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Wink Bingo Winner Beats the Credit Crunch

One very lucky lady called Margaret Cregan from Northumberland, won’t be worrying about the credit crunch that is reportedly sweeping Britain and other parts of the world, as she has just won a year’s worth of free shopping at supermarket giants Tesco, after playing online bingo with Wink Bingo! Along with millions of people in the UK, Margaret Cregan had been struggling with the rising cost of food and fuel and she spoke to Wink Bingo about how she had been denying herself treats and looking for bargains when doing here weekly shop, this now is going to become a distant memory for the lucky lady as she will not have to worry about paying another Tesco or fuel bill for a whole year.

In a twist of fate Margaret only became a bingo player at Wink Bingo after spotting an advertisement for their online bingo site at her local shopping centre, so you could say that by shopping she has won her free shopping and lots of it!

Astro Bingo Quadruple Bingo Jackpot

Astro Bingo have just quadrupled the bingo jackpot in their indigo bingo room to a whooping £6,400! This sensation happened overnight at their online bingo site and to make sure that this huge cash prize is going to be won some time very soon, Astro Bingo will be increasing the numbers that their players need to win this jackpot in by one each week until it does get won and the cash prize on offer will keep on growing with each day that passes until it falls right of the screen right into one of their lucky online bingo players laps!

As from Friday 21st Astro Bingo have kick started this rolling giant jackpot at 38 numbers to win it in and it is set to increase by one number each week thereafter until it is won. Now they are hoping that it will be won before New Year’s Eve, but should this jackpot still remain in play come the very last day of 2009, then Astro Bingo assure you that the New Year is going to prove to be very fruit fall for one of their bingo players as the numbers to win the giant jackpot will then increase by one number every single day until it is won.

This is exciting news for the bingo players at Astro Bingo and it basically means that at least one of them are going to be whole lot better off very soon from playing at their online bingo site. If you wanted to take part in this huge jackpot fun, then simply register with Astro Bingo, pick up your free £10 no deposit required, online bingo bonus and take a firsthand look at just what their online bingo site is all about absolutely free.

Astro Bingo are another site on the net where we have seen lots and lots of changes taking place over the past month and these have all enhanced bingo play for their players, plus given them a whole lot more to play for. Their all new loyalty scheme is much improved, as bingo points are now accumulated through play and these are going to be able to be used in a number of different ways. Loads of weekly specials are now on offer at Astro Bingo from fair for all bingo games to the grand prix speed ball bingo tourney that really will see their bingo players win some great additional cash prizes.

With over £6,400 now waiting to be won on their giant jackpot, Christmas really could be coming early for one of the lucky Astro Bingo Players!

Alabama to ban bingo?

The Alabama Attorney General has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to delay or stop the introduction of electronic bingo in the state,

An Etowah County Circuit Court ruling on October 17 allowed a $200 million bingo development to go ahead which proponents say will create 1,000 jobs,

Two developers, Coosa Entertainment Group and CBS Supply, are shortlisted for the project. The County Commission said in a press release they found King’s action “difficult to understand,” given the severe economic conditions facing the country, state and county.

Troy King, the Attorney General, is asking that his office join an appeal filed by the Etowah Baptist Association which claims the project should not be permitted to go ahead because the Attorney General was not properly notified about the issuance of a charitable bingo permit.

Chris Bence, chief of staff for Troy King, said the Attorney General was acting only out of a desire to clarify the legality of bingo within Alabama. [King has] “absolutely no interest for or against this proposed development,” he said. “His only interest is that if it is going to be done, it is done legally.”

Bingo coming to mobiles?

The launch of a fully working bingo product for mobile phones was a hot topic at last week’s 5th Annual Mobile Gambling Summit.

The two day conference, held at London’s Marriot Regents Park Hotel, attracted around 80 attendees from mobile gambling software companies, mobile operators such as Vodafone and Orange, and gambling companies.

But while great strides have been made producing mobile versions of casino games like blackjack and roulette and a huge variety of slots games, developments in bingo are some way behind. Even poker, which in many ways is more complex to programme than bingo, has a playable mobile product, offered by Cecure Gaming.

Various gaming software companies are investigating linking online bingo sites on a mobile phone but they admit that it may take three to four years before the product will be good enough to attract a mass market audience.

Charles Palmer, co-founder of gaming software company mfuse, told the conference that he was developing new casino and bingo products for launch in the second quarter of 2009 but delegates later said they expected his bingo offering to be closer to a keno-style game than the online bingo products offered by most leading sites.

Charles Cohen, chief executive of Probability plc, an AIM listed sofware provider and gaming operator, said that mass market gambling on mobile phones was still some way off. “The public don’t yet know that it is possible to gamble on your mobile phone,” he said, admitting that mobile gaming was roughly five years behind its online competitors.

Most gambling operators at the conference admitted their priority was to get existing customers playing on their mobiles as an extra way of generating revenue. One head of mobile products for a leading High Street bookmaker told Bingo News: “You just need to get your really big customers playing on their mobiles because it increases the lifetime value of that player by two to three times. What is really amazing though is that they are not gambling on their way to work or in the office when the firewall blocks them. Most of the gambling is done on their mobiles when they are lying on the sofa watching telly and they can’t be bothered to get up and sit at their computer.”

Bingo is winning in the recession

Although businesses in West Fife are suffering from the economic downturn the county’s bingo halls are reporting a boom.

Although businesses in West Fife are suffering from the economic downturn the county’s bingo halls are reporting a boom.

As the credit crunch hits home more young women in Dunfermline have starting trading expensive nights out, opting to spend the evening playing bingo.

Statistics taken from those attending Carlton Bingo at Fife Leisure Park, show that 25% of the total number of people playing at the venue are women under the age of 30.

Dunfermline hairdresser Sinead Walls, 23, told the Dunfermline Press: “I go with my boyfriend or parents. I went when it opened up, enjoyed it and have gone ever since.

“It’s always a bonus when you win but you can have a drink at the weekends as well.

“It’s not better than going out on the town but it is a cheaper night.”

Christina Mcelhinney, manager of the Forth Bingo Club in Rosyth, explained that advances in technology as well as the opportunity to win money is encouraging more young people than ever before to try the game.

She said: “It is a cheaper night out for them [young people], and there is a chance to win money.

“We have the same people at this club who have been coming here for years but you do have some young ones coming in.”

Carlton Bingo manager Shaun Gibson said: “The way the economy is, the option is there to come here and have a good night out that is hassle free as well.

“When money is short you have a chance of winning some money for not a tremendous amount of outlay.”

Bingo Lingo

Internet Bingo is pretty much like real bingo – with a few differences.

To start playing Bingo online for real money a player will have to create an account and make an initial deposit with an online Bingo site. You can find our favourites in the menu on the right hand side.

Games start every few minutes depending on the Bingo host Read more

History and info

The game is presided over by a caller, whose job it is to call out the numbers and validate winning tickets. He will announce the prize or prizes for each game before starting.The caller will then usually say “Eyes down” to indicate that he is about to start. He then begins to call numbers as they are randomly selected, either by an electronic Random Number Generator (RNG), by drawing counters from a bag or by using balls in a mechanical draw machine. Calling takes the format of simple repetition in the framework, “Both the fives, fifty five”, or “Two and three, twenty three.”

The different winning combinations are:

• Line — covering a horizontal line of five numbers on the ticket.
• Two Lines — Covering any two lines on the same ticket.
• Full House — covering all fifteen numbers on the ticket.
  • In New Zealand in bonus (Super Housie) games, often three lines may be claimed – top, middle and bottom, usually with much larger prizes, are also played at various times throughout the session.
  • In the UK, however, it is most common for a line game to be followed directly by a two line game and a full house game, or just by a full house game.
  • In the UK’s National Bingo Game only a full house game is ever played. The record payout for the national bingo game was £950,000 and was won by a lucky customer from Gala Sheffield Parkway.
  • In all cases, the last number called must be in the winning sequence. If you do not stop the game in time, beware, because if the caller starts the next number, your claim will be deemed invalid!

When players first come to the venue (often a church hall, rugby club or other place with sufficient tables and chairs, including in the UK many specifically designed bingo clubs) they can buy a book of tickets. Players generally play between one and six books. In New Zealand a book usually contains fifty tickets which are played over the course of the night. In UK bingo clubs, playing is divided into sessions with different books, each with a designated number of pages. Players in the UK usually prefer to buy books of six tickets containing all possible numbers in different combinations.

As each number is called, players check to see if that number appears on their tickets. If it does, they will mark it with a special marker called a “dabber” or a “dauber”, shown here. When all the numbers required to win a prize have been marked off, the player calls out “Line” or “House” depending on the prize, and an official or member of staff will come and check the claim:

• In the UK with the increasing computerization of bingo systems, an Auto-Validate system is often used in large clubs where a 1 to 8 digit security code is read out by a member of staff and checked against the entry for that ticket on the system. This saves the club from the time-consuming exercise of reading out every number on the ticket.
• In smaller clubs, however, each number in the winning combination must be read out. The caller will check to see if each number has been called, and if it has, he will say something similar to “House correct – please pay out”.

There will often be an interval halfway through the game. In Australia and New Zealand Super Housie tickets are played and raffles (if there are any) are drawn. In UK bingo halls it is most common for Mechanised Cash Bingo to be played (see below).

Chris Lamb, duty manager from Gala Bingo Nottingham Castle, says “Electronic gaming is now taking another step forward with the introduction of P.E.T (programmable electronic tickets), that allows customers to play many more tickets on a small hand-held terminal, connected to the caller via wi-fi.”