Recently, another millionaire has won the platinum jackpot at the National Bingo. The lucky lady of 64 years of age has now had a dramatic life-changing prize as she won £1,023,353 at her local Gala Bingo hall. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she’s still in complete shock because of her one million pound bingo win.

Following the success of the loyalty rewarding program in its land based bingo rooms, operator Gala Bingo has decided to give its online players the opportunity to win points by introducing the program in the online bingo site.

Nectar is well known in the UK as one of the largest loyalty programs. Its customers win points while shopping and, as of now, while playing bingo. These points can be redeemed for gifts, travels, and dream treats and in order to become part of the program, all that players have to do is signing up.

Since the year 2003, The National Bingo Game and the Bingo Association have been supporting the Breakthrough for Breast Cancer. Each year in October, a fundraising event is held in order to raise money for the foundation and is called “Bingo for Breakthrough” week.

It was announced this week that English television broadcaster ITV will present a new show called Bingo Night Live hosted by Melinda Messenger and Michael Underwood. The show will run five nights a week, from Tuesday to Saturday, with an initial jackpot of £50,000 and bingo cards will be sold online.

“It’s the nation’s favorite game and accessible for all,” presenter Melinda Messenger commented. “It’s good, clean fun and easy to play and it’s free. It does not cost you a penny to play.” Besides regular bingo games, the show will feature selected interviews, behind the scene clips and special spaces for players to get involved in the program.

A study was made recently, by BingoLingo, to determine which Canadian city was the one where Bingo was most important, and it was Manitoba’s capital, Winnipeg, who came in first place.

The chief director of the research, Jeff Davis, said: “We found that Winnipeg has more bingo halls per capita than the larger cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto. What was surprising is that Winnipeg’s attendance hasn’t seemed to drop off since smoking was banned.”

Over 300 letters were sent by neighbours of the Art Deco Bingo Hall in Hove, over to the builders of the Downland Housing Assosiation. The letters objected the conversion of the Gala Bingo hall (which has been closed for three years) into 38 apartments and a surgical intervention establishment.

The chairman for the area’s association said that: “I’m disappointed the developers would not consult with neighbours before a new application is submitted. Local democracy has just disappeared – I am talking to residents who didn’t even know this was being planned.

Bingo operators across the United Kingdom have showed great optimism about the series of measures to stop the closure of bingo halls the government is to announce soon. This week Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the Bin go Association he would be making a positive statement in short.

In less than a year and a half, 51 bingo venues have closed in the country, mainly due to the effects of the smoking ban, the economic recession and losses linked to the regulation of gaming machines. Currently, there are only 600 bingo clubs in the United Kingdom.

More than 60 instant bingo machines were confiscated by officials from a bingo parlor. Hundreds of similar bingo devices which operate in an alike manner have been seized over the past year when they began appearing in the county.

Since March, all devices which have similarities with any kind of slot machine, may it be instant bingo or any other betting game, are being either removed or disconnected from places such as restaurants, bars and other establishments. This is due to the clear violation of this state’s law.

Wales has reached a year since it first banned smoking in all public areas, which includes bingo halls. The result of this decision has turned out to be of great impact and is truly affecting the bingo industry there.

On one hand, the bingo industry has been affected by the new law, resulting in an important decrease of the income. A spokesman from Top Ten Bingo in Wales said: “Across the whole of the UK Bingo Halls have seen a 25 percent drop in admission over the last year. Profits have been hit. It started to fall after around 8-10 weeks and promotions that have proved successful are not quite successful anymore."

Several Canadian charities have been benefited by a program that allows them to volunteer their time at a bingo center in exchange for a percentage of the profits. This week, the charities that took part in the program over the past year received a cheque for $1.448.972 from the hands of Barrie MPP Aileen Carroll.

“I want to thank the volunteers because the result of your work and the impact your work has on so many charities here in Barrie is astounding,” Carroll said during the ceremony. Currently, four bingo parlors are part of this pilot project, including the Boardwalk Gaming Center, where the $1.448.972 was raised.