The online payment processor and e-wallet, Neteller had a run-in with US authorities on links with online gambling payments.

And this had led to Neteller making its final punitive payment of US$ 38.25 million to US authorities on 16^th of January. This is the last installment of the US$136 million that Neteller had to pay US authorities to get off their backs.

Neteller is a popular online banking option for bingo players and operators. It had to diversify its business strategies form the US market to recover the losses that were incurred by the bingo online industry with the implementation of the US Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

With this act, financial transactions between players and non-US online gaming operators were disrupted. In addition to the punitive payment, Neteller had also paid nearly US$81 million of the US$94 million of frozen funds to all its former US customers.

With all this done, Neteller is considered to be a form of success story by observers of the online bingo industry because of the way it has bounced back with the run-in it had with the US authorities last year.

Bingo news from bingo reviewer.

With the Department for Culture, Media and Sport backing a campaign of Gala and Rank Coral, UK bingo industry is expected to find a tax reform in 2008. The department aims at applying pressure on Chancellor Alistair Darling for tax breaks in the 2008 budget.

With the falling admissions for bingo clubs, the age of the customers of bingo clubs increasing, the newly imposed smoking ban and the new Gambling Act of 2007, UK bingo industry is in a tough time.

All this is because bingo companies are taxed twice; it is taxed once with Gaming duty of 15% and then with VAT 17.5%. Bingo bosses claim this is too much as this is the only form of gambling that is taxed twice.

Gala Coral’s chief executive Neil Goulden told Financial Times that they had explained to the Prime Minister and Chancellor saying that if bingo received similar tax treatment as other gambling industries received, it would lead to an investment that will help increase admissions.

However with 100 clubs predicted to close in 2008, the Treasury feels that this tax break is not sufficient for solving problems the bingo industry faces. Something else has to be worked out to solve the problem.

Bingo news from bingo reviewer.

To this woman from Prescott, there couldn’t be a better way for her to start her New Year. Pauline Davis, aged 26, scooped the prize money of 264,288 pounds at the Mecca Bingo club of Knotty Ash on Sunday night.

She just couldn’t believe her luck of winning so much money, on just her second visit to the club. She is a new member of the club, where her membership started a month ago. She was in total shock, while everyone around her started screaming at her in joy.

The reason Mrs. Davis had started going to Mecca last month was only to spend some time with her mother, Maureen Taylor, 59, who has been a member of the club for many years.

As her mother was recovering from a liver transplant, Mrs. Davis and Patricia Taylor, her sister, decided that bingo was the best way to get her mother out of the house.

This win of Mrs. Davis was on the Mecca Millionaire game that was launched in September 2007 where bingo operators can retain a percentage of the player’s stake, while giving away huge accumulated jackpot winnings. In the past 4 months, the game has made 3 bingo millionaires.

The manager of Mecca club, Knotty Ash was happy for Pauline and was proud that through the Mecca Millionaire game, they could give people real life money that could change their lives.

Mrs. Davis is a mortgage broker in Prescott, and intends to first pay practically all her mortgage with her prize money. With the penalty cause of a few thousand pounds for clearing all her dues, she intends to leave just one pound in the account and clear all other debts.

Besides that, she and her husband Kevin, intend to spend the money with a return trip to their honeymoon destination of last July, Cyprus. They had gone on their honeymoon last October, and intend to re-visit the place to celebrate Kevin’s birthday.

Bingo news from bingo reviewer.