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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Bingoport.co.uk 2010 Player's Choice Awards

The evening of Friday the 29th January saw the 2nd Bingoport.co.uk Player's Choice Awards, held during the 2010 London Affiliate Conference. I was able to attend last year's event, but due to the pending birth of our 2nd child, I had to miss this event. But fear not, I sent along my colleague to follow the evening and report back on the awards.

By all accounts the evening was another gleaming success, well attended and well stocked. My colleague was going to take some photos of the awards, but on pulling his camera out he discovered it had died. Fear nor though, photos from the night can be seen over at BingoPort.co.uk. It might take a while to load if you're on a slow connection as they've made the rookie mistake of resizing full size images for thumbnails instead of doing proper ones, but we'll forgive them as they are probably still recovering from what was by all accounts a grand evening. ;)

For my money these awards come closest to showing what the bingo player likes about the game and appreciate, and not what the industry itself thinks is the best. Without further ado - here's the results.

Best Overall Online Bingo Operator - Foxy Bingo
Most Popular Online Bingo Website - Tombola
Best New Online Bingo Site - Cheeky Bingo
Best Online Bingo Game Innovation - Tombola Bingo Roulette
Fastest Growing Online Bingo Website - 888 Ladies
Best Online Bingo Promotion - Cheeky Bingo 24/7/ Free Bingo
Best Online Bingo Commercial - Wink Bingo Dog
Best Online Bingo Chat Team - Mecca Bingo
Most Online Bingo Prizes Won - Tombola

Congratulations to the winners, and on the whole there's not much in these results that I could disagree with. I'll be definitely looking forward to next year's event, and hopefully able to attend it myself.

Posted at 11:50 PM | Add your comments [0] | Links |

Friday, January 29, 2010

Battlefield Bingo From Gala Bingo

Battlefield Bingo

Battlefield Bingo

Battlefield Bingo

If you've read our scholarly and in-depth article on the early history of Bingo in the UK, like myself you were no doubt surprised to learn that bingo was played by British troops in the trenches of World War I. The game proved and excellent morale booster and social event for the entrenched soldiers, despite concerns about game fixing and unfairness.

Roll time forward almost a 100 years to the present, then this little titbit of info ties in nicely with the latest press release from Gala about their supplying bingo kit for frontline British troops in Afghanistan. Gala were responding to a request from The Queens Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment out on the frontline in Afghanistan for equipment to help them raise funds for Cancer Research with a charity bingo night.

Gala responded by sending out a dabbers, cards and prize vouchers to help the troops in the effort to raise money. Also along for the ride was the gold jacket used to call the game of bingo played on Everest last year. The jacket was warn by Lance Corporal George Horne who took on the duty of calling at the event. Each of the 50 soldiers who took part in the event will be getting a free night out on Gala when they return from Afghanistan.

A Gala spokesperson said, "everyone at Gala Coral is incredibly proud of our troops and the great work that they undertake in service of the country." Personally, I love how this humble little game has a life off its own in the military, and this latest event adds to the long tradition of the game both within the armed forces and as a means for raising funds for charity whilst giving everyone a great evening's entertainment.

It looks like Gala have also found themselves a nice little PR gimmick here, follow the gold caller's jacket. I can see this little garment being passed on from event to event, making it one of the best travelled caller's jackets in the history of bingo. Gala are saying to watch this space as to where it appears next. They could go one step further and make a gold jacket jackpot game to tie in with it. Just as long as the first prize isn't a trip to the frontline in Afghanistan, I'm sure it would go down a treat.

Posted at 12:11 PM | Add your comments [0] | Links |

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Major Licensing Changes In The Future For Online Bingo

If you've not spotted it already, there's some potentially massive news from the Government today, that could literally change the look of online bingo in the near future. The Minister for Culture, Media and Sport Gerry Sutcliffe today released a statement about his plans to undertake a review of the current licensing system for remote gaming regulation. Back in April 2009 he announced a review of the current system, and today's statement comes as notice of intent to begin consultation on implementing a new system for all gambling sites who are licensed outside of Britain.

The proposed changes will effectively impact on the roughly 98-99% of existing online bingo suppliers, including those owned and run by the major retail chains. If it comes to fruition, it will make all these sites unable to target the UK under their current licensing situation. Currently, any overseas operators are able to target UK players. Legally, only those who are licensed in one of the Gambling Commission's white-listed areas or the EU can advertise to UK players. However, under these new proposals, only sites who are licensed directly in the UK will be able to provide remote gaming to UK players.

The move is aimed to protect UK consumers by regulating that all online gaming sites adhere to the UK's strict gambling regulations. It's fair to say that currently, some areas within the EU are ripe with online bingo licensees who's practices are questionable, and far from consumer friendly (yes I'm looking at you Cyprus and Malta). The proposals aim to curb the wide range of licensing variants by insisting only one will be followed, the UK's own one.

It's early stages yet, and there will be a long consultation process now between the Minister and the Gambling Commission to decide exactly how these new extended gambling licenses will work legally, but already I'm sure lots of bottoms are doing the 5p 10p dance in the gaming market.

On the one hand, it will help to stop a lot of the shonky and greedy practices we see out there in online bingo land, helping to protect UK players from getting ripped off. I'm sure the steady stream we have of them in the complaints section is just the tip of the iceberg, but a lot of the typical problems that arise would be better protected against with these new regulations.

On the flip side though, many respected UK online bingo suppliers will suddenly be very concerned about their ability to trade in the UK marketplace, and what they will need to do to bring themselves in line when this all settles and is decided on. One of the main reasons bingo companies license themselves abroad is the vast difference in the amount of tax they have to pay, and if these new regulations mean they need to pay tax in the UK as well as licensing here, it will no doubt be a real blow to the industry.

I also can't help but wonder if the Government is in some way trying to monopolise on its own gamblers, to get maximum revenues out of them. Currently millions of pounds go to these EU states in the tax that these bingo sites bring in. However, if these new regulations mean the industry has to pay tax to the UK taxman, there's a lot of revenues there for Government.

Personally, these moves have my utmost support, especially if they protect us bingo players and create a much more straightforward system for how our money is used and repaid by online sites. That said, I know it will also cause a lot of potential pain and a lot of extra work for the industry, self included. Many may just decide to get out now and refocus their attention on other marketplaces as a result, but I think those that stay UK based and focused will (have to) provide a top notch bingo for us online players.

As I've said though, it's very early days yet, and there's no timetable for when this consultation, let alone legal changes will come to be. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it though, and I'm sure I won't be alone. There'll be a lot of complaints I'm sure, but from the Minister's statement, it looks like the industry could be close to getting a good sharp clip around the ear and brought into line with its moral obligations, and that as I've said, can only be a good thing.

Posted at 11:42 PM | Add your comments [2] | Links |

Monday, December 28, 2009

Bingo Buyouts And Takeovers

In other news, there's been a few major stories to do with bingo company takeovers and sales. First up, and a major pointer towards the consolidation taking place in the online bingo market is the yet to be finalised sale of the standalone Cassava powered site Wink Bingo, which was snapped up by the 888 Bingo network for a staggering £60million. The sale has to go through some finalisation and target setting, but is pretty much there otherwise.

Wink Bingo is owned by Daub, and alongside their hit online bingo property Wink, they also run the sites Posh Bingo, Bingo Fabulous and El Cartonazo as well as having their own impressive affiliate programme run via The Joy Of Bingo. Despite operating the massive Cassava / Globalcom network, alongside its own 888Ladies, 888 have not really succeeded to the level that the relatively new Wink Bingo has. Hopefully, with this purchase, 888 will benefit from the expertise at Wink Bingo and apply it to improve their own sites. Either way, congratulations to the people at Daub for their work and the sale of their business.

Elsewhere, in the retail world, there's talk of a potential take over of the land based, cash strapped giant Gala Bingo. According to Reuters, the American private equity company Apollo are attempting to get in on Gala Bingo with an offer of £250million for a 50% share of the company. It's the latest offers aimed at Gala Coral, who are struggling to restructure their business to better manage their whopping £2.6billion debt. Other offers on the table include one from the junior lenders to the group, and another from the Blackstone group.

A decision is expected in the New Year now, but it will be interesting to see what happens to Gala, following the last year of financial concerns and investment write-offs. The company is still the UK's leading retail bingo chain in terms of venues, so lets hope the company is able to keep as many of them open as possible, as the loss to the UK's bingo players would be massive.

Posted at 4:18 PM | Add your comments [0] | Links |

PC Bingo Calls Ban Storm In A Teacup

You may have spotted a pretty minor news article t'other day about a local councillor in Sudbury, Suffolk who's been banned from using some of the saucier bingo calls at local council bingo nights. His bosses thought that sayings like 'two fat ladies' for 88 or 'legs eleven' for 11 could be taken as offensive, leading to complaints, and as a pre-emptive measure asked him to stop using them, to which he agreed.

You would be forgiven for thinking this minor and frankly forgettable incident set the seeds for the destruction of the heritage of the game and ushered in its untimely demise, reading the news blurts and campaigns that have sprung up from this story. The major press has run with the story, frothing at the mouth that the political correctness will be the end of us all.

It seems some opportunistic webmaster of another bingo site has decided to blow this story up beyond all proportions. Extrapolating from the Sudbury story, they released an op-ed Press Release stating 'that it's only a matter of time before EU killjoys set their sights on bingo hall banter', forming a frankly nonsense group to protect our Bingo Lingo. This is all based on 'industry rumours' rather than any solid information, but it's not stopped the xenophobic gutter press getting all 'old blighty' about it.

Ok, let's put this in perspective, to save the nonsense going around about it. Firstly, the original case was more likely the result of an overzealous council worker trying to do what they perceived as the right thing. It effects one tiny, weekly game at a local council.

Secondly, there is no evidence that the EU or any other bureaucrats want to ban bingo phrases. What's more, if they ever did, it would not effect the vast majority of UK bingo players as they play at halls where the old fashioned calls haven't been used for decades, due to their slowing down of the game.

Thirdly, bingo is popular in Europe too, and although they don't use the same calls of us, the thought that Eurocrats would want to pass legislation on something as minor as bingo calls is frankly idiotic and moronic.

Finally, and bingo players signing the petitions and joining groups are doing so because they've been fed this BS and don't realise how they are being manipulated, with an aim to simply gaining a single bingo affiliate website lots of juicy links. It's all the more ironic and insulting as the person who's spearheading this campaign to protect 'British Bingo Lingo' doesn't actually live in the UK but in Europe and doesn't actually play bingo. So please folks, let's knock this one on the head right now, it's silly and demeaning.

Posted at 3:32 PM | Add your comments [12] | Links |

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bingo Tax Cut And VAT Repayment

If you follow the bingo news then you can't help but have noticed a couple of stories the last week revolving around taxation and the bingo industry. With last week's pre-budget report, the industry had hoped to see the Chancellor reduce his prior rise on the bingo tax which shot up to 22% from 15%. There was a slim slither of hope and action from the Chancellor, he dropped it from 22% to 20%, which although not ideal, is a step in the right direction. However, it's feared that up to a 100 clubs could close between the rise to 22% and it dropping down to 2%.

This small cut in duty is not ideal given the other pressures in the industry, but along with the scrapping of VAT on bingo games, it is a step in the right direction. Although like many in the industry, I also can't help but think that not dropping the duty until the April 2010 budget is a big mistake, and I just hope that smaller cash strapped clubs are able to stay afloat until then to take advantage of the reduced duties.

I was back in Cardiff playing Bingo the other weekend, and had hoped to go to the last old school bingo hall in Cardiff (on Splott Road), but was distraught to find it had folded during the summer. Who knows, if the duty hadn't had been whacked up then, maybe it would have still been trading now. Sad times, all that's left in Cardiff now is modern purpose built bingo halls, and as fun as they are, they don't have the charm of the old cinemas.

Elsewhere, it's been widely reported that Mecca Bingo are aiming to reclaim more of their VAT following the earlier reclaim and court appeals. The Guardian goes into detail on the £25.9million the group could claim back, following another recent claim for an additional £16million of VAT back. Good news for Mecca who seem to be weathering the credit crunch and the bingo slump, so much so that shares have risen slightly, and there's also mention of the restarting of dividend payments. Nice.

Posted at 1:21 PM | Add your comments [0] | Links |

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