Bingo Games

At the Mecca Bingo club in Greyhound Way, Southend, Mr Tony Johnson of Rochford is going to be enjoying a very merry Christmas after bagging a ₤10,000 win at the weekend.

He also won the house prize of ₤68 and went home ₤10,068 richer than when he started playing, minus his wager of course.

The sixty-five year old was playing the National Bingo’s Afternoon delight when he caught the full house, he has been a member at Mecca Bingo for the past three years but his wife has always been an avid fan of the game. When he retired he decided that he would join his wife and play bingo to give her support and keep her company and now he is very pleased that he did. He only retired early in 2007 after which he became a regular bingo player.

The fact that he has only been playing bingo regularly for such a short time, makes his big win even more remarkable, some players have been at it for twenty years and never caught a big one like this.

The sensible father of four with four grandchildren and another due next year, has decided to bank most of his bingo winnings to supplement their retirement.

It has been reported by “Associated Press” that as many as 43 million Chinese people play multiplayer online games and while online bingo and other forms of gambling are a “cultural unfamiliarity” the country is set to commence building land based bingo halls at a rapid rate of knots.

The positive outcome from this is that online bingo will probably go through the roof when bearing in mind the huge population of China.

Mecca Bingo has already taken steps to get their markets share of what promises to be a boom industry in the country, and have won a contract to open bingo halls in one of the Chinese provinces. Taking pop culture trends into consideration, this will cause a massive boost to the bingo industry, particularly if you allow for the fact that there are already huge numbers of Chinese people playing online games.

This market in China has been growing at a rate of about 25% annually over the past few years with the income for this year alone totalling around $1 billion. Experts in the Chinese market say that it is growing in astounding numbers and by the year 2010 the bingo and gaming market in China has been predicted as being worth $2 billion.

Bingo is very easy to play online. It only requires clicking the mouse. There is no need for plastic chips or markers. The player only requires access to a personal computer in order to play the game twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Most players are more comfortable play online bingo in their own homes because there is no travel time, dress code or smoking issue. If this sounds appealing then take a look at Bingo Cafe.

The Bingo Cafe offers unique online bingo games and has some of the highest payouts and bingo bonuses offered on the internet. The user-friendly site is one of the fastest growing online bingo sites. The site uses a unique 3-D software which allows the players their selection of avatars that can be used to chat with others players from all over the world. When the player tires of moving from table to table chatting with friends, she can move to the slots area. There is also a variety of free bingo games for the player to choose from along with scratch cards and video poker as well as other games.

Visit the site to see what the current free offers are. If you want to avoid the smoking issue and weather and be able to play all kinds of interesting games, visit Bingo Cafe.

Rank Group is still in the news. The gambling organisation, which operates Mecca Bingo and online casinos in the United Kingdom, Spain and Belgium among other gambling activities, has non executive directive Brendan O’Neill announcing that he is resigning at the end of the year.

O’Neill brought many years of experience to Rank. He had previously held position with Imperial Chemical Industries, Guinness Brewing, Ford and HSBC bank. His departure will not affect service to Rank’s more than two million customers.

Last week Rank rejected an offer from Harrah’s to swap some of their London Clubs casinos for twenty-eight percent of Rank stock. Then it was announced that Malaysian based gambling company Genting had purchase 9.4 percent of Rank stock as a preemptive move to prevent other companies from acquiring Rank. Rank holds one third of the gambling licenses available in the United Kingdom. The Genting purchase helped the Rank shares gain on the FTSE. GuocoLeisure Ltd. also might be buying Rank shares, according to speculative rumors.

Rank, like other United Kingdom bingo operators, has been feeling the financial effects of the smoking ban and the new regulations. If the situation doesn’t change, Rank expects their profits for the year to be down.

Bingo.com announced its Third Quarter financial results and says that it is very pleased with the figures. They experienced a 290% increase in their gaming revenue over the previous quarter.

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The Swedish gambling company, Betsson, has released its financial information which shows a good strong third quarter. They are showing strong growth with increases in their revenues and profits. The company reports a 147% increase in net sales over its performance of a year ago.

Their operating profit of SEK 53.7 is five times higher than a year ago. The Swedish gaming company offers sites in Italy, Greece, and Spain. Gaming activities on these sites include online bingo, casino slots, and Livebetting. They also offer their site in a variety of languages so the player has no language problems with the sites.

The European Union has a policy of open markets and this includes gambling markets. Most EU countries have state run gambling monopolies which prevent other firms from entering the market. This is also the case in Sweden where online bingo operators and casinos are not allowed to legally offer their services. The online bingo gambling world, including online bingo operators, are watching the situation in Sweden to see if the government allows companies like Betsson to continue to operate. If they are not allowed to operate, they will probably follow the usual pattern and file a complaint with the EU.

Gala Bingo has another big winner. This time it is a seventy-two year old woman from Scunthorpe. The grandmother has played at the bingo hall weekly since 1996, and this week, on Sunday, December 2, she won ₤17,500 by winning the UK bingo jackpot.

It was a nice Christmas gift for the woman and her husband, who was also playing bingo at the Gala Bingo hall. Since they have four children and four grandchildren, they are sure to have a good Christmas even though she hasn’t decided what to do with the money yet.

This is not the first big winner for Gala Bingo, The bingo club also had big winners in February and May who won the ₤100,000 prizes. Rank, like other U.K. bingo operators is feeling the effects of the smoking ban, the limit on high payout fruit machines and the double taxation of profits. Last week the company rejected an offer from Harrah’s to swap some of its London Clubs casino for 28% of Rank stock. Right after that, it was announced that Genting, the Malaysian gambling company, had bought over nine percent of Rank stock. Rank is attractive to foreign gambling concerns because they hold almost one third of the hard to get British gambling licenses.

Rank Group, the operator of Mecca Bingo, is still experiencing financial woes. The latest announcement from the company is that there will be no final dividend payment. Its problems from the previous quarter are continuing and with revenues and admissions still falling.

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The Rank group, better known to us bingo lovers as Mecca Bingo have been hot in the press over the past few weeks, with speculation and imagination growing by the moment.

Last week we were told that Rank had sold a 10% stake in the group to a Malaysian company called Genting, and this week I hear that Richardson Capital – a UK based specialist property company, has built up a shareholding in the group of 9.3% that they have traded in CFD’s rather than in actual shares in the group.

Though it is strongly believed by the company director Lee Richardson that the Rank Company is grossly undervalued and a new trading report is du to be released sometime soon, should help shed some light on the situation for us plebeians who don’t really know the ins and outs of company trading figures. All we are really interested in is will I still be able to play my favourite Mecca Bingo Game. For now though it seems that something positive is being done to save that all time favourite Mecca Million bingo game for all us “hopefuls”. So don’t fret, when next you walk down to your favourite local Mecca Bingo, the doors will more than likely still be open for play.

Looking for something to help celebrate Christmas with? Check out the special Christmas promotion at Virgin Bingo. They have a Christmas promotion called the Fourteen Days of Christmas that includes a variety of daily online bingo prizes during the holiday season.

In order to qualify for prizes, members can earn V points by playing bingo online, slot games or poker. Every V point they earn entitles them to one entry in the daily drawing for the day’s prize. Prizes include shares of V points, cash, digital cameras, Virgin Vouchers, phones, a laptop and a flat screen TV.

This special is in addition to the variety of specials that Virgin offers its members. V points allow the player to have cash credited to the playing account or to be used as miles for use on Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Virgin Vouches are denominated in pound sterling and can be used in exchange for merchandise offered in their program. The site offers a variety of games featuring 90 ball bingo.

Players who are looking for extra chances to win prizes for Christmas should look at Virgin Bingo for the opportunities they are offering. A little extra always helps out during the holiday season.