Smoking ban to boost bingo sites

[3wdl]

I thought some of you may be interested in the article that appeared in E-Consultancy and Tobacco.org in September. It’s mainly about how the Smoking ban may affect online bingo but also has some other useful stats.

The public smoking ban could see bingo players moving en masse to the web, according to research by white label gaming firm St. Minver.

The company found 60% of the 2667 British internet bingo players it interviewed smoke, well above the national average of 29%. But mobile companies aren’t set to cash in on the ban, with 95% of respondents saying they aren’t interested in playing games on their phones.

“The big issue for bingo clubs is that the ban will eat into their admissions massively,” said Leigh Nissim, MD of St. Minver. “People will be moving away from the bingo halls to playing online.”

Rank Group, which owns Mecca bingo halls, recently said it expects takings from clubs in England and Wales to fall by about 14% when the move happens next May. At the same time, several retailers and ISPs are thought to be preparing a move into internet bingo, which is estimated to have over 1 million players in the UK.

According to St. Minver, bingo sites have been experiencing compound growth in usage of between 10% and 25% each month, helped by bigger jackpots and prizes.

The research discovered that almost half of online bingo players use chatrooms during a game, and many see them as a better opportunity to socialise than clubs.

But under 5% want to play bingo on mobiles. “We’ve seen absolutely no evidence of a propensity among bingo players for mobile gaming,” Nissim said. “It’s very questionable how far mobile gaming will penetrate.”

The research found four in five online bingo players are female, and most are between 25 and 45. Sites are also popular among people with night jobs, such as security guards.

Over 78% of players have children, while popular pastimes include camping and caravanning. Tesco and Asda are their supermarkets of choice, while the Sun and the News of the World are their favourite national newspapers. Four in ten also play bingo offline at least once a month.

[Probability]

Hi there.

I would like to start with this.

"Juniper Research analyst Bruce Gibson has forecast huge growth for the mobile gambling industry, predicting that the value of bets placed will rise from USD 2 billion to USD 23 billion by 2011.

In a new report titled Mobile Gambling: Casinos, Lotteries & Betting, Gibson said the growth will be primarily attributable to the increasing popularity of mobile lotteries. He predicts that lotteries will account for 41 per cent of total mobile gambling expenditure over the next five years."

The above is just one snippet of information on the internet about the mobile casino industry. - As you may (or may not ) know, Juniper Research is very respected.

I am involved in the UK mobile phone gambling industry, and I can honestly say, business is booming.

I’m not saying for one minute mobile casino will compete with online casino, its a whole different ball game.

A mobile is more personal, players can play bingo, poker, nudge 7, any casino game anywhere on there mobile.

So I think your quote

“But under 5% want to play bingo on mobiles. We’ve seen absolutely no evidence of a propensity among bingo players for mobile gaming,” Nissim said. “It’s very questionable how far mobile gaming will penetrate.”

Is out of proportion.

Pick a country… say UK/France/Germany etc etc.
How many people have a mobile? How many people have Internet?
Do the same with any country and see my point.

With easy payment options, on scratch cards, credit cards, reverse billing, telephone, its so easy for over 18’s to now play casino games on their mobile phones and win big cash.

Cheers

[3wdl]

Originally Posted by Probability So I think your quote “But under 5% want to play bingo on mobiles. We’ve seen absolutely no evidence of a propensity among bingo players for mobile gaming,” Nissim said. “It’s very questionable how far mobile gaming will penetrate.” Is out of proportion.

Hi Probability,

Hopefully mobile bingo / gaming will be a huge success - I am sure that there is a market for it.

The quote was in regards to a recent survey & focus group that we did (the biggest ever survey of online bingo customers). Out of thousands of customers that filled out the survey, under 5% said they would be interested in playing Bingo on their mobiles.

As I said though - I'm sure there is a market for it and that the mobile sector of the industry will continue to grow..

[Probability]

Ok, that sounds good.
I would like to know the percentage of the 000’s of people who entered your survey, have actually played a real cash mobile phone casinos??.

If you asked me to vote on “would I play a mobile casino” (not having played one before), I would probably say “No” – lets admit it, it’s easy to say no to something you have never done.

Do you see where I am coming from?

Your results are skewed, and you should acknowledge that before you make such statements.
We are currently also doing a number of “independent” survey’s on a number of websites, which will take these variables into account.
I will pass the details to you.

Kind Regards

[3wdl]

Hi Probability,

Of course, I'm sure statistics can be manipulated a number of different ways, but we asked a specific question about mobile gaming to both our free & paying bingo customers - they responded negativly and the quote (which was from our MD, Leigh Nissim, not myself) reflected upon that - I don't see that as skewed at all, just the results of our survey.

I will however be sure to pass your comments on to Leigh & would welcome the details that you mentioned.

Thanks
James

[kier]

Snuff is going to be big after the ban too