Entry into the draw for the star prize couldn’t be easier. Every 25 PartyPoints earned will be matched by a free entry into the prize draw for the once in a lifetime week of luxury living for two in Hollywood, home of the rich and famous in America’s world famous sunshine state of California. The “A-list” celebrity treatment includes first-class flights, a six-night stay in a luxurious 5-star hotel, $3,000 in spending money and a chauffeur-driven limousine to whisk the winner and a companion around one of the most glamorous hotspots on the planet.

PartyCasino.com’s players also stand a chance of winning other great instant prizes throughout the three glorious weeks of the “Live Like A Star” promotion. All players have to do to is play any game in the casino lounge and earn PartyPoints to stand a chance of winning an instant prize and the more PartyPoints earned the better the prizes will be for the lucky winners!

The excitement, fun and entertainment does not stop with the summer promotion. PartyCasino.com has great new slots, themed on two of the biggest blockbuster movies of all time. There are high–octane thrills to be had on Mission: Impossible and players can light up the dance floor on Saturday Night Fever. These state-of-the-art big money slots with five reels, 20 lines and amazing graphics have already become a firm favourite with PartyCasino.com’s players.

A PartyCasino.com spokesman said: “We’re not pulling any punches in this promotion, with the winner receiving first class treatment all the way to Hollywood and back. Our lucky winner will live the life of an A-lister in every way for a whole week. Anything that their favourite celebrity has done they can emulate in this great once in a lifetime trip.”

“The more points earned, the more chance there is of winning as each 25 PartyPoints gains another prize-draw ticket”

Online casino Vegas Red will be changing someone’s life forever with their latest progressive jackpot. The massive jackpot, which is featured on the slot machine Beach Life, currently towers at over $3.5 million and is just waiting to be won.

With only a minimum of 50c needed to play Beach Life, everyone can enjoy this fun and vibrant tropical themed game which is guaranteed to get you in the mood for the summer. The 5-reel, 20-line slot machine features Scatter Symbols, giving additional wins when two or more of the special symbols appear together on the reels. The game also has a fun bonus round, where player can increase their winnings even further.

Beach Life has been a firm favourite of players at Vegas Red for some time as it regularly offers one of the highest progressive jackpots on the internet. The gigantic online progressive jackpot is ever-increasing and is not expected to slow down until it is ultimately won by one very lucky player.

Beach Life is one of 19 progressive online games at Vegas Red. Over 100 online games in total are available at the online casino.

Bodog Poker is once again giving its online poker players the chance to freeroll their way to poker stardom and riches while traveling to exotic locations in total Bodog style. The Asian Poker Tour event in Macau, held Aug. 26-31, is guaranteeing $1.5 million in prize money, and Bodog Poker is now running freeroll qualifier tournaments where the winner receives entry to the APT Macau plus an all-expenses paid trip to the exciting gaming destination situated along the Pearl River Delta in China.

The freeroll tournaments are scheduled four times daily throughout the month of July. The top 25 finishers per qualifier move onto the APT Macau Seat Giveaway Finale on Saturday, Aug. 2, with the top prize being an $8,000 prize package that includes the event’s $5,300 buy-in, round trip flight, spending money and a six-night stay at the luxurious Galaxy StarWorld Hotel & Casino located in the heart of Macau.

“With the World Series in Las Vegas all but over, it is time for online poker players to head east—the Far East that is—for a shot at scoring big, and Bodog Poker is excited to give players the chance to win their way into this major tournament without spending a dime,” said Morris Mohawk Gaming Group CEO Alwyn Morris. “We’re sending a team of players to the APT Macau in total Bodog style and one of them will be freerolling their way there to compete for a share of its $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool.”

In addition to the APT Macau Seat Giveaway freeroll qualifiers, online poker players can also play for one of three $8,000 APT Macau VIP Prize Packages that Bodog is awarding in qualifiers held through Aug. 3. Players can work their way up from the “cheap seats,” build tournament credits for other qualifiers, blast through a Turbo Quarterfinal or two, or skip the line and buy directly into one of the $300 + $20 buy-in Semifinal events held over the next three Sundays at 3:15 p.m.

The APT Macau is just one of a number of tournaments held around the world that poker players can qualify for through Bodog every week. From the World Series event in London this September to tournaments across Europe, Asia and North America, Bodog’s Player’s Choice packages give winners the chance to compete for millions of dollars while experiencing some of the most exciting and exotic locations in the world as only Team Bodog members do.

The latest reports state that there are now over 1800 online casinos on the internet. Online Sportsbook proliferate and there seems to be a new online Poker site launching every day. One aspect of online gambling that doesnt grab the headlines, but is becoming a vibrant, growing and commercially important market is online bingo.

Online bingo? But the little old ladies who play bingo don’t have internet access, I hear you say. That may, or may not be the case, but land-based bingo is huge, and its not only played by little old ladies. In fact, there are more visits to bingo halls in USA than there are visits to the cinema. In 1999, the US bingo industry alone had a turnover of $5.1b. Add to that the fact that the rules are simple ( everyone knows how to play bingo) and that most people dont even perceive it as gambling and you can see its potential. Little wonder that online bingo is growing and set to become big business.

Multi-player Bingo on the internet (as opposed to single player, Keno-Bingo) falls into three basic groups; Free Bingo, Game Sites with Bingo and Pay to Play Bingo. Free Bingo is offered by a small number of specialist sites. Game play is free and prizes are usually points or small denomination cash prizes. The operators business model is built on banner advertising sales and/ or data mining. This is the same model as operated by those sites offering a range of games, one of which happens to be bingo. These sites include places like Pogo, Gamesville and the Flipside Network. The core of the industry, however, is the Pay-to-Play bingo sites.

Compared to the 1800 online casinos, the bingo market is small, but its growing quickly. There were only ten credible pay-to-play online bingo offerings in April 2000. A year later this had increased by 50%. One year later, by February 2002, this had double to 30 sites. As I write (December 2002) this figure has risen by more than 60% in less than year and the current count is at 52 sites. ( All these numbers exclude white label sites and affiliates etc.).

The structure of the industry is similar to the online casino industry. Software is licensed to operators and costs are usually based on an upfront fee plus and on-going, turnover-based royalty. Up to recently the software was supplied by bingo specialists only. However, recently two of the online casino worlds big boys have entered the market. Both Boss Media and Cryptologic have commenced supplying bingo software. Again, as with the online casino market, the games come in download, Flash and Java versions, with the download option seemingly returning to favour after an up-turn in Java and Flash in the last year. All pay-to-play bingo sites offer slots games (as per their land-based cousins) but recently there has been a surge of new additional games on offer including Video Poker, Keno and other card based games.

So, whos playing these games? Weve already established that its not the little old ladies who play land-based bingo. From original research carried out at WhichBingo.com, it can be seen that the audience is predominantly female (85%), two thirds of them are aged 35 - 54, almost all of them are based in North America and over 80% of them also play land-based bingo. Interestingly 40% of online bingo players do not take part in any other type of online gambling. For those operators in the online casino market this is great news entering the bingo arena will open up new audience streams for them rather than cannibalising their existing player base. However if you really want to see what this audience looks like, pop into any bingo site. Most of them have players galleries so you can indeed see what the audience looks like.

Players galleries may be a strange concept to those used to promoting the benefits of the anonymity of online gaming. online bingo is different. One of the main reasons a player will play at one site rather than another is because their friends play there. Thats not friends from the local neighbourhood, but friends across the whole internet. The basis of this community spirit within the bingo games is the chat window. The chat window is open during the game and players interact throughout the game, creating the community atmosphere. This then brings an additional marketing tool into play; the Chat Host. Simply the Chat Host is there, in the chat room, to develop a community atmosphere and offer immediate customer support. A good Chat Host (or CM as they are known) can be the difference between an OK site and a great site. Importantly, they can also be an influencer as to whether a player returns or not.

Finally, with the cost of both recruitment and retention within the gaming market remaining competitively high, its worth looking at bingo in comparison. Taking an arbitrary day, the cost to appear in first position on Overture for the word casino is more than three times more expensive than appearing in first position for bingo. Similarly, top position for online casino is more than five times more expensive than online bingo. Added to which retention levels are much, much higher in online bingo.

Although only a brief overview of the online bingo market, suffice to say that it is a vibrant, fast-growing niche within the online gaming market and one that deserves to be looked at in more depth by anyone looking for an opportunity in online gaming.
A few Facts and Figures about the UK Bingo Industry

There are 688 licensed bingo clubs operating in the UK (as of 31st March 2002).
Figures for 2001 show an estimated total market of around 85 million admissions.
In 2001, £246 million was paid to the Exchequer in duty and VAT.
Estimated total industry pre-tax profit for 2001 was £149 million.
The average customer spends £18-22 on a night at bingo (making no allowance for winnings). This includes bingo tickets, VAT and Duty, other gaming, food and drink.
Over £999 million was paid out in prizes in 2001 in licensed bingo clubs.
Bingo is the only gambling activity where women are more likely to play than men.
70% of bingo players are women, and 30% are men.
Overall, 10% of all women play compared to only 5% of men.
Bingo playing is spread evenly across all age categories, with the average age of players being under 50.