NetPlay TV has Bingo Stars and Challenge Jackpot programming on ITV, Virgin 1 and STV. They launched Bingo Stars on 27 May and recently introduced a way of playing the game – a type of quick play keno – by mobile phone.

The company said that takeup of the mobile gambling product had been lower than expected. In a trading statement they said: ” It is becoming clear that we need to be very flexible in our product outputs and, on 21 June, we altered our format and scheduling to trial an alternative format in our earlier segment. This product is a more akin to our proven interactive gaming formats.

“We have gained a vast amount of knowledge from our current successful and profitable media partnerships and we are using this knowledge to the full, both in terms of potential cost savings and customer playing habits. Early signs are more encouraging with customers depositing funds during the show as well as to the website the following day.”

But the company warned that revenues would take longer to collect because players would lose money over a greater time period: “The move from an instant play model to a more traditional game play, as well as increased first half costs, will have a material impact on our short term profit performance. As a result the Directors believe this will have a significant impact on the full year market expectations. The initial costs associated with producing and trialling new gaming formats are high, although as we amend the model to be more inline with our proven formats we are able to reduce costs significantly with immediate effect.

“The focus on developing new formats, moving technical platforms, migration offshore and improving our core offerings has been a major upheaval for the business; as a result costs have increased substantially in the short term. In altering the current format and scheduling as well driving more synergies between our brands we are able to strip costs out from the business with immediate effect, thus protecting cash and the Company’s balance sheet.

NetPlay TV has several online bingo brands, including Bingos.com, Bingos.co.uk, Bingo Friends and El Bingo.

There are 107 bingo and gaming halls in Aragón and it is argued that the market has been saturated. Any more places for people to play will mean that existing locations will be forced to shut down. This has already happened, with thirteen halls having shut down in Zaragoza alone last year.

The Department of Justice and Interior in Aragón is looking into measures to redistribute territorially the places where people can go to gamble. The problem in the region is that the majority of halls are located in Zaragoza and there are very few in the rest of the vast area. The idea is to maintain a similar number of bingo and gaming locations but to reduced the saturation of them in some areas. The state Government is sure that this will help to satisfy the demand for gaming in the region.

The Director General for the Interior, Javier Artajo explained, ” We are trying to combine the interests of the region (one of whose sources of income is Gaming Tax) and business growth, while always remembering the consumer and doing our best to protect them.”

The site has been developed with the Spanish player in mind and has all the features an English speaker would expect from an online gaming site; fluent Spanish speaking callers and moderators, chat rooms and excellent prizes. David Hood, spokesperson for William Hill explained that ” Considered development has gone into this product to ensure our Spanish-speaking members enjoy this product as much as the British public.”

He added that William Hill “are confident that our new product will position us ahead of our competitors and allow us to continue leading the online gaming and betting industry.”

Apart from side games with jackpots of over one million euros, members of Bingo.WilliamHill.com/es can also enjoy organised free chat games for the chance to take home extra cash.

Members of the site are also able to play free bingo on the hour, every hour on Thursdays.

The couple were found guilty of temporary abandonment of a minor in November 2006 in Palma.

Police found the child in a locked car with the windows closed in the early hours of the morning. They had received a call saying she had been in the car alone for several hours. Her parents were found in the Bingo Rosales club in Calle Manacor, Palma.

The parents claimed they had checked on the girl regularly but police said that in the 20 minutes they were checking the vehicle’s ownership details neither parent had appeared. Witnesses confirmed both parents had been playing for at least three hours.

The couple, who plan to appeal their sentence, gave contradictory statements about how they had looked after the child during the evening.

The site, whose name translates as ‘bingo ticket’ (el carton is a bingo ticket in Spanish), is run by Daub Ltd, who are responsible for Wink Bingo, Posh Bingo and Bingo Fabulous in the UK. It runs on 888′s Globalcom platform, which was created by the founders of Daub Ltd.

ElCartonazo offers players a free 10 euro registration bonus plus 100% cashmatch on the first deposit and further bonus offers on all additional deposits.

The site features a bingo ticket character with a big smile to welcome players to the site.

Bingo Suerte ofrece varios premios acumulados a sus jugadores de bingo y tragaperras, el “Titán Jackpot” de hasta 10.000€ y el “Special Jackpot” de hasta 1.000€.

Son tres grandes premios ganados en enero de este año. Uno de más de 1.000€ en el bingo, y dos en las tragaperras con premios acumulados de más de 1.000€. Cada día son más los aficionados que buscan su fortuna con los juegos de bingo online en España.

No obstante, el mayor premio ganado en la página de Bingo Suerte, fue en agosto del año pasado por un jugador de bingo que se llevó el increíble premio de 10.111€.

Bingo Suerte tiene mucho que ofrecer a sus jugadores: un euro de bienvenida, dobla el primer depósito hasta 125€, juegos de chat, bingo, muchas promociones y una gran variedad de juegos y tragaperras.
Para más información puede consultar la página www.bingosuerte.com y probar suerte.

The companies have signed a three year global alliance. CIRSA owns and operates bingo halls, casinos and amusement arcades in Spain and Latin and South America. It is the bingo market leader in Spain where it has 57 bingo clubs, four casinos and 139 amusement arcades.

CIRSA was founded in 1978 as a manufacturer of slot machinesand is now one of the world’s major gambing companes with 13,000 employees and operations in more than 70 countries.

Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of PartyGaming said: “Our agreement with CIRSA is part of our stated strategy to develop a strong business-to-business operation through alliances with leading companies around the world. We believe the combination of CIRSA’s assets with our online gaming expertise will create a major opportunity for both companies, especially throughout the Spanish speaking world.”

The deal is likely to see Party Bingo’s product extended into the highly competitive Spanish market and be promoted within CIRSA’s bingo halls. At the moment very few real world bingo halls in Spain promote online products, not least because it is a legal grey area. The decision of CIRSA to tie up with a major online operator is likely to hasten legislation which clearly places online gambling within the overall Spanish gambling legislation.

The £6 million 35,000 square foot gambling complex is spread over two floors and has capacity for 450 bingo players. There are several bars and restaurants for bingo players as well as a poker room.

Nick Pardo, Operations Director, Gala Gaming division, said: “This is an enormous and exciting development for Gala Coral, bringing together for the first time our three great gaming brands – Gala Casino, Gala Bingo and Coral betting shops to provide a first class integrated gaming experience.”

“This latest innovation reinforces Gala Coral’s aim to ensure that our customers are offered the finest entertainment and gambling experience. People remain the key focus of our business. That’s also why in Gibraltar, as in the UK, we continue to support the local community, train, develop and reward our teams and, of course, maintain a responsible approach to gaming.”

Gala Coral said they had been working with the Gibraltar Tourist Board to attract new visitors to the complex; visitors are expected to largely come from Spain but the UK and middle East markets were also being targeted.

Bingo.com is in the process of rolling out sites across Europe and have recently launched a Spanish site, es.bingo.com. Revenues for the third quarter totalled $1,560,087 (£1.05 million), up 10% on the previous month and 58% on the same period in 2007.

Bingo.com’s chief executive, Tarrnie Williams, said: “The third quarter of 2008 continues to show improvement for Bingo.com. During the quarter we increased our revenues, primarily from our gaming operations in the United Kingdom, launched our first non-English version of Bingo.com, and made important steps to acquiring our European Union gaming license.

“The increase in net loss is primarily due to unrealized Foreign exchange losses due to the turbulent foreign exchange markets and our reporting in United States dollars. We are confident of securing our EU gaming license in the fourth quarter of 2008, which will enable us, and our affiliate marketing partners, to market our products through a much wider range of channels. We remain focused on executing our strategy and believe we will be capable of returning Bingo.com to profitability.”

Bingo.com reported they had cash of $748,344 and working capital of $464,020 at September 30 and that costs for the third quarter were $840,239, which has risen because of increased player bonuses. They currently offer a free £5 bonus to new players on their UK facing site.

Bingo.com is operated under a Curacao gaming licence, which means they are not permitted to advertise in the UK. The site had slipped from No 1 on the natural search Google rankings for the term ‘bingo’ but has recently returned to the top spot and retains its page rank of five.

A gaming analyst told Bingo News last night: “It is always suprising how badly bingo.com performs as they should be dominating the online bingo market. They took a long time to move out of the US and re-establish themselves as a UK facing site.  The fact they are not yet in a white listed territory is pretty shocking and must be costing them a fortune in lost potential revenues. What we don’t know is how much Google taking gambling advertising will reduce the effectiveness of their strong performance on natural search. It is unlikely to be helping them though.”