts at 8pm on 18th December at Bingo Scotland but to get your raffle ticket you do need to be a member of the Bingo Scotland forum.

The latest gadget to become an overnight sensation is the iPod Touch and one online bingo site is offering one a week throughout December to the player who scores the most points each week. The Bingo Hero December promotion offers all players the chance to score points just for playing bingo at their online bingo site throughout December.

There is a new pre-buy room available for a limited time over at Wink Bingo, it's called Winkmas and it's sole purpose is for the pre-purchase of bingo tickets for the advent calendar at Wink Bingo games that play every day at 8.30pm for your chance to win a great prize thanks to this online bingo site who are also offering you the chance to win a Mini on New Year's Day.

I was interested to see that there is a new site "coming soon" by way of BondBingo. So how did I stumble upon this information? Well one of the review sites that I am involved in happens to have a writer called Bingo Bond and I thought it would be interesting whether he shows up when you search his name. This was when I noticed BondBingo so of course had to be the first to bring the news of the impending launch of another new online bingo site.

There is a new online bingo site that has launched called 88Bingo and my question is how long will it last? Are 888 going to try and cease the domain or accuse 88Bingo of cashing in on the 888 name? I think its extremely likely that it wont be long before this site disappears because in all honest do Cozy Games have the financial prowess of 888 and are they willing to do battle over a domain so similar to the 888 brand?

The Posh Bingo Christmas promo offers a prize for a fantastic New Year's for the player who is lucky enough to win this online bingo promotion but what amazes me is that we haven't even passed Christmas yet! It will soon be upon us though and then we all start planning what we will be doing on New Year's Eve; I have my plans already - I will be in Florida just in case I haven't told all our readers that already!

I'm finding covering all these Xmas promotions a bit of a minefield; I think I've covered them all and then I come across yet another one. The latest to come to my attention is Christmas at Bingo Liner and this promotion focuses more on actually playing online bingo than opening advent calendar windows or answering quiz questions which makes a bit of a change.

If you love online bingo then you will love the Love Bingo December promotion (how many love's in one sentence?) because they are giving away a superb prize each and every week throughout December including shopping vouchers, gift sets, and spa days to their online bingo players simply for making a deposit each and every week throughout the whole of December.

Not only has Foxy Bingo been spoiling its players with their Christmas special that runs until the 7th December with a prize draw on the 8th December but they have now launched the Foxy Bingo advent calendar which will see a special game or prize up for grabs each day throughout December. What I love about the Foxy Bingo advent calendar is that you never know what each day will bring.

In the past week Astro Bingo's Indigo Jackpot quadrupled overnight and as a giant Astro Bingo festive treat they are extremely determined to see this massive cash prize gone before the end of 2008! The way Astro Bingo are going to try to make someone's Christmas a dream come true is quite simple. Each week they are going to increase the call number until the end of the year.

One online bingo site is offering something a little different in their promotion in the run up to Christmas. The Christmas list at ChitChat Bingo offers one player the chance to do a little bit of Xmas shopping to the tune of £500 if they are lucky enough to win their Christmas prize draw taking place on 12th December 2008. There will be one big winner and 5 runners up who will each get hampers worth £50.

News broke at the CAP event in Barcelona that the people behind a few of the best online bingo sites like Foxy Bingo and Think Bingo were set to launch a brand new bingo site, Cheeky Bingo, at the end of this year. Well the year end is fast approaching and no more has been heard about the impending launch but what interested me was looking at the two domain names.

The voting is now open at Which Bingo for the 6th Annual Online Bingo awards and it will be a race to the finish this year I think between the likes of Foxy Bingo, Wink Bingo and 888ladies. These three sites have gone from strength to strength with Foxy Bingo being the oldest of the contenders. Foxy Bingo have definitely upped their game over the last 12 months and I think this will be a hotly contended race this year.

It was only recently that 888ladies introduced horoscopes to their online bingo site all of which are provided by probably one of the most famous astrologers, Russell Grant. The latest addition to their bingo site is the 888ladies horoscope game where no less than twelve lucky players will take home a share of 450,000 loyalty points just for winning bingo on the special 888ladies horoscope games.