GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

28 S aytheword“bingo”out loudand, dependingonyouraudience, the response will vary. To some, the mere mention of the game evokes images of elderlywomen insideabingohallwithcigarettesdangling from their mouths and rubber stamps in their hands. For children, B-I-N-G-O is a fun-loving song about a farmer’s pet dog and forothers it’saway to raisemoney for their favorite charityor church. To Phil Fraser, however, bingo means business. Make that a multi-million-dol- larbusiness thatFraser isreaping theben- efits of after he predicted nearly 10 years ago that there would be a wildly popular onlinemarket for thegame. After helpingWilliamHill launch its on- line casino back in 2000, Fraser sensed that bingo had the makings of being the next hot online sensation. He left his po- sition as Online Casino Manager at Wil- liam Hill, started WhichBingo.com and watched themarket explode just asheen- visioned itwould. “I just thought therewas a great opportu- nity out there for bingo,” Fraser remem- bers. “When I got into the business there were less than 10 pay bingo sites in the world. But from 2001 to 2005 that num- ber doubled every year. It got bigger than even I expected it to.” Themajority of the traffic heading to the ever-expandingnumberofbingositeswas American women. And when the Unlaw- ful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was enacted in 2006, the party wassuddenlyover forFraser, thesoftware giants and all of the bingo sites and por- tals that were profiting handsomely from theAmericanbingomarket. “It was a shock to everyone,” Fraser re- members. “But we all knew that there wouldbeothermarkets forbingo, so that’s whatwe set our sightson.” The U.K. was a primary target and Fra- serwasmore thanhappy to pounce on it. He startedWhichBingo.co.uk, and as the number of active bingo sites in the U.S. plummeted, thenumber in theU.K. erupt- ed despite the fact that new softwarewas necessary since the British game involves 90balls insteadof the 75 in theAmerican game. Then major land-based bingo op- erators likeMecca Bingo and Gala Bingo decided to jump into the online game and the rushwason. In 2004 there were 17 U.K. bingo sites, but by last year that number ballooned to awhopping 238. According toBingoPort. co.uk, these sites combined to earn £120 million ($239million) on£650millionof revenue in2008. “Therewas talk that theUIGEAmight kill the industry,but instead itwas likewatch- ing an elevator,” says Fraser. “The U.S. market came down from the top floor to thebottomfloorandopened thedoor.The U.K. market stepped in and it went right back to the top floor. It was rather amaz- ing towatch.” Ahistorylesson EdwinLowewouldhavemadea fortune if he were equipped with the Internet back in the 1930s. While theoriginsof thegamedateback to as far as 1530 to an Italian lottery game called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia,” leg- endhas it that Lowe is responsible for the widespreadgrowthofbingo, or “beano”as itwasoriginally called. Lowe was a traveling toy salesman visit- ing theU.S. state of Georgia back in 1929 GPWA Times | Online Bingo Bingo By THENumbers £ 7 8 6 m i l l i o n The estimated amount thatU.K. players spendeach year atonlinebingo sites,according to WhichBingo.co.uk. £ 6 5 0 m i l l i o n The amountof revenuepro- ducedby the238 onlinebingo sites in theU.K. in 2008. 7 5 % The percentage of onlinebingo players surveyed who said theyuse thechat room feature. 1 3 7 % The growthinsales thatBingo.com enjoyed in thefiscal year 2008after ring- ingup$5.7million in sales. 8 . 1 % The percentage of theU.K.adult population that plays land-based bingoeach year.