NetPlayTV has announced former BBC light entertainment manager Michael Leggo will be its new director of television with responsibility for the compnay’s range of products as well as its television gaming.
NetPlayTV recently announced plans for the launching of a new online bingo TV show as part of its continued expansion into the bingo online industry. The company currently maintains an online bingo games presence via its Bingos.com online bingo hall operation.
Commenting on his appointment, Leggo said: “NetPlay TV’s dedication to providing quality entertainment has already proved massively successful. With ever more channels and platforms to cater for, this is a particularly exciting time to be joining the company.”

Online bingo hall All Bingo Club is planning to give away £2,000 worth of holiday vouchers if you can guess how many bingo balls are in their virtual bottle!
From July 1, All Bingo Club players will have the opportunity to guess the number of balls over the next month and the person who guesses the exact amount, or the closest to the actual amount without going over the exact number, will win the prize.
To add to the excitement, All Bingo Club is offering online bingo players the chance to qualify for additional entries. For every friend a player invites, they will get an extra entry and should their friend win, they will win the runners-up prize, £1,000 worth of holiday vouchers.
Mikki G., All Bingo Club’s Manager, said, “Count Our Balls is going to be a real fun promotion because it truly gets our players involved. Last month’s promotion was a big success and we want to build on it. All Bingo Club is on mission to create a special, authentic bingo atmosphere for online players that includes more than just a chance to play bingo. Everyone knows that house games add to the fun and All Bingo Club is dedicated to creating more and more exciting promotions like this one.”

Claims that the European Commission (EC) is soft-peddling its enforcement actions against European Union (EU) members that still maintain protectionist monopolies over their gambling industries has been dismissed by Charlie McCreevy, the EC main official dealing with the issue.

Discounting the view that the EC is being placed under political pressure to adopt a go slow approach in its attempts to reduce trade barriers between member EU states, a spokesman for McCreevy told Reuters that action against offending countries was still a priority despite a perceived slowness of results.

The EC is currently conducting investigations in ten EU where policies preclude foreign gambling companies from accessing those markets.

The European gambling industry, including many online bingo games operators and online bingo halls, have been hopeful the EC would have by now marched EU members Denmark and Sweden into the European Court of Justice.  To date, no announcement has been made regards these countries, both of which have growing bingo online markets.

“I am seriously concerned that what would appear to be political maneuverings are trying to slow down the Commission’s pace and kick the issue into the long grass,” commented John Whittaker, MD at Stanleybet International.

An EU member country is usually allowed two months to reply to an EC final warning or face being brought to the EU’s top court.

What do you think about the pace of the European Commission re these monopilisit practices . I know that we have very definite views in regards to this at Eyes Down Bingo - we would like to see your comments .

In an article written for Bloomberg and giving an overview of the online bingo sector, industry expert Joe Saumarez-Smith says online bingo games are set to continue growth, though he warns against unrealistic expectations for growth in non-traditional bingo markets.

While pointing out that the UK enjoys the most advanced online bingo market in the world, followed by Spain in the European area, he says growth in online bingo could still be affected by continuing protectionist policies by some key European countries.  Even so, news of growth in the online bingo sector is welcome news in the context of continuing economic slump that is affecting all other areas of the gambling industry.

Saumarez-Smith quotes Al Haig-Thomas, CEO at bingo online games software company Virtue Fusion as saying that there will continue to be opportunities for growth in Europe over the next couple of years and that South America and Asia may also provide growth for the industry over the next five to eight years.

“We have several clients planning launches in Spain in the next three months and also new sites in Denmark, Sweden and Ireland,” said Haig-Thomas in the article. “All are undeveloped markets that have a history and culture of bingo halls, so you would expect them to follow the U.K. market in terms of growth.”

Malaysian company Genting International, a company recently linked with takeover speculation of major land and online bingo operator the Rank Group has directly entered the online gaming sector with the launch of its Playtech powered CircusCasino and Circus Poker.
The company plans to use its new operations as a testing ground for potential future launches into the Asian market.  Genting is expected to promote its new online operations via its existing interests in land casinos.

The new gaming sites do not offer comprehensive bingo online games options and this thought by online bingo games industry observers to reflect the small exposure bingo online has in the Asian markets.

Analysts at US banking heavyweight JP Morgan are predicting tougher times ahead for the land gambling industry in Las Vegas with the second half of 2008 shaping up to be the worst period for the industry since 2001.

Analysis provides more evidence for online bingo industry observers that land gambling’s loss is the online bingo games sector’s gain.  With higher petrol prices forcing players to curtail driving and airfares, many more gamblers are turning to the Internet for their entertainment.

JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff has cut his earnings estimates for Las Vegas casino company Sands saying  “lackluster spend per visitor and stunted visitation.”  He further stated that “We expect this summer to be one of the worst on record, with meaningfully discounted room rates and special discounted package deals.”

Bingo online has enjoyed solid growth over the years and contrasts strongly with its land bingo cousins which have been beset in the UK by one crisis after another affecting player numbers and spending, including a nation-wide smoking ban and a double taxation policy.

Today we investigate Bingo Fabulous. This Bingo Room is part of the Globalcom Bingo Network and that means that there is loads of players and good Jackpots to be won at any time – is that why they call it Fabulous?

The Sign Up and redeposit bonuses are the usual 100% and 50% bonuses but where Bingo Fabulous excels is in the weekly and monthly bingo promotions.

Bingo Fabulous Monthly Promotions

The latest promotion is a Bingo Cruise around the Caribbean for 8 nights and fantastic prizes like Buy Ins for Championship Bingo with prizes of $80k to play for. You also get World Championship Bingo prizes and all entertainment and facilities are free to use.

Check out a full details of the Bingo Cruise

With prizes like this on offer and a good selection of Bingo Games and Slot games we think that this room has been aptly names .Go check out Bingo Fabulous today.

Wink Bingo remains the darling of Eyes Down Bingo for its monthly promotions - the latest one is Wink and the City which is sure to be a hit with the Ladies but the main reason for this post is the Bingo rooms Loyalty program .

Depsite Wink Bingos popularity with online bingo players i do think that this portion of the site remains as one of the most unreported parts of this fantastic bingo room. I think that it deserves to be reported on in Capital Letters as this is one of the best no nonsense Bingo Loyalty programs around.

Every single week Wink Bingo gives you 10% cashback - they determine the 10% cashback on play from the previous Saturday to the Sunday . The cashback is then put into your account on a Tuesday . The advantage of this is that you dont have to wait for the end of the month to go into the chat rooms and have a go at one of the Super Jackpots - you can do that with the money that you get back .

Apart from the weekly 10% Cashback offer there is a super Refer a Friend progam that will reward you with 15000 points for refering a friend that makes a deposit at Wink Bingo .

There are some Fantastic promotions happening there at the moment with a Sex and the City Promotion and a Love Boat promotion so go and check this place out .

Written for Eyes Down Bingo by Anthea - Your Bingo UK blog

Gala Bingo has launched its own Bingo TV show via the Internet allowing bingo players the chance to play the game without having to go through Sky TV.The move allows players to view the popular show via a live Internet stream while manually dab their own tickets during play sessions.
The launch of the new service brings together the entertainment of TV Bingo with an online bingo-style atmosphere and has the added advantage of accommodating land bingo fans with traditional real cards and dabbing.
Online bingo players can get involved by logging onto GalaBingo.com between 6pm and 2am every night where they then can navigate to the site’s TV Bingo Club.

For the online gambling industry and online bingo games operators alike it’s been a bad day at the office with news that US Congressman Barney Frank’s attempt to halt the implementation of UIGEA regulations has failed.

The delayed vote on Frank’s HR5767 bill failed due to a tied 32-32 vote before the Financial Services Committee.

The result is that US banks face having to become regulatory enforcers of UIGEA’s attempt to restrict financial transactions between US gamblers and non-US online gaming companies. UIGEA has been criticized as both unworkable and a drain on US banks’ resources at a time when US banks are under severe pressure due to the current credit crunch.

Online bingo industry observers had hope HR5767 would be successful and possibly lead towards a re-opening of the US gambling market to non-US online bingo halls. The failure of the bill to pass has dealt a blow to such hopes, though bingo online operators have successfully explored other markets since the inception of UIGEA in late 2006.