Posts Tagged ‘mecca bingo’

Is the Mecca Bingo Britain’s Got Talent bingo game a winner?

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Mecca Bingo is very proud of its tie up with Britain’s Got Talent and the exclusive Britain’s Got Talent online bingo game that it launched yesterday has had wide publicity.

I took advantage of the spend £5, get £5 free promotion that Mecca Bingo are running to encourage existing bingo players to give the new game a go and I must admit that at first try it felt like there was a little too much going on. I almost missed confirming my online bingo ticket purchase a couple of times as I was scrolling through to find the Bonus Balls Jackpot numbers I wanted, but it is possible to save a selection if you want to use the same ones every game.

                                                                                                     

Every now and then the scratchcard popped up and that delayed buying tickets too and there is not a win every time it appears as with the scratchcard games on some other bingo sites. All in all however, the new game is very playable and the graphics are excellent considering there is so much going on.

There were nearly 400 players in the room when I was there and the games moved through very quickly, but the pots were good and the ticket prices varied from low to high and that is good too.

However, once I had spent through my qualifying £5 I decided that a better option for a win might be one of the other bingo rooms that would be a bit quieter while many people were playing the Britain’s Got Talent game and this proved to be the case. I will go back though once the initial rush has died down, but it will be interesting to see which of the TV formats wins the day – the Deal or No Deal bingo game or the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game – the Banker takes on Simon Cowell!  Who do you think will win?

Clover Rollover Progressive reaches £2m

I took my free £5 and moved to the 75 ball Lucky 7 bingo room and played my online bingo quite happily for the next couple of hours, aided by some small bingo game wins to keep me playing and some wins on the Clover Rollover slot.

I like to ensure I make a few spins at 50p a go on Clover Rollover to ensure I would qualify for the Share the Wealth promotion and part of the £10,000 pot on offer by Mecca to be shared by anyone who has played the day the £2m+ jackpot is won.

Don’ forget it is not just existing customers who get free money to try the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game, Mecca Bingo are offering all new customers £5 free to play too. Players just need to register, go to the BGT game in the bingo lobby and £5 will automatically be credited. This is on top of the first deposit cash match offer up to £50 for new players to the site.

Plus as an added bonus all Mecca Bingo customers who play anywhere on Meccabingo.com in May will be in with a chance of winning Britain’s Got Talent Grand Final tickets.

I write a lot about Mecca Bingo, but the offers it comes up with and its games are second to none and it is only fair that I share them with you even though I might then have to fight you for those elusive bingo wins!

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Posted in Bingo, Bingo Games, Gaming, Online Bingo, TV Bingo, UK Bingo | No Comments »

Online bingo – growing its charitable contribution

Monday, May 10th, 2010

I am happy to report that there is a growing trend among the online bingo big boys to make a contribution to various charities based upon the value of certain bingo games played by online bingo customers.

It has frequently been reported during this recession that online bingo does not appear to have been as badly affected by the economic downturn has might have been expected. In this respect it does no harm to the reputation of the online bingo industry to be seen to be making a gesture to say, ‘Ok, we are making a profit, but look, others can benefit too’.

Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Care are two areas that are particularly well represented within the fund raising efforts of the online bingo sites. The latter is probably representative of the fact that it is recognised that it is still women that make up the majority of the online bingo population – although more and more men are gradually being brought into the fold.

The high profile of a lot of fundraising events for cancer related illnesses also make these charities attractive to support. For instance, there are nationwide Race for Life events that take place up and down the country over the summer. Race for Life is organised by Cancer Research UK and many of the people that take part have had their lives touched by cancer in some way. These are usually women only events and participants obtain sponsorship for completing a 5k course, either walking, jogging or running.

You may also have heard of the Pink Ribbon Walks for Breast Cancer Care and the annual Playtex Moonwalk – the next event taking place in Hyde Park on 15th May. The Moonwalks call for real commitment, being either a Full Moon walk of 26.2 miles or a Half Moon walk for 13.1 miles. But many people make that commitment as more than £8m was raised from these events in 2009.

There is one online bingo site that exists to provide the best of online bingo entertainment whilst raising money for deserving charities. BigHeartBingo is all about charity bingo. The charity bingo game is played in exactly the same way as a normal bingo game, but a percentage of money raised is given to one or more named charities. This means online bingo players get the excitement of being able to win a prize for themselves, but also get the satisfaction of knowing that they are helping a good cause just by participating at all times.

Of the more mainstream online bingo providers Crown Bingo is probably the biggest that has specifically
chosen a cancer charity to support. During May the Crown Bingo nominated charity is Cancer Research UK. 50% of the jackpot funds from 7-9pm on Monday 10th May in Room 2 will be donated.  So it stands to reason that the more players that take part in the games the higher the jackpots will be and in-turn the higher the donation to this worthy charity will be. Crown Bingo will continue to run selected games during the month where a proportion of the funds will be donated to the charity.

Mecca Bingo choose a single charity to support throughout the whole year and in 2010 this is Marie Curie Cancer Care. The support of high profile names like Mecca Bingo helps to raise funds to enable Marie Curie Nurses care for terminally ill people across the UK in their homes. It takes £20 to fund one hour of nursing care. The Mecca Bingo Marie Curie games sees 80p per pound spent on bingo games donated to the charity and winners can also win themsleves a VIP trip to one of the exclusive Mecca Clubs.

Gala Bingo was probably one of the first online bingo providers to make a concerted effort to support a specific charity and currently they are aiming to raise £1m over 18 months for Sue Ryder Care, a charity that provides specialised care in 14 care centres and by running community based services across the UK, caring for sufferers and their families,of cancer, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s Disease among others. For instance, every night this week Gala bingo will play a special linked game, where not only will there be a £1,000 Jackpot for you, but galabingo.com will be donating an additional £1,000 to Sue Ryder Care. They want to make it a Grand for You and a Grand for Sue! If you want to take part linked games will take place at 19.25 in all linked clubs.

This trend of being able to contribute to charity while playing our favourite online bingo games is one to be applauded and I for one hope it continues to grow and become a feature of more online bingo sites with more bingo games or bingo sessions helping specific charities.

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Posted in Bingo, Bingo Games, Online Bingo, UK Bingo | 1 Comment »

Mecca Bingo – Regulars Free Bingo Room. Was it worth it?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Sunday 11th April, saw the first opening of the Regulars Free Bingo Room at top online bingo site Mecca Bingo as part of its £10,000 Sunday Giveaway promotion that is running throughout April for the benefit of its loyal onine bingo players. What an experience that turned out to be!

Were you there? I was - (the sacrifices I have to make for WhichBingo!!). At its peak 1,684 people were in the room and what a bunch. One CM trying to control that lot was like watching Neptune try to hold back the tide.  CM Alison did her best and handled herself admirably, only appearing to lose her cool a couple of times amidst quite a lot of scorn and abuse when certain players felt things were not going their way.

A couple of times chat games had to be abandoned due to cheating can you believe – although as each chat game was worth £100 instead of the normal £1 there was a lot more to play for than usual. These voided games caused a lot of problems from bingo players who had convinced themselves that they were the winner and were none too pleased that they were not going to receive ‘their’ winnings.  However, as after at least one of the games three people were claiming that they would have been the winner the logic behind their continued appeals and threats to lodge a complaint would appear wide of the mark.

Repeated appeals for bingo players to stop typing 5tg, 4tg etc., etc., fell on a lot of deaf ears and chat was moving at an alarming rate.  It really was headache inducing stuff. The same questions kept appearing again and again, so lets hope next week there is a standard message that the CM can put out – ‘the room is open until 10pm, you can pre-buy from the Schedule, no – you cannot win any of the normal game jackpots, chat game cheaters will be banned’.  That should at least save them some time and maybe their sanity.

All credit to MeccaBingo for trying to reward its quality bingo players (as not forgetting you had to have played through at least £30 between Monday and Thursday to get access to the room) and the prizes were on the generous side -
One Line £41.54
Two Lines £64.62
House  £193.84

Bearing in mind the criteria above, Mecca Bingo took in at least £50,000 in stake money during the qualifying period even if players only staked the minimum to get there, and it is almost certain that many staked more (I know I did!), it is nice to see a site giving something back.  But Mecca will also have lost out on income during the three hours the free room was open as some of those 1600 players would certainly have normally been playing on a Sunday night.

Some bingo players may not be too happy today who might have staked sufficiently to gain access, but forgot to visit the site at the correct time. The only notification of your qualification for the room is one pop up message as you achieve the required stake level and then nothing else, so it is seriously a case of if you snooze you lose on this one!

Well, sad to say, I didn’t even get close to winning, the closest being a 2tg, but at least my husband was pleased that I wasn’t spending any more money for the three hours while I was in the room.  Will I be there next week? Not sure yet, but I would love to hear from any of you that do venture in.

Have I been fair? Have you got a view on the occasion?
Post a response and let’s get our own party started!

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Posted in Bingo, Bingo Games, Free Bingo, Online Bingo | 1 Comment »

Are you ready for Rebel Bingo?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

I did think twice about bringing the Underground Rebel Bingo Club to your attention as it is a hush-hush, secret organisation, but when the Wall Street Journal is writing about them it is time for WhichBingo UK readers to be in the know!

What started out as a bunch of short notice, random parties (raves?) at unusual locations, is fast becoming a must-attend event, though not for the faint hearted or easily offended. Please do not watch the video of you fall into either of these categories!

Click here to see a video of The Underground Rebel Bingo Club

The Underground Rebel Bingo Club was born when one such ‘normal’ party took place in the basement of a church hall, where the partygoers found a bingo machine and cards and started a very drunken and debauched game of bingo. This has developed into a party night that mixes bingo with unusual acts (a hula-hooping Elvis impersonator, anyone?) and burlesque performances, to create a unique bingo experience.

To take part, if you can track down an event, you will pay a £15 entry fee and grab markers and cards on the way in. Players stand (no chairs) and fill in cards while drinking beer and dancing to rock music. Players listen out for the far from traditional (rude) bingo calls when the numbers are drawn – no clickety click 66 here.  Another feature of the events is partygoers daubing each other with the marker pens as well as (instead of?) the bingo tickets.

Rebel Bingo usually begins at 9.30pm and goes on until 1am. By 9.30 most traditional bingo clubs have shed their players for the night! The Underground Rebel Bingo club now attracts between 400 and 1,100 ‘players’ to each event – numbers that traditional land based bingo clubs would kill for these days.

The idea of late-night bingo is one that Kieran Simmonds, the General Manager of the Mecca Bingo Club at Catford, south London, was happy to copy if revenue and footfall would be increased. Admissions at that venue have increased by 25% year on year since the introduction of After Dark Bing-glo, a (much) tamer version of Rebel Bingo.

“With the concept of After Dark, we altered the demographics of our customer base. Some of them are now in their 20s,” Mr. Simmonds says. “It is designed to be a bit of fun, but obviously there is the incremental income we want to make as well. The idea is to get people to drink a lot more.”

If you are not easily offended check out the footage and let me know what you think – will Rebel Bingo bring a new young audience into the bingo world who may then go on to swell the ranks of online bingo players?
Or will it alienate the traditional older bingo player?

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Posted in Bingo, Bingo Games, Music, Online Bingo, UK Bingo | 2 Comments »

Mecca Bingo – king of prizes?

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Readers of the WhichBingo News page will have heard about Mecca Bingo giving away a VIP trip to Las Vegas, but is that the best prize ever to be given away by a bingo site?

Over the years, we’ve seen huge sums of cash, trips to exotic locations and even cars given away by bingo sites.

Gala Bingo famously created online bingo’s first millionaire when 62-year-old Pauline Clark from Bristol achieved a full house playing the KerChingo game in 2008.

Personally, I’d have to say the WhichBingo UK Foxy Video competition prizes are pretty dazzling – a £50 Paysafecard plus loads of £20 funded accounts at Foxy Bingo and loads of cuddly Foxy beanies!

What’s the best bingo prize you’ve ever won?

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Posted in Bingo, Online Bingo, UK Bingo, foxy bingo | No Comments »

Online Bingo Millionaire

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

One very lucky online bingo player has recently transformed their life by winning £1.2 million pounds at Mecca Bingo.

Mecca Bingo create millionaire

Mecca Bingo create millionaire

The winner has decided to remain anonymous, only releasing details that she uses her dogs name as her Mecca Bingo username.

The winner scooped the massive prize playing on the ‘five lucky clovers’ game, she spun 5 lucky clovers on the same line, which meant she won the massive prize.

Mecca Bingo did manage to speak with the lucky lady, she said: “”I’m absolutely thrilled to have won the jackpot, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the five lucky shamrocks in a row, especially since I’ve only been playing the game for a few weeks. It’s all been such a shock that I haven’t decided what to do with the money yet, but I’ll certainly be buying my pet dog a few treats after using her name as my online sign-in.”

Although no player is yet to become a millionaire actually playing bingo online, we at Which Bingo have certainly come across many large winners in the past. There have been however, a few million pound jackpot wins on slot games.

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WhichBingo hits the road!

Monday, June 1st, 2009

The weather has been far too lovely to stay couped up in the office recently, so WhichBingo has been out on the road!

We took our podcast team out to the brand new Mecca Bingo in Beeston, Nottingham, where we were given a tour of the stunning club and we chatted to the staff and players at the club.

The podcast also features an interview with the creator of Rock And Roll Bingo – a new game being played at Mecca Beeston.

You can download the podcast right now and see a video news story on our adventures here.

BingoBoy

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Bingo – the new nightclub craze?

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

It’s a common myth that bingo halls are out-of-bounds for the under-30s. Anyone who has been to a bingo hall recently will tell you that there are often just as many young faces to be seen happily dabbing away as there are older ones.

After Dark Binglo

After Dark Binglo

The people at Mecca Bingo are well aware of the affection the younger generation have for bingo and, in their wisdom, they have come up with a new concept that puts bingo at the centre of a more conventional young person’s night out.

‘After Dark Binglo’ is taking place at Nottingham’s Mecca Beeston this Saturday and is described as being a Saturday night not for the easily offended! From 9.30pm onwards, the club will be hosting a full session of bingo for just £5 but there will also be music, drinks and a nightclub party atmosphere.

Prizes from Firebox.com, which stocks an amazing range of gadgets and toys for grown-ups, will be given away all night.

Sounds like a great night! Who knows, if it catches on we could see a lot more bingo clubs opening their doors late into the night!

BingoBoy

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Posted in Bingo, Bingo Games, Gaming, Uncategorized | No Comments »