US President Barack Obama’s stepmother, Kezia Obama, raised £10,000 through her online bingo game on Gala Bingo during her stepson’s inauguration. Gala Bingo matched that amount pound-for-pound and a cheque for £20,000 was presented to Sue Ryder Care. Bridget Auger at Sue Ryder Care gave their thanks to all concerned.

As the name implies, Think Bingo Cosy is a fairly small online bingo site. However, the prizes are not necessarily so. There are some great prizes to be won, ranging from Ipods to hampers, as well as an LCD TV. There are also lots of jackpot bingo games to take part in and competitions to enjoy. Sometimes less is more.

William Hill Bingo has been spring cleaning and have recently launched two new rooms to move around in on their online bingo site.  The Lunch Club offering 5p games every day from 12-2pm as well as the Bargain Basement with games from 1p are keeping everyone on their toes.  That’s not all!  Lots of other features are now available.

Under pressure from the EU it has been reported that France will allow private online gambling companies to operate in France from next year.  An online gambling bill will be submitted to the cabinet at the end of March.

Carol Hedley was lucky enough to win the star prize during the Christmas promotion on the 888ladies online.  The prize, a Mazda 2 car, has a retail price of £8,000 so we can see why she is delighted.  Carol was made redundant last year and she wasn’t able to replace her car when it had engine troubles.   Now she’s happily driving her new car everywhere.

The winner of one million Nectar points from Gala Bingo has now been announced and school dinner lady, Joan Scales, from Dartmouth in Devon is the lucky lady.  She is now a Nectar Card Millionaire having won the online bingo competition played from 24th November to 24th December last year.  She can use her Nectar points at many outlets, including Argos, Sainsbury’s, Beefeater, to name just a few, or even take herself and 19 friends on a first class trip to Paris on the Euro star!

This is the expression you might have heard any Asian gambler shout whilst playing blackjack in a casino anywhere in the world, but not in Japan.  Although the Japanese love to gamble, it may be surprising to learn that there are currently no land-based or online casinos in Japan.  The only forms of legal gambling are online horse racing and lotteries.  Things may change however.  Talks have been started between the Liberal Democratic Party and many top online gambling operators throughout the world.

44 online bingo sites now take UKash payments which means that online bingo players can easily deposit cash straight into their online bingo accounts.   Just some of the sites are Mecca Bingo, Gone Bingo, Crown Bingo, Party Bingo, JackpotCityBingo.  Judging by the names on the entire list of bingo sites it would suggest UKash have signed deals with St. Minver, Virtue Fusion and Party Gaming.

With its new look studios, UK’s Gala Bingo TV is now running on top form.  You can play bingo on TV in your lounge, but you will think you are playing in a bingo hall with a live bingo caller.  Gala Bingo TV gives viewers the option to play either bingo or roulette, whilst their online bingo site has many interesting bingo promotions for their players to take advantage of.

Readers of Gambling Online magazine have voted 888.com as Top Casino of the Year for the second year running at their awards ceremony earlier this week.  As Matt Robinson, VP marketing at 888 says, “this award has tremendous relevance because it is voted by those who actually play our casino games and by those who have also experienced our competitors’ efforts.”