Wink Bingo is a very well-known bingo site that has been around for over a decade. We would be really surprised if you haven’t heard of this site as it is marketed a lot on television and radio. The site is very well designed with easy access to promotions, slots and bingo games to suit everyone needs. You'll select the type of game you wish to play. Two of the most common types of online bingo games are 75-ball and 90-ball bingo. These numbers represent the total number of possible ball numbers that can be called during a game. Faster bingo games like 5-line bingo (also known as 'Swedish bingo') or 30-ball bingo may also be available. Launched in 2008, Wink Bingo is one of the most exciting sites around. The site is licensed for the UK, with its headquarters in Gibraltar. Over the years, the site has won a few awards, most recently Best Dragonfish Bingo Site in 2018, at the WhichBingo Awards!
With so many online bingo sites available today it really is difficult as a bingo to decide which site is the best. With many offering great free bingo money bonuses and different software platforms it’s really a tough decision to know where to start.
The five bingo sites listed below are our favourite bingo sites that we enjoy playing at, if you want to try any of them, simply click the banner and it will take you directly to the online bingo site.
Nutty Bingo
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Nutty Bingo is quite possible the naughtiest bingo site you will find with its sexy male caller and risqué bingo lingo and more adult oriented chat. Combine this with free gifts such as massage lotion and hen night forfeit card and promotions where you could win pole dancing lessons or rampant rabbits this is definitely a site that needs the volume kept down whilst the kids are still up.
Nutty Bingo is one of the Dragonfish software based sites and offers all new players a £1 welcome bonus which will allow you to play ten bingo games for free. They will also match your first deposit with a 100% bonus up to £125 and your second deposit will earn you a 50% cash match bonus up to £65. You will then be able to enjoy a great bingo experience and some superb side games and even the chance to win £1000 a month .
Wink Bingo
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Wink Bingo is currently our favourite online bingo site for many reasons, not only do they offer all new players registering at their bingo site a £5 no deposit welcome bonus but they also offer 10% cashback on any losses made throughout the month!
Wink Bingo only launched in February 2008 but is already proving to be a huge hit with many online bingo players. Most recently they launched their television campaign with no less then four different version on an advert.
WinkBingo also offer a £10k Guaranteed Coverall Jackpot game on the 10th of every month which sees their bingo rooms packed to the rafters with many a bingo player hoping to be the one who lady luck is smiling on.
Costa Bingo
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Costa Bingo is a giant in the only bingo industry who have over 40 bingo rooms to choose from for all their bingo members. A variety of 75 ball bingo and 90 ball bingo rooms offering a wide range of cards prices starting from 5p and rising to £1. Alongside this they have a multitude of casino style games ranging from instant win games to scratchcards. Currently they are offering all new players to their online bingo site £10 free when a deposit of £10 is made welcome bonus.
Costa Bingo really do look after their players with a recent technical error seeing one lucky lady walking away £50,000 richer. A guaranteed jackpot of £500 was playing but a back office hitch saw the game playing for £50,000 even though it had been advertised on their schedule at £500. Being a fair and honest bingo
site they honoured the payment – you won’t see that happening much in the world of online bingo!
888ladies Bingo
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888Ladies Bingo is quite simply one of the best online bingo sites on the market. Fronted by Vic reeves in a dress should be enough to convince you of the ethos of fun the sites has built up. Combining excellent software with superb games, inventive promotions, great prizes and really friendly players you will feel right at home from the moment you sign.
888Ladies Bingo will give you £10 for free on registering, 150% cash match bonus on your first deposit and a superb 50% reload bonuses. There are guaranteed coverall jackpots every day of the week and if you are really lucky you could even win the life changing £888,888 jackpot; all you need to do is call under 40 balls.
So come on ladies (and you gents) pull up your fishnets and join in the fun.
Loadsa Bingo
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Loadsa Bingo is still a relatively young site but you would never know it because they run a quality operation. Their site is superbly designed and easy to navigate whilst still keeping the fun factor in abundance. 90 ball bingo, mini games, slots and casino games give you a wide range of gaming options and
Their superb promotions make playing them all the more worthwhile. You will get £5 free for registering and with games starting at just 5p that is plenty to get acquainted with everything
Loadsa Bingo has to offer. You will also get a 100% cash match bonus on your first deposit and 25% on all future deposits. Each month they run a superb free to enter sweepstake and give away near £400 in BBz and cash
Introduction To Bingo in the UK
Largest slot machine payout ever. This post takes a look at the overall picture for UK Bingo today: how it has evolved and why, who is playing and where, typical ages of the players, the overall socio-demographic profile, and information regarding how people play and with what regularity.
From the 1960’s until nowadays
It almost goes without saying that the picture of bingo in the UK has changed radically during the Internet age (broadly speaking, the last 20 years).
Similarly, the advent of the smartphone and its mass adoption in the UK since 2008 and, more specifically, the mass adoption of Android Smartphones since 2010 (as depicted below) shifted the marketplace further still, due to the obvious removal of any restrictions as to where players are stationed.
We will look later at the rapid uptake of online bingo and the impact of the mobile “revolution”. Firstly, however, we’ll look at the statistical evidence for the decline of the traditional physical bingo hall, along with other factors unrelated to shifts in technology which contributed to this decline. Free online casino games real money no deposit usa.
The rise and fall of the traditional bingo hall
Although the 90-ball traditional bingo game has been popular in the UK since the First World War, it was previously primarily played for fun or as a fundraising activity. It wasn’t until the Betting and Gaming Act of 1960 that bingo became a legalised form of gambling. The first clubs were opened soon after, with Mecca Bingo alone seeing over 150,000 players a day visiting its halls in the mid-1960′s.
By 1963, UK bingo club membership had reached an incredible 14 million. Companies were quick to capitalise on this explosion in popularity at a time when dance hall and cinema numbers were in decline. The Rank Corporation, for example, converted many of its Odeon and Gaumont cinemas into Top Rank Social Clubs, mainly for bingo, whilst Granada changed many of its theaters to “Granada Social Clubs” for precisely the same purpose.
By the mid-1980′s, there were around 1,600 bingo venues in the UK. In 1988, the first of the out-of-town purpose-built bingo halls appeared, giving players more modern facilities, easier access by road and better parking facilities.
The launch of the National Lottery in 1994 very probably contributed (along with the afore-mentioned increased use of the Internet from the late 1990′s) to the number of bingo clubs falling by 21% between 1995 and 2000.
Over a decade later, the UK smoking bans introduced in 2006 and 2007, almost certainly helped to hasten this decline (it is estimated that around half of all players attending bingo halls previously smoked during play).
Furthermore, the tax regime was cited as being unfair to operators of traditional bingo halls, with profits taxed at 20%, compared with 12% on the price of a lottery ticket and 15% for bookmakers and fixed-odds gambling (although the figure was halved to 10% in the 2014 budget “to protect jobs and protect communities” according to Chancellor George Osborne).
More recent statistics have not been encouraging for traditional bingo halls. According to the most recent figures published by the UK Gambling Commission, there are 615 licenced bingo premises, down by almost two-thirds over the last 30 years.
Also, there are still 13,040 people employed in the industry, although this figure is down from around 19,000 over the last ten years, and down significantly from 18,495 in March 2011.
Number of premises today by operator:
| Commission licensed activity | At 31 Mar 2011 | At 31 Mar 2012 | At 31 Mar 2013 | At 31 Mar 2014 | At 30 Sep 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gala Leisure Limited | 267 | 143 | 137 | 135 | 135 |
| Mecca Bingo Limited | 103 | 97 | 98 | 97 | 91 |
| Other operators | 325 | 406 | 476 | 441 | 389 |
| Total | 695 | 646 | 711 | 673 | 615 |
According to Mintel, however, there were 354 bingo venues in total in March 2015, broken down as follows:
- Gala: 132
- Mecca: 93
- Others: 129
The apparent discrepancy is probably explained by the “others” numbers including only dedicated premises in the case of the Mintel report.
A brighter future for the traditional bingo hall?
There are some signs, however, that the physical bingo halls are fighting back successfully in the era of the smartphone and Internet. UKbingo clubs still have an estimated 45 million visits per annum, and those attending are getting gradually younger. Also, January 2016 witnessed the first new UK opening of a bingo hall for seven years, a dedicated 1,000-seat bingo venue in Southampton.
According to the BBC, industry experts anticipate that continually declining revenues for physical venues will be halted and reversed, and that players will spend above £30m per annum directly on playing bingo by 2019.
These expectations are backed up by research group Mintel, who predict that aggregate spending in all UK bingo halls will increase from the £690m level recorded in 2014, to £728m by 2019, mainly due to the aforementioned halving in the duty levied on profits to 10%.
What do we know about UK bingo players today?
Overall, the picture regarding the online bingo industry in the UK is not a particularly clear one due to the absence of robust, objective statistical data (beyond the aggregate industry data provided by the UK Gambling Commission). It is necessary, therefore, to look at what evidence exists and to extrapolate as accurate a picture as we can from the data that does exist.
According to Gambling Commission data, bingo currently makes up just under 5.7% of the overall UK remote gambling market (see table below). “Remote gambling” refers to any gambling via remote communication, including the internet, telephone, TV or radio, or any other form of technology which facilitates communication. It seems safe to assume that the Internet (including smartphones) makes up the vast bulk of this market in today’s world.
Bingo compared with other forms of UK gambling
GGY (Gross Gambling Yield) from remote gambling activities (£m) for UK customers
November 2014 to 31 March 2015| Proprietary GGY | Revenue Share GGY | Total GGY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Betting | 317.83 | 154.91 | 472.74 |
| Betting Exchange | 55.66 | - | 55.66 |
| Bingo | 38.36 | 44.26 | 82.62 |
| Casino | 359.88 | 474.37 | 834.25 |
| Pool Betting | 6.29 | - | 6.26 |
| Total | 777.98 | 673.54 | 1,451.51 |
It seems safe to assume (given the aforementioned decline in staffing numbers) that the online marketplace has continued to win market share from the physical bingo halls, as the latter are more labour-intensive (although there may be signs that this will not continue, as previously mentioned).
Whether the overall market is increasing, however, is more difficult to decipher from the available data, and data preceding the evolution of the smartphone does not paint as relevant a picture.It seems safe to assume (given the aforementioned decline in staffing numbers) that the online marketplace has continued to win market share from the physical bingo halls, as the latter are more labour-intensive (although there may be signs that this will not continue, as previously mentioned).
Number of employees across all UK gambling sectors
| Employees | As at 31 Mar 2011 | As at 31 Mar 2012 | As at 31 Mar 2013 | As at 31 Mar 2014 | As at 31 Mar 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betting | 55,411 | 55,882 | 55,234 | 52,461 | 50,809 |
| Bingo | 18,495 | 15,829 | 14,939 | 14,093 | 13,040 |
| Casino | 13,949 | 14,701 | 15,010 | 15,611 | 15,566 |
| AGCs | 9,697 | 10,295 | 9,667 | 9,983 | 9,216 |
| FECs | 3,147 | 2,474 | 2,133 | 2,056 | 1,914 |
| Gaming machine technical | 7,673 | 7,604 | 7,306 | 6,882 | 6,372 |
| External lottery manager | 754 | 849 | 847 | 1,130 | 816 |
| Remote | 6,438 | 5,832 | 4,725 | 5,835 | 7,136 |
| Total | 115,564 | 113,466 | 109,861 | 108,051 | 104,869 |
According to Gambling Commission statistics, the number of licensed operators regulated under the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act of 2014, was 52 in September 2015, up from 49 the previous March, although previous data under the Gambling Act of 2005 is notas comparable since the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 came into force on 1st November 2014. The Act brought in legal changes, meaning that recent data for the “remote” (online) market can’t be treated as continuous with earlier data.
Bingo revenues – traditional vs. online:
According to “Statista”, UK prize bingo revenue (via bingo halls) reached £24.66m over the year October 2011-September 2012. This compares with online bingo revenues of £76.7m in the year to September 2014 according to Gambling Commission stats. In other words, income from online bingo accounts for around three-quarters of all bingo revenue in the UK today.
However, according to “Which Bingo”, annual revenues for online bingo could be far higher, as high as £768m in fact.
How many people play online bingo in the UK today?
In 2008, market research (via bingosites) revealed that just 50,000 people played online bingo in the UK. Today that figure is said to be above 3 million.
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Age & gender:
According to recent studies (UK Bingo.net), there are approximately 100 million worldwide bingo players, four out of five of whom are women aged 30-50 and most of whom are stay at home parents. There is little evidence to suggest that the UK profile alone is any different. The same report suggests that there are 3.5 million online bingo players present in the UK today.
Similarly, the Gambling Commission’s Gambling Prevalence Survey of 2010 suggested that 12% of all UK women (compared with 6% of all UK men) played bingo in some form or other.
Furthermore, the number of younger players playing in the UK has risen, with those aged under 45 now accounting for 62% of all online bingo players, up from 46% ten years ago (according to (UK Bingo.net). Meanwhile, players aged 18-24 now make up around 20% of the online market.
The impact of the smartphone:
In 2011, industry analysts H2 Gambling Capital said: “now is the time for mobile gambling”. The company estimated that 77% of people gambling while on the move used their smartphone or other handset device for gambling, with 16% using it for gaming and 7% for entering lotteries.
Exact figures on bingo-playing via smartphones in the UK are difficult to ascertain. However, one leading player in the industry estimates that the twin factors of the increasing spread of 4G networks in the UK, and general technological improvements mean that the percentage of GGY from smartphones is growing quickly.
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In the year 2014, around 20% of online bingo GGY was generated via mobile devices, whilst expectations are for this figure to have doubled by the time best estimates for 2015 are known.
Overall conclusions
The lack of robust objective data makes analysis of the online industry, in particular, difficult. It is certainly safe to assume that the number playing bingo via their smartphones has grown exponentially over the last couple of years and could now be as high as 1.2 million.
The data also suggests that players are getting younger, although the market continues to be dominated by female players in the 30-50 age range.
There are also signs that the numbers attending traditional physical bingo halls, and the revenues thereof, may have “flat-lined” and may increase over the next few years, thanks mainly to a more favourable tax regime.
One thing’s for sure: the world of online bingo games remains a fiercely competitive one.
A Journey to Bingo Bonuses and Promotions