The Online Bingo Industry Ready For A Take Off

by Hollie Sanders

The name of Bingo has often been associated with the picture of senior women clustering around in smoky halls. But despite this, many executives dealing with the gambling industry opine that the online Bingo industry is just ready for a big take off.

The numbers are staggering. Internationally UK is leading the Bingo market taking into account the growing number of websites. It jumped from 17 in June 2004 to 243 in June 2008 as per data released by Phil Fraser of WhichBingo. It is based in Leeds, UK. It provides information about Bingo. Fraser was the chairman of Online Bingo Summit, 2008 that was held last week in London. The second ranker in the Bingo market is Spain where the number of websites increased to 40 from 6 in the previous year.

BingoPort.co.uk provides online tracking services for Bingo. It reported last month that in UK, online Bingo earned 120 million pounds/$239 in 2007 on a revenue of 650 million pounds. The Gambling Commission of the country calculates that per month 5,00,000 British players indulge in online Bingo games.

Online Bingo is not exactly new – it having made its debut in 1995 in USA. Since then the growth has been astronomical with the spreading of the broadband Internet across the world. The majority of the Bingo players are women aged between 25 to 30. Their average education is up to the high school level as per data given by Cashcade Ltd, the holder of Foxy Bingo and Think Bingo. The latter two are the biggest UK websites that are privately owned.

Europe and Bingo:

Meanwhile the opportunities of expansion in Europe are opening up. Al Haig Thomas is the CEO of Virtue Fusion that deals in Bingo software also comprising of Rank Groups PLc’s Mecca, William Hill Plc’s, British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc’s, Skybet and Ladbrokes Plc’s. He says that the European market will grow fast within the next one or two years. Also South America and Asia promises great potential within the forthcoming five or eight years. However it not an unknown fact that the housing industry is telling on the basics of casino and gambling shops as well as Bingo centres in UK and USA. However history says that economic slump has never seriously affected gambling.

Fraser of WhichBingo notes that there is a slowing down of pace in the UK online Bingo playing. It is growing by about 3% from month to month as against 10% one year ago. He was speaking at an interview. Thus there are signs of the economy telling on Bingo to some extent. Putting it neatly he added that although the industry is not immune to recession it is resistant to it.