Read here about the Online bingo Site of the Year award.

UK Bingo News

Bingo in the community

Date: March 17, 2008 | Category: Free bingo games editorial |

As online bingo continues to grow, we are taking a look at the good work online bingo is doing in communities around the country.

The game of bingo has been at the heart of strong communities ever since it became popular in the UK and now, with the online bingo phenomenon growing fast, the game has retained its links with charities and good causes.

Of all the success stories that emerge, three sites in particular deserve a special mention.

BigHeartBingo.com was launched in 2007 by former Littlewoods Gaming director Jeremy Collis, with the aim to raise £10 million a year for charities within five years.

He told WhichBingo UK: “My experience is that people rarely play solely for the ‘good cause’ element; they play for the social experience or to win a big prize.

“But if we offer the same entertainment, the same fun and the same quality product as all the big commercial sites, why wouldn’t they play for charity?” He added. “Especially because we let them choose the cause they want to support.”

The site – a WhichBingo UK advertiser – is well on the way to achieving its goal.

Collis explained: “There are approximately 170,000 registered charities in the UK alone. If we can get five per cent of the charities to participate and 50 players per charity, we could raise £51 million a year for charity.

“We have to work very carefully with charities because they’re sensitive and very conservative. They get offered all sorts of schemes all the time, so they're very concerned to take a careful look at every offer that's made to them.”

Other WhichBingo UK advertisers who have been doing their bit for charity include Rehab Bingo. This hugely popular Irish website was created to raise funds for Ireland’s largest charity, Rehab Group, which provides training, employment, health and social care services to people with disabilities and those who are socially marginalised.

The site, while providing hugely popular bingo games to a bustling community of players, has paid out over £5 million in prizes over the last two years and a portion of all money wagered has been donated to Rehab Group.

Both Rehab Bingo and BigHeartBingo.com use Parlay Entertainment software to provide their bingo games and another Parlay site, Bingos.co.uk, is the third WhichBingo UK advertiser to have made generous donations to charities.

Good causes such as the Crohns and Colitis Association, the Royal Society for the Prevention or Cruelty to Animals and the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association are amongst the long list of diverse charities to have benefited from Bingos’ generosity.

“We actually host representatives of the charities in our chat rooms during our weekly fundraising events,” Bingos' Dominic Mansour explained. “Our community members value the opportunity to ask them questions directly.”

The online bingo phenomenon looks set to continue its rapid growth and spread to every corner of the UK. If the charity work being done by the sites mentioned above can do the same, then good causes will surely be amongst bingo’s big winners.

Read our Front Page Bingo News here (www.whichbingo.co.uk/bingo-news/).

Read our Free bingo games editorial here.

You can receive more bingo news and promotions direct to your inbox, courtesy of the UK Bingo Players Club. Join our UK Bingo Players Club for FREE today!

RSS Bingo News Feed

Use our RSS bingo news feed to keep up to date with the latest UK bingo news. Get all the latest bingo news and feature stories delivered directly to your desktop.

Find out what RSS is and how it can benefit you here.

Bingo Night Live jackpot grows

Notts man crowned Euro Bingo Champion

Chart-topping bingo room arrives at FreeBingo UK

>> View all our news

UK bingo players club. Join now, click here.

Read here about the exclusive benefits.