bingo sites a law unto themselves

[topcat]

I have been playing online bingo for a while now and i think i must have tried just about every site there is! and one thing i have noticed is that none of them appear to play a "fair" game.Same names appear far too often but you hardly ever see them in the chat rooms.ok i know that some people prefer to play and not chat and i'm one of them-but i think if i won a £1000 house for example i would have to type something due to the excitement it would give me!-what i have also noticed is that these so called "chat hosts" are friendly until a player makes a negative comment or questions the same people winning,then their attitude changes and very quickly becomes almost threatening making people too afraid to say what they like to say or to ask any kind of probing questions regarding the site,in my mind this is unacceptable,people afraid to speak for the fear of being banned or booted out of chat and must be a breach of comsumer rights surely.I was on a site recently when i asked if they used "house players" the response was less than cordial i can tell you.
I have been to the Uk Gaming Commissions site and looked at their rules and regulations which these sites are quick to point out they are checked by however,there seems to be very little if any forceable regulations to protect the online gambler,especially the online bingo player.
I have come to the conclusion that these sites are doing whatever they like due to laxed regulation and are getting away with robbing 1000's of people each day-whilst i understand that these sites are gambling sites and as such there can ultimately be only one winner-but honest,law abiding people are not being given a "fair" chance and i'm afraid that until such time as these sites are looked into and more government legislation to control them is introduced,we will continue to hear more stories of people being ripped off by them.

[Dio]

I have to say, due to the way Online Bingo is set up, some players are able to take advantage and 'max out' tickets to give them a greater chance of winning, especially if there are less players in a room. It can seem like the same people are winning over and over again (I do this myself when I get a big bonus stake and have won 4 or 5 times in a session) - but there are reasons for why this happens beyond House Players.

The same is true in retail halls, were if anything things are more even than the online world. As random as it is, there were a number of players who won all the time, and others that never got a shout. At the end it just comes down to random luck. If any site is set up as it should be, the random element will be the same as that with retail, but because of the variance in ticket amounts, it skews it towards those who buy lots more than the average player.

If a site is using house players, and it could be proved they were actual house players and not lucky, maxing punters, then I think the site would be up for review by its licensing body ASAP. Unfortunately the Gambling commission is a bit of a toothless beast and can only really deal with site licensed in the UK, of which there are hardly any.

[Bingoplayer]

I, too, have noticed the same names winning over and over and I agree that in the paid-for bingo games this is obviously because the ones who win big can afford more tickets and therefore the odds are more with them winning again and again.

What I don't understand is on the free games, where everyone has the same chance, which is normally 6 tickets, where the same names keep winning over and over whereas others hardly get a win! I've also noticed that the people that keep winning the free games are hardly ever seen on the pay to play games which seems odd because if they are online and playing the freebies all day (often enough to keep winning) then what are they doing with their winnings? You would think that their names would be familiar in the pay games too, unless they just spend it all on slots.

[topcat]

Another thing i have noticed is these sites use "profile targetting" whereupon they gather information regarding a players gambling habits-how much they spend per week or month,whether or not they withdraw any winnings or just play on,-this information is wide open to exploitation such as allowing certain players to win and "capping" others from winning above a certain amount.
In my observations players who spend a lot of money on these sites have a far greater chance of winning the larger amounts and not just because they buy more tickets or because they are on more often than others-it's because the operator has built a profile and knows that this type of player is more likely to use any winnings to play on.When i first joined one site i use i had several nice wins-first it was around £280.00 then it was around £130.00 then around £90.00 then around £70.00-most of which i have to say i did withdraw-now any wins seem to be from a couple of quid to around £25-£30-which i always seem to play on with as it hardly seems worth withdrawing these amounts-anytime i have needed 1tg recently on a large amount it never comes out and i am almost certain this is because the operator has now built up a profile regarding my gambling habits and has somehow "capped" me from winning any large amounts as they know i will withdraw it.
I am also not convinced by these huge jackpots being won by everyday players-one site has recently been running £25,000 jp's and apparently they were all won by genuine everyday players yet not one of the winners said a word about their huge wins!!!very odd that-also the last 2 of these jp's were won very soon after each other and just before the site began a promotion stating that they were giving away "30 cars" absolutely no way did they give away 30 cars!!
I know that i'm not the only one who does not believe this as i have read other peoples comments regarding this.

[zeppliman]

I, too, have noticed the same names winning over and over and I agree that in the paid-for bingo games this is obviously because the ones who win big can afford more tickets and therefore the odds are more with them winning again and again.

What I don't understand is on the free games, where everyone has the same chance, which is normally 6 tickets, where the same names keep winning over and over whereas others hardly get a win! I've also noticed that the people that keep winning the free games are hardly ever seen on the pay to play games which seems odd because if they are online and playing the freebies all day (often enough to keep winning) then what are they doing with their winnings? You would think that their names would be familiar in the pay games too, unless they just spend it all on slots.

u and thousands of others see this happening day in day in i,m convinced these sites are fixed to ur playing habits, been playing gala and the same happens there and whats even more unfair is if ur username starts with a. b. c. d. e or m, uou win all the time making it unfair for those players names not having the above intials... made a complaint about this to gala and recieved no response but now i cant get back onto the site so who guilty... been watching on a friends pc and its still the same pattern, you have no chance of ever getting a response from gala unless u make a complaint to the gaming commission. gud luck..................

[zeppliman]

i agree with everything you say, questions are raised when as u know the same pattern of players winning constantly and not on the day u play but anyday u play the sames names always pop up and never acknowledge u when u congatulate them,,, been playing gala and thats the same unless ur username begins with a, b, c , d , e or m you have very little chance of winning... maxing tickets dosnt work either tried every combination but to no avail... i,m not replying as a sore loser but angry at the pattern is constant and when i complained to gala's managing director to this pattern of winners my account was stopped and been unable to access the site, been watching on a friends pc and its still happening, they never even replied to me so what have they got to hide... remember alots of these sites are controlled out of this country and in countries were tax havens exist and no questions are asked, even the chat hosts live either in india, spain, canada or gibralter and when you do have something to say they quickly shut you up or block you so either way ur stuffed... save ur money and have a holiday lol

[potball]

i agree that they are fixed just go to gala and try the city room and just watch how many times cotty11 wins its not every now and again its every day and if you say anything about it and there is a cm in the room all you get from them is its just luck or must max every game ,tried that dose not work , i even tried gala tv and the bloke who reads the numbers out looked guilty when the same name kept winning , does not matter which room you try there is always a serial winner of that room, also when your funds are low you seem to get flashers but no win so you deposit more thinking that you are due a win because of the flashers but no you dont win i was on the other night and i mentioned that galas license was from gibralta and a cm blasted me saying gala is registerd in the chanel isle which would mean the british lcensing commitee would have granted the license , so iwrote to the british licensing board who told me that they had no control over there license as {yes you gues it they are registered in gibralta } i told people on the site that it was easy to check these things but once a cm was in the room if i typed anything afterwards it was blocked , somebody else said the other day that there used to be a lot more people playing but i think that people have started seeing the light about online bingo a\nd decided not to trust them anymore, im not complaining coz i have lost money im complaining coz the fact people see these people keep winning and you are not supposed to notice the same names pop up time and time again, 1 person said the other day cotty has only been on 1 hour and she had won over five hundred pounds and i saw her win more than that the day earlier if i was that lucky i would put online bingo down as my employment and a very well paid employment

[topcat]

I must say it's about time people had their say...i have to agree with everything you say about this site...but alas it's not just this one...new sites are opening up everyday we are being bombarded with tv advertising via tv programme sponsership and it's the same on all of them i'm afraid...none appear to be playing a totally fair game of bingo.Now they may well use a random numbers generator and all sites are quick to point that out however,the computer programme that runs the show is using all sorts of other factors too.Very often you will see new players win a few times we all know this is to draw them in but the fact is if the programme can influence the outcome of any game then it is not truly not a random game and is therefore not fair on the players who have bought tickets believing that it.
One site that i have played on for quite some time and is also associated with a very popular tv programme through sponsership advertising has a player called "buddy1111" this player wins time and time again....then they dissapear for a little while then re-appear and the wins just keep coming!!!
Many other players have asked questions about this but just get the standard response from the cm's "she's just lucky i guess" is the usual response...apparently they are told that she is a real player and lives in Australia!!!how that makes a difference i do not know!
Many of us are tempted onto these sites by the huge jackpots they promise and i myself am no exception...but the chance of winning one of these jackpots is vertually impossible,most of us will never win a large amount on these sites and you will find that most people who do win them probably are not genuine.
These sites are not governed by any uk legislation and even if they were it would be a bit of a toothless beast as any proper uk body has very little power anyway....so where does this leave the people who are betting their money and being cheated by these sites?...i'm not sure of the answer to that after all they are gambling sites and gambling is a bone of contention in any society so complaining to any government department would probably fall on deaf ears i think....what i do think is that these sites should be made to be far more transparent to the people who choose to gamble on them after all other forms of gambling are governed by strict legislation why should online bingo be allowed to be any different?...I do believe that if it can be proved that these sites are misleading people and lying to people in order to get them to wager....then they should be made to refund every penny they have taken after all taking money by false pretences is a crime surely?
The only way you can be sure of an absolute fair game of bingo is go to your local workingmens club and buy 2 books...there will be an old guy pressing a button on an old machine and calling out the numbers on an even older microphone!!!
good luck