Just one more day till the start of the Online Bingo Summit, an online bingo industry event in London this June 17 and 18.  Bingo Street will be there, rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in online bingo including Parlay Entertainment which will be exhibiting its new Parlay 4 bingo online software.

Free online bingo is still one of the fastest growing niches in the online gaming sector.  Attendees at the Online Bingo Summit will have the chance to hear from leading industry experts as to where the industry is going and what we can expect regards changes in the European markets.

It should be a fun event – will let you all know how things go.

Written by John Witherspoon – How about playing bingo online? The best free online bingo games are just one click away.

The European Commission (EC), that bastion of commercial fair play for European-based businesses, is to interview some of the Bush administration’s senior members over the US’ current protectionist policies as enshrined by UIGEA.

For those of you in the online bingo world who are still not aware of the massive damage inflicted on our industry by UIGEA, the implementation of this notorious piece of legislation hit quite a few online bingo games operators for six.  The EC has subsequently fought to influence US policy into revising its stance towards a more regulated online gaming industry that would allow UK online bingo halls to do business in the lucrative US market again.

So, will these EC interviews help us to get back into the US market?  My bet is this is highly unlikely as the Bush administration is in its twilight and probably will do very little to change things in the time it has left.

Written by John Witherspoon – Come and play online bingo at its best! The best bingo games online are one click away.

UK online bingo hall Crown Bingo has raised more than £1000 in charitable donations after it ran a number of successful charity online bingo events on its website.  The charity benefiting from the successful effort is the premature baby charity BLISS.

BLISS CEO Andy Cole said of the effort: “Without the help of generous individuals and companies like Crown Bingo we would not be able to make the difference that these most vulnerable babies desperately need. One in every eight babies in the UK is born too soon, too small or too sick to cope on their own.

“BLISS provides much-needed support and advice to families through what can be an incredibly difficult time, champions exciting new advances in care, and campaigns for increased resources to improve the long-term outcomes for these babies. Thank you for your invaluable support.”

Crown Bingo conducted its charity online bingo games last May 12th with 50% of the bingo online prize pools being donated to BLISS.  The site says the events generated a fantastic response from Crown Bingo members flooding to the website to help raise money for the charity.

From all of us here at Bingo Street, well done Crown Bingo!

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If the trend in gaming numbers from the land industry is anything to go by, online bingo games operators may find it worthwhile checking out the Asian market where Macau casino revenues have now overtaken those in Las Vegas.

While the Asian market has a long way to go regards taking up online bingo with very few people in the region familiar with the concept, the loss of the lucrative US market means many will hope the Asian market could make up the difference in the future.

Asians who play bingo online are mostly concentrated in the Hong Kong region which is adjacent to the Macau casino scene and there is an increasing amount of Chinese gamblers taking to online games.  With the possibility that Asia’s total gaming industry revenue could surpass the US by 2012, online bingo halls in the UK may want to start planning ahead to cash in on this growing market.

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News that a $5 billion Las Vegas casino project is to be cancelled with a resulting estimated $40 million loss for the Australian venture behind it is yet more evidence that the land gaming market is hurting.

Australian company Crown Ltd. took a part in the LVTI project with Texas-based developer Christopher Milam and York Capital Management LLC. The recent credit crunch is being blamed for the failure of the project.

So what does this mean for the online gaming sector, especially the online bingo sector?

My humble opinion is that online bingo games operators will see a major up-tick in activity as the slowdown in land casino operations takes hold.  People who play online bingo are already tuning into the advantages of saving money by staying home and going online for their bingo fix.

You heard it here first – Bingo online and online gaming in general will start to seriously erode the market share enjoyed by land gambling operations.  For online operators this continues to be a major opportunity to get involved in the fastest growing niche in online gaming.

Written by John Witherspoon – How about playing bingo online? The best free online bingo games are just one click away.

Parlay Entertainment’s latest collaboration with Chertwell Technologies runs parallel with the recent rash of collaborative signings being completed by 888.com.  It all points to a growing trend of consolidation through joint collaborations by some of the online bingo industry’s major players.

The Parlay front-end bingo online games system will now combine with Chertwell’s back-end administration systems.

Quite a few online bingo halls in the UK use the Parlay bingo online software platform and their online bingo games products.  As we progress through 2008, expect to see many more of these joint collaborations.

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I will be very interested to see how ITV’s new bingo show (called Bingo Night Live) performs.

For those of you that do not know about this, ITV has employed the services of former glam model Melinda Messenger to front its latest foray into the nation’s favourite game.  The show begins tomorrow night and plays out Tuesdays to Saturdays every week.

While you couldn’t call this online bingo, there is an online element to the show in that players can buy their bingo cards online at the shows website.

Here’s my take on the whole TV bingo thing:  Why play for only one hour each night at a time you have no choice about when you can play at one of the Bingo Street-rated online bingo halls like Wink Bingo any time you want?

In a nutshell:  You can win just as much when you play bingo online and there’s no time restriction in going after those juicy online bingo games jackpots!

I’ll be interested in seeing how Melinda does (wink, wink!), but I don’t see a very long-term future for this type of bingo over free online bingo, if you know what I mean!

Written by John Witherspoon – How about playing bingo online? The best free online bingo games are just one click away.

I wonder what’s going on here?

There have been claims in the New York Post that PartyGaming, that heavyweight operator of bingo online games and other online gaming activities, may have to pay a massive $1 billion to the US government to avoid prosecution over its pre-UIGEA gaming activities in the US market!

That’s $1 billion folks!

See, all you have to do if you’re a government wanting to make a few extra bucks is make a new law and then make it retroactive so you can go after people who innocently operated in a time when that law did not exist – nice!

While it’s true original PartyGaming founders Russ de Leon and Ruth Parisol scored a cool $7 billion when they took the company public in London, it may be that they are willing to part with $1 billion just to avoid a shareholder revolt.

However, $1 billion here, $1 billion there, and you’re starting to talk real money. In my humble opinion, that’s 1$ billion that will not be available for prize money for us poor bingo online players looking to make our own score in online bingo.

It could be worse however.  The US could simply decide to smash PartyGaming with a massive law suit that would see one of the more popular online bingo halls disappear down the memory hole.  I hope it doesn’t come to that – so maybe $1 billion isn’t such a bad price to pay for staying in business?

Written by John Witherspoon – Need the best online bingo games? BingoStreet.com collected the best online bingo promotions and free bingo games online.