Prize Disputes, Big Prize Wins And Bingo Caller Interviews

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Prize Disputes And Our Share Agreement

Following the dispute around the 2nd Mecca Millionaire prize money and its split, another prize dispute was settled recently. The case around a disputed share on of a £100,000 National Prize went to the appeal court in London, where the judge decided an alleged verbal agreement between the Bingo players to split their prize was not binding. This meant the person who won the prize could keep her winnings, despite her friends saying they had previously agreed to share it.

This bodes well for the lady involved in the argument over the £1,000,000 prize, but it doesn't bode well for many friends out there who play shares and might find themselves in a similar situation. Given these new huge prizes, I thought it would be a good idea to have something like a lottery syndicate. So, in an effort to stop such things happening again, I thought I'd make myself an agreement that Bingo players could print off and make a copy of for those big money games.

It also gave me an opportunity to do my second video for the site - so, if you want to find out more about the Bingo Players Prize Agreement, you can download the form here, or if you'd like to watch the YouTube video, that can be seen here. I think I'd rather spend a couple of minutes signing the form with my regular Bingo friends than lose them arguing about a split of a big prize.

Gala Bingo's High 5 Won

And talking about splitting big prizes, Gala Bingo's own big money game has been won. The Gala High 5 is unique in that not only does the winner get a prize, but everyone else in the winning club does as well. The split is 50% to the winner, and the other 50% is shared equally between evenly between everyone else playing at the club. In the case of Margaret Ann Venables from the Fenton Gala Bingo, she got £437,104 and the rest of the club got themselves a nice pay day of £1,184 each.

Bingo Caller Interviews

The regional heats of the 2007 Bingo Caller Of The Year are now completed. The national final will be held on the 25th November at the Wood Green Mecca Bingo in London. We've got a couple of interviews with two of the finalists. Allen Musa calls at the Preston Buckingham Bingo and won the North West regional heat. You can read our interview with Allen here. Robert Willard calls at the Cwmbran Mecca Bingo. He won the Wales heat of the competition, and also has a further point of note as he called the numbers on the first free Mecca Millionaire winning games. The interview with Robert is here.

Bingo Hall Closures And Bingo Hall Article

Unfortunately, the last month has taken its toll on a number of smaller clubs. I reported on 3 closures - two in Derbyshire and one in Southampton. Typically, the clubs being hit the worst are the smaller, more traditional kind of clubs. It really saddens me to see these clubs go - the little halls, many of which were previously cinemas have a lot of charm and culture attached to them. It's a real loss when one of these clubs goes.

I've always wanted Playing Bingo to feature more info on these sorts of clubs, so I've taken steps to start getting information on these clubs at the site. The first is a feature article by photographer Ian Grundy, that looks at the history of Bingo in the UK from the perspective of the halls and their transformation from cinemas to Bingo halls. Ian will be returning to the site with some more in depth features on individual halls in the neat future. There are some wonderful photographs of Bingo hall interiors and architecture in the article - An Illustrated UK Bingo History.

As well as Ian's feature, if you have photographs of Bingo halls that have closed, or if you know your hall is about to close, take some photos, let us know and I'll feature them at the site.

Online Bingo Reviews - Astro Bingo, Sun Bingo, Think Bingo And Jackpot Joy

I've had a bit of a surge on my reviews of online Bingo the last month. Alongside reviews of older sites Think Bingo and Astro Bingo, I was excited to see that Jackpot Joy have finally released a 90 ball game, so I had to give that a run through. Also, after seeing how big The Sun's online Bingo has become at the Bingo summit, I thought I'd take a look at what's now the UK's biggest online Bingo. Keep an eye out for more reviews in the near future.

£5 Free At Castle Bingo

I'll finish up with a nicely improved special offer for Castle Bingo. For those of you not familiar with them, Castle are a chain of clubs in South Wales (and my regular club). Their online offering is bright and fun and an excellent implementation of the St Minver platform. They have a special promotion on till the end of November 2007 for all new players of £5 free no deposit games and 100% match bonus with our special code.

To claim your free £5. You will need to register here. On the registration form in the box marked Promotion Code use the following code: L3L9GI. Once you confirm your account by clicking on the link in the email you receive, you will receive the first £2 of the free money. Register your card and you will get the other £3 of games. When you make your first deposit you'll also get the first deposit match bonus of 100% up to £125. Be certain to check the full terms and conditions at the site.

Join Us At The Bingo Forums

If you'd like to discuss any of the things in this newsletter, add your own opinions or just hang out and chat with like-minded Bingo players and fans, drop into the free forum and grab yourself a free account. Make your voice heard!

And Finally

If you've got any Bingo news that you think will be of interest - or special stories about Bingo that you 'd like to see featured at Playing Bingo, then drop us a line. We'd also love to hear from you if you have any ideas about stuff you'd like to see at the site. In the meantime, may the Bingo luck smile on you...

All the best!

David 'Dio Bach' Lloyd
November 15th 2007

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