Congratulations goes out to Fortune Affiliates who have picked up the first eCOGRA “Affiliate Trust Seal”.

ECOGRA is an independent, non-profit standards authority of the online gaming industry. The new eCOGRA Affiliate Trust Seal recognizes affiliate operators that observe standards of fairness and excellence. Fortune Affiliates was awarded the Seal after a thorough audit and on-site inspection.

A spokesman for Fortune Affiliates said “We are extremely honoured to receive the very first Affiliate Trust Seal. The process was a tough one, but as our Affiliates have always known, we have always held ourselves to very high standards.”

To receive the Trust Seal, affiliate programs need to demonstrate that their program establishes, enforces and monitors best practice standards. Specifically, they must show that they calculate affiliate revenue accurately and make payments promptly, and that they have controls in place to accurately link players to affiliates.

Details of the Fortune Affiliates program are available at http://www.FortuneAffiliates.com

Details of the eCOGRA Affiliate Trust program can be found at http://www.ecogra.org/affiliates

There have been a few stories today all relating to a court case involving a Florida businessman’s bingo halls!

The 13 year legal battle had been over a successful chain of bingo halls in Florida that were shut down in 1995 as it was claimed that bingo laws and regulations had been broken.

The two businessmen, Gordon Paget and Philip Furtney, were brought up on racketeering charges in a legal battle that has cost over $250,00 in fees. The outcome however, has been an award of $13.5m in damages paid to Paget and Furtney.

This award is bitter sweet for Philip Furtney though, as he died last year, just one year shy of turning 70.

The latest bingo site to move into TV advertising is Bet365 who have “bingo heads” to promote the site. The ad is basically people in everyday situations that have bingo balls instead of heads- bit disturbing, but hey!! At least it is a change from the usual “woman playing and winning”, which reminds me, one of Wink bingo’s adverts has been pulled after the ASA deemed it to be promoting “gambling in the workplace”!!

The ad in question is the one in the maternity ward with the nurse playing on a laptop and winning on wink bingo. The ASA was asked to check if the ad breached rules by bingo being played as a priority over professional commitment, finding that the ad did portray and condone gambling in the workplace and have banned the ad!!

The countdown is over for Tombola Bingo as their online bingo software has become exclusive to them. As of the 25th August Sun Bingo and NotW bingo will cease to use the platform, but play continues at Tombola Bingo itself. 

Tombola Bingo have been working hard on some great promotions for the coming weeks. As of today they will cash match your first deposit with a 100% match bonus up to £25. It doesn’t matter if you are an existing Sun or NotW bingo player as you can take advantage of this offer on your first deposit at Tombola Bingo itself.

All of the chat moderators on on the site are part of the Tombola team and remain the same, with the only difference being that you need to log onto Tombola Bingo direct, rather than Sun or NotW bingo to play.

Tombola Bingo have 31 fully moderated chat rooms and some great promotions in the pipe line, so tombola bingo is definitely worth a go!!

Bingo.com have released promising 2nd quarter figures showing that revenue and customer sign ups have increased over the first quarter.

The second quarter figures show a 5% increase over the first quarter, with the CEO stating “We acquired thousands of new real money players, increased our revenues, decreased our net loss, and further developed the entertainment available at Bingo.com,”.

The company is still focused on expansion, however and are still trying to break into the UK market, although they have not yet secured a license to operate in the UK.

All in all though the figures look good for all in the online bingo world, lets just hope this continues throughout!

CasinoChoice.co.uk- a leading site providing information and reviews of the top UK casinos, has added some more information for online gambling enthusiasts. The site will now offer online bingo players a site to read reviews of the top rated bingo sites available on the Internet.

The site features some of the of the top UK bingo sites, including Ladbrokes, Dream Bingo, William Hill, 888 Ladies Bingo, Sun Bingo and Foxy Bingo.

The bingo sites will be rated on graphics, playability, game variety, quality of promotions/bonuses and payment options, and will be given a final score to help players find the best place to play bingo online. Players will also be able to view all the current promotions and bonuses that each site has to offer, as well as viewing screenshots of the bingo rooms to help them make their decision of which room to play in.

CasinoChoice.co.uk is well established as one of the UK’s most reliable online casino portals and by adding bingo room reviews to their site, they have furthered their dominance in the online casino portal world.

For further information and/or questions, please visit www.casinochoice.co.uk.

It seems that Jackpotcity and Crown Bingo aren’t the only sites to have some changes.

Sun bingo and NotW bingo are also going to be having a re-design due to their transfer from the Tombola platform to Gamesys at the end of August.

We are as yet to see what the sites will look like, but we have been assured they will be using different software to Jackpot Joy, who are also currently on the Gamesys label.

There will be benefits of 100% cash match up to £100 and all the regular bonuses currently available at Jackpot Joy, to all new customers, so why not go along on August 26th to see the changes!!

This week sees some improvements (if that is the right word!!) to two of our most loved bingo sites.

I have heard on the bingo vine that JackpotCity.com and CrownBingo.com both have some new features coming to their sites this week. Coincidence i hear you ask, well not really as they are both on the Virtue Fusion platform!!

So what changes are coming? Well Jackpotcity will be bringing you new rooms;

• Bob’s Bingo in a Box- special room dedicated to the roomies hosting 90 ball bingo. 
• Bella’s Ball Room- where 90 ball bingo will be played, It’s the room you love and know but we’ve jazzed it up a bit- This is about glitz, glamour and big pots.
• Room Four: Elbo Room- In 75 Ball Variant there are five winning combinations per ticket: Single Line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), Two Lines, Three Lines, Four Lines, Full House – all horizontal.
• Room Five: School Room- Pattern Bingo. Patterns come from four categories – Various Patterns, Multi-combination Patterns, Alphabet and Numerical.

As for Crown Bingo, they will also be opening their fourth room offering pattern bingo, as well as offering two new mini games. Lucky Ladies 88 and Tarot Fortune are both 5 Reel, 9 Line slot games that include a Progressive Jackpot and Bonus Game.

Both sites will be offering payment by UKash, making it easier and more convenient to budget your bingo games.

So why not pop down to the sites from Thursday to see all the changes!?

888 Holdings Plc have announced that their second-quarter sales rose 33% following the introduction of bingo increased the amount of new players opening accounts.They state that net gaming revenue climbed up to $67 million from $50 million last year.

The introduction of the 888ladies online bingo site helped restore revenue after the company lost half its sales when the U.S. barred foreign gaming Web sites in 2006.

The report also shows that second-quarter operating income increased 36% to $69 million. The company had 5.2 million player accounts as of the end of June, up from 4.9 million three months earlier.

There is news today of a new online bank that caters for gaming businesses and enthusiasts offering fast and secure online payments and money transfers.

Ivobank has plans to have one million customers within the next five years, with the Managing Director, Timothy Sawyer, stating that while the bank is open to anyone, it had been specifically designed with online gamers in mind.

He went on to say “The online gaming industry has developed rapidly in recent years, but the financial services supporting it have not kept pace,……Many online businesses and customers have been ill-served to date, resulting in relatively high costs and relatively low levels of service. Ivobank aims to plug the gap by offering instant and highly secure online payment services, combined with competitive interest rates.”

And concluded with “Ivobank is perfect for anyone who wants to shop online, but doesn’t want to use a credit card,”.

Customers will have access to a “virtual” debit card which can be used online wherever MasterCard is accepted.

You can apply for an Ivobank account at www.ivobank.com today, It’s free to sign up and there is no minimum deposit.

Ivobank state that gaming merchants and businesses will benefit from, Competitive rates of interest on deposits held with Ivobank, funds transferred by customers are indemnified and settled immediately- 24/7, multi currency settlements with localised payment options, low transaction fees and trouble free enhanced customer experience for online gaming payments.

Only time will tell if this new style bank will live up to its promises- i hope it does- anything for an easier way to pay for my online bingo!!