tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272360292009-11-11T12:22:18.208ZKeep up to date with news and stories from the UK Bingo world and find out what new guides, reviews and stories have been added to the site.Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.comBlogger396125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-54617659512760982492009-11-06T10:51:00.002Z2009-11-06T11:05:50.725Z

Well, after two and a half years, our resident Bingo Caller Of The Year Brett Hyrjak has written his last piece for the site. And if I say so myself, what a great piece it is! Full of pictures of Brett's adventures over the past couple of years writing at the site, and boy has it been a fun ride.As Brett mentions in his piece, a lot has changed in the world of retail bingo since he first started

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-76350438749235291012009-11-05T12:48:00.009Z2009-11-06T10:40:22.572Z

First up today, congratulations to the 25 bingo players / Gala staff members that engaged in a game of bingo on the slopes of Everest last week. The event was more than a year in the planning, and arranged to raise money for Gala Coral's nominated charity, Sue Ryder Care. It was a pretty momentous event, here's a bit of detail on it from Gala.25 dedicated bingo buffs last week climbed to an

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-30594160801948426172009-11-02T12:42:00.003Z2009-11-02T13:03:10.642Z

Prior to their relaunch last month, Sky Bingo ushered in the news with great secrecy around one of their headline new features. At the time all was hush-hush from the company, as they feared rivals would take the opportunity to trump them and their market leading offer. Their new innovation was the birth of the low ticket price guaranteed jackpot game. Players at Sky Bingo will are able to enter

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-1016510486061678322009-10-30T14:57:00.003Z2009-10-30T15:46:50.711Z

Oh my goodness, well, following on from yesterdays mention of Fives 'Free Bingo Show', I took the opportunity to try the game out. I signed up for the game at the site and claimed tickets for today's game. Low and behold I was pleasantly surprised to find I'd won a fiver on today's show. Now, there are two options - get sent a cheque (hardly worth it for £5) or double up to £10 at the Five Bingo

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-89898381508111149472009-10-29T21:20:00.004Z2009-10-30T14:18:19.019Z

Out of the ashes of the well loved but poorly thought out ITV Bingo Night Live comes Channel Five's The Free Bingo Show. There's been a few major changes, but essentially, the format and even the provider of the online element remains the same as its previous incarnation. PartyBingo are already running Five Bingo (let's hope they're doing a better job than they managed with ITV Bingo) and

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-6447982765261972712009-10-14T18:35:00.004Z2009-10-14T19:17:48.982Z

It's been a long time since I heard anything about the case of Jean McCullagh and the disputed million pound Mecca Millionaire prize that was won back in October 2007. The problems arose as she was playing with 3 other family members and had denied she had agreed to split the prize money. They said they had agreed to split any winnings, she said she'd not agreed to split the big prize. A judge

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-87433971192252302952009-10-11T08:53:00.007Z2009-10-11T09:10:00.361Z

Puerile humour warning. I was looking at the forum earlier, when the new advert from Bet365 Bingo caught my attention, for the wrong reasons. I caught the advert half way through its loop, and was amused by what I saw. It would seem that Bet365 Bingo's new offer of £25 free for £5 deposit has had a more beneficial effect than any of those pills I get offered on a daily basis by the spam emails

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-41475297747698714422009-10-10T13:10:00.005Z2009-10-10T21:25:19.672Z

Imagine if you will this. You're off to Tesco to get your weekly shop. For a change of scenery you go to the branch on the other side of town. You get there, fill your trolley with shopping then get to the checkout. The cashier looks at you sternly and says "sorry governor, I'm afraid I can't let you take all these buy one get one free offers."You look at him aghast, you just spent your time

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-30909577890576995052009-10-08T13:57:00.003Z2009-10-08T14:20:20.634Z

One of the highlights of the 4th Online Bingo Summit for me was the talk given by Angus Nisbit of Mecca Bingo, in which he spoke about Mecca's growing ability to promote between their online and retail arms. During the talk he gave a glowing insight into the success of the new concept club Mecca Beeston, and how it had exceeded expectations and was continuing to do so.There's news from the Press

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-85224621488165733392009-09-28T12:35:00.004Z2009-09-28T13:34:48.991Z

It's not all doom and gloom in the retail world. Beacon Entertainments are showing their commitment to bingo by rebranding themselves alongside adding a number of improvements to their halls. During the rebrand, the company will improve its existing Beacon clubs and re-name 3 others to expand the Beacon name. The group's Riva Clubs at Brighton and Streatham and the Hippodrome Club in Lowestoft

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-65535119911605372642009-09-28T11:04:00.003Z2009-09-28T12:31:40.738Z

Well, it's been a long hard Summer for me, with my adventures taking me away from bingo and in to completely new areas. As a result, things have been on the quiet side around here, but now I'm getting back to it and catching up with it all. I actually took time out of my usual web based job to work on the production of a feature film, which we shot back at the end of June, beginning of July.The

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-48125556639318129862009-06-17T09:36:00.002Z2009-06-17T09:45:11.018Z

We're on to the second day of the Online Bingo Summit, following the awards ceremony last night which saw Cashcade scoop a bucket load of prizes. The awards were decided by people voting during the day. This time the company bias was removed as there was only one voting card allowed per company. The results we're pretty predictable, and pretty much tallied with my expectations. Here's the results

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-89596670359376093382009-06-15T11:28:00.004Z2009-06-15T11:56:53.803Z

I'm on the train at the moment on the way to the 4th Annual Online Bingo Summit in London. Just browsing through the news and there's a couple of interesting stories worthy of note. First up is the news that the sale of Cashcade could be literally days away. EGaming Review has a piece that says PartyGaming is close to closing the deal.I really hope PartyGaming don't make a fudge of the great work

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-21548236848489327402009-06-11T14:56:00.002Z2009-06-11T15:01:26.412Z

Following my last post about the success of Mecca Bingo at their High Court appeal about their tax rebate, Bingo Supermarket has an interesting take on the ruling. Rather than saving the industry, it could actually cause some operators severe difficulties as banks take the rebate's straight off them to cover outstanding debts. This then effects the operators abilities to remain afloat and keep

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-24248139223021359542009-06-08T20:47:00.003Z2009-06-08T21:02:29.923Z

There'll be some happy people in the Rank Group HQ today. In fact they may even be having a little party to celebrate their victory in the High Court, where they found out they could keep the £62million VAT repayment they received last year. Reading the comments left here when the repayment was made, I'm not sure what Mecca can actually do with the money, but it's sure to do the company some good

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-1283944581638377962009-06-02T11:57:00.005Z2009-06-02T12:21:13.581Z

Just a quick post to mention the video report from Which Bingo shot at the new Mecca Beeston club. It's interesting to see inside the club and how swanky it's all looking. There's an interview with the Jay Murray, the manager of the club who believes it to be a success, although in most of the club scenes it looks pretty empty. Mark Walsh, the inventor of Rock 'n' Roll Bingo is also interviewed.

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-42249444675754466452009-05-28T18:33:00.004Z2009-05-28T23:17:56.299Z

I have to start by saying that I find this story particularly shocking. According to the report in the Daily Mail, pensioner and longtime member of the Mecca Bingo, Rosalyn Clemson has been banned from every single Mecca Bingo in the UK. Her crime was organising a trip for other club members to a rival club some 15 miles away. According to Mecca Bingo this act was in breach of her membership

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-85195699272292947762009-05-26T13:56:00.003Z2009-05-26T14:42:42.656Z

With the 2009 Online Bingo Summit barely weeks away, the nominations have been announced for the 2nd Annual Online Bingo Industry Awards. Interesting to note there's been some changes in the way the votes will be awarded this year. Following last year's event I had concerns that the voting for the event was unfair as everyone who attended the summit could vote. This meant big companies with lots

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-74626726587892572142009-05-25T22:30:00.003Z2009-05-25T22:44:28.355Z

Spotted this story on the BBC earlier about the fire that caused a lot of damage at the derelict County Bingo hall on Eglington Street in Glasgow. The building shut back in 2003 as a bingo hall, and has been disused ever since. The building was on the Buildings At Risk list but unfortunately The Coliseum has been left to decline ever since. There's a short video of the blaze, and it's really

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-81086028739308678912009-05-24T19:53:00.002Z2009-05-25T01:30:14.605Z

According to the Telegraph, on of the UK's leading online bingo networks is the target of some pretty hefty competition to buy it. Cashcade, the people behind top flight bingo site such as Foxy Bingo and Cheeky Bingo are currently being vigorously pursued by a number of gaming companies. As well as its own network, Cashcade also owns the smaller network of Think Bingo network and parent company

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-48197493576718619292009-05-19T22:00:00.004Z2009-05-19T22:25:57.198Z

There's been a few more stories floating around about the backlash against the rise in bingo tax at the last budget. Here's another one this time from Rochdale, and one from Lothian. Interestingly, The Bingo Association has turned to the world of web 2.0 to try and get their message across with a campaign on the nation's favourite waste of time, Facebook. They've set up a group called Help Me

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-57222103673856478242009-05-18T09:05:00.001Z2009-05-18T09:26:11.579Z

One other thing that's caught my attention as well the last couple of weeks is the movement of sites from the St Minver network to Virtue Fusion. Rather than throw it in with the other rash of stories in the last post, it's something I wanted to look at in a bit more detail, given the defection of two major brands from St Minver to Virtue Fusion.In the earlier days of this site, I was a big fan

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-57953180081394234252009-05-17T18:07:00.002Z2009-05-17T22:01:31.308Z

It's been a busy month for me, I've had a number of work related things to sort out, and spent almost a week in Amsterdam rubbing shoulders with operators and fellow webmasters at a couple of conferences targeting affiliates. There's been a lot happening that I just haven't had the chance to cover. So, for your entertainment here's a few interesting stories from the previous few weeks, with links

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-239982104790924372009-04-23T19:16:00.003Z2009-04-23T20:39:01.481Z

There's been a lot of ripples following the budget for the gaming industry. I have to say I missed the news about the raise in gaming duties in the general news on TV Tuesday, but there's been plenty on the web since. I also missed that the contentious VAT issue had been won, but unfortunately, that was cold comfort considering it was offset by a raise in Bingo Duty from 15% to 22%. This piece

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27236029.post-9170829448611362782009-04-22T14:49:00.002Z2009-04-22T14:53:33.826Z

Following the launch of Posh Bingo last week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do something I've been aiming to do for a while now and catch up with Cashcade's Simon Collins about the success of Cheeky Bingo. Simon agreed to do an interview for the site, which you can read here. Simon's been getting around a bit recently, only the other day he was spotted writing a column for The

Dio Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617561451901472333noreply@blogger.com0