Online Bingo News & Reviews

The Western world’s battle against smoking has gotten more intense than ever, since the public smoking ban in the UK.  At the time of the ban, it was estimated that 40 per cent of the three million bingo players in the country are smokers, which raised a lot of fear among bingo hall operators.  This is very understandable, because the potential losses in profit would be huge.  Attendance was not the only issue, because many of the bingo halls’ profits came from speed bingo games played during the intervals between bigger games.  Smoking patrons would be much less likely to participate in those speed games because they would now be outside, lighting up.

In February 2008, not long after the ban, it was reported that the number of bingo halls operated in the country had gone down from 644 in 2007 to 616, bringing it to the lowest in 10 years.  Unfortunately, the Government cannot realistically make bingo halls exempt from the ban because other entities negatively affected by the ban, such as pubs and members-only clubs, would petition for exemptions as well, defeating the purpose of this law in the first place.

Despite the negative effects of the smoking ban, the rise of online gambling is also a factor.  Even though a lot of bingo purists claim that online bingo strips away the element of social interaction from their favourite pastime, online bingo halls such as golden bingo offer players the ability to play whenever and wherever they want.  When they play bingo here, the smoking ban becomes irrelevant.

As well as looking forward to a romantic dinner with your loved one, which we all hope to do, why not fall in love with a card or two of online bingo at the market-leading bingo website 888Ladies, which has announced the launch of a new Valentine’s Day promotion. They offer its members the chance to pick up some cash prizes and bonus loyalty points. The event takes place on February 11th and 12th in the Studio 75 and Glam & Gorgeous rooms.

Some of the romantic offerings include a very naughty but oh-so-nice time at their Angels and Devils Chat Party! You will find not one, but two hot dates planned with your cheeky chat hosts. Lots of extra loyalty bonus points on offer, plus a whole weekend of ever so tempting treats including cash, bingo money, and double loyalty bonus points added to tons of other goodies! Don’t forget that new bingo lovers to site can treble their first deposit, which is the most generous welcome package that you will find at any online bingo site in the world. Look forward to seeing you at 888Ladies.

If you’re a bingo fan then be sure to check out William Hill before the 4th February. They are giving away a £5,000 jackpot every day in the community room. Every day of the week they will be giving away at least a juicy £5,000 at William Hill Bingo. All you have to do is to access the bingo room, is call bingo on 38 numbers before 5pm to win the jackpot, if the jackpot isn’t won they will increase the number of calls by 2 per hour until the jackpot is won. When someone finally wins the jackpot they take home £2,500 whilst the remainder of the players with tickets in the game will share the other half.

There’s more to come at William Hill, Passoker the in-play betting product, have just signed a supply deal with William Hill Online. Passoker will go live on William Hill next month with their unique product which combines elements of card games with in-play betting.

Online casinos have become so popular that they are vying with one another to attract gamers.  This competition makes it a players market and cash bonuses are available for people opening accounts with them.  Visit the website of any UK online casino and it can be seen that there are often sizeable bonuses for gamers making their initial deposits.  In effect this is free money and no one will want to miss out on offers, which can be as high as £1,000.

There are various ways that people can discover which bonuses are available.  They can visit a series of online casinos or surf the various review websites, which often list the bonuses that are on offer. The idea of cash bonuses works to the advantage of the gamer and the online casino.  Not only are they a tempting enticement for new players to sign on, but also they serve to help them remain loyal to a particular brand.  This is all so important as the gaming websites vie for customers.  So it is up to players to search for the best deals available.

Some online casinos also offer bonuses for no deposit and these should be checked out as well on the various review websites.  Many casinos also offer promotions and these should also be investigated before opening account.  And some help gamers by allowing players to ‘chat’ online with advisors when making a cash deposit.

The Aussies love to have a gamble on most things; it could be two flies walking up a wall to putting a few dollars on with a bookmaker for the Melbourne Cup! However what they really love to do is to play “Pokies” which is an Australian slang term for a slot machine! Australian style poker machines use a video display which usually works similar to a five reels slot machine and include more bonuses and features than the regular machines.

Recently though there appears to a dispute at the top of government as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her Community Services Minister, Jenny Macklin have abandoned the deal they agreed to before the election with independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie.  The promise that Gillard made Wilkie for his support during the last election to legislate mandatory pre-commitment technology for poker machines is now a non starter and is considered a dead issue.

If you want to be amongst the big bingo winners you should join the ever popular bingo room 888Ladies.com which is proving to be not just a fab fun site which a really chatty online chat room, but one which see the best prizes too. Only last week it revealed that it saw 888ladies’ members win more than £707k.

Bingo fans could be tempted to join 888ladies, the market leading portal, after it published yesterday’s (January 17th) winning figures. Figures published on the website shown that for just one day alone it paid out a total of £707,156.50 in just 24 hours. Examples of some of the winnings include: scorpio4563, who pocketed £15,638.19, djalanc, who scooped £13,626. 80 and WHITFORDKIDS, who added £11,889.78 to their bingo balance. That’s not all o f course as the 888Ladies bonuses for new players is the tops, with a generous 200 per cent welcome bonus and free £5 credit to all newcomers.

With the increase and development of betting in-running, snooker betting is set to become ever more popular.  Snooker games constantly twist and turn, and it promises to be a great game to bet on with its different markets such as game betting and highest break.

Snooker betting is mainly focused around the major ranking events which include the British Open, the UK Championship, the Welsh Open, Irish Masters and the Premier League.  However the height of the snooker season is the Snooker World Championship which takes place every May and is played over two weeks at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Wembley Arena hosts the Masters, which is the first major tournament every year.  Although it is not a ranking tournament, the Masters always proves to be very special as only the top 16 players compete in the tournament.  In 2011, English snooker player Mark Selby had an excellent run in the tournament, but it was Chinese player Ding Junhui who was finally victorious and beat Marco Fu in the final.

Most of these events will have ante post betting available and the leading bookmakers will offer odds on these ranking events. Several online bookmakers will also offer snooker free bets.  Some of the most popular snooker bets include Match Betting (betting on individual players to win), Outright Betting (betting before play starts and at breaks in play), Frame Betting (betting on a frame score) and Live Snooker In-Running Bets (including next frame winner and top break).

The Scottish mum who won the world’s biggest bingo jackpot is facing the threat of bankruptcy. Former cleaner Soraya Lowell is struggling with debts, less than four years after winning nearly £1.2million. The local council have instigated proceedings to have her declared bankrupt over her unpaid council tax bill. Lawyers for the council demanded that the 40-year-old mother of four and her husband Frankie be made bankrupt over debts of £13,214.

Soraya, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, made national headlines in March 2008 when she won £1,167,795 on the national game at the Club 3000 bingo hall in Coatbridge. She had a long-standing agreement to split any winnings evenly with her pal and bingo partner, neighbour Agnes O’Neill. Tragically, Agnes, 68, died in bed two months after banking her share of the prize. Soraya and Frankie moved to a new home in Hamilton about a year after her win but are now back in their old council house after failing to pay the mortgage.

888.com in partnership with Endemol and Channel 5 has launched the latest in a long line of bingo sites, the newest based on Big Brother. The interactive online bingo site offers registered users the chance of winning Big Brother themed prizes and props from the set as well as special features such as behind the scenes information and chances to obtain VIP passes to eviction nights. The site is also offering a community hub where players can discuss Big Brother and take part in polls about the Channel 5 programme.

BigBrotherBingo.com follows other brands such as Deal or No Deal launching into the bingo world. The Big Brother bingo site has been launched to run alongside the current Celebrity series, which is airing on Channel 5. 888.com first teamed up with Endemol last year when they began using the company’s television brands to create bingo themed sites.

The most commonly played table casino game worldwide is Blackjack.  This popular gambling game is also called twenty-one, or vingt-et-un, and is thought to have originated in Southern Europe at the beginning of the 17th Century.  Games played in the casino with similar rules are Spanish 21 and Pontoon, which are both derivatives of Blackjack.

Blackjack is played with traditional 52-card packs, and pits the dealer against the player in a game of card comparison.  The number of decks used depends on the number of players.  The player is dealt two cards to start with; he is then allowed to look at his hand and decide whether he wants to ‘hit’, (take another card), or ‘stick’, (not take any more cards).  The aim is to bring the sum total of the cards to a value of 21, or as close to 21 as possible, without exceeding it.  If a player’s cards exceed 21 he is ‘bust’ and is no longer in that round of the game.  If the player has a higher sum total than the dealer, the dealer pays out, but if the dealer has a higher number the player forfeits his wager, as indeed he does if he exceeds 21.  There are opportunities during the game for players to double their wagers.  The skill in blackjack lies in a player being able to memorise cards that have already come out of the pack and to some extent work out the probability of certain crucial cards, such as aces and royal cards, and plan his playing strategy accordingly.