In the US, most bingo games are run by charitable organizations and jackpots generally small compared to bingo jackpots in the UK. The US has yet to produce its first bingo millionaire, but in the UK, things are a lot different. In 2008, a Welsh grandmother won £1.1 million at a local bingo hall in Merthyr Tydfil. Later in the year, a Scottish woman won what is considered the biggest bingo jackpot in history. Soraya Lowell, from Scotland won an astonishing £1.2 million pounds. The lucky winner said she plans to split the jackpot with her bingo partner of many years and will give her friend £500,000. Both ladies won what is known as the National Bingo Game which links bingo clubs across the UK. The jackpot in the National Bingo Game rolls over until some lucky player wins.
Internet bingo games has also produced at least one bingo millionaire. In 2007 Pauline Clark, a pensioner from Bristol, became online bingo’s first millionaire after she won one million pounds playing at Gala bingo’s website. Gala Bingo garnered a lot of valuable publicity from Clark’s big win. Gala sent a chauffeured limousine to pick up Clark and her friends and they were treated to a champagne breakfast at the luxurious Hotel Du Vin. Clark said she had deposited five pounds in her account and spent the last sixty pence playing Gala’s KerChingo game when she won. Earlier Clark had won 6,000 pounds in the National Bingo Game. The 62 year old grandmother said she is going to use her winnings to help her children pay off their mortgages and build a greenhouse for herself.
Despite the fact that it is rare for most players to win huge jackpots playing bingo, the game enjoys immense popularity in the UK, especially with all the bingo promotions and bingo bonus codes being offered. Online bingo is now a billion dollar a year business in the UK and over 250 websites service the needs of the UK market. Internet bingo has entered several new markets most notable Scandinavia and Spain and the industry is poised to enter the lucrative Italian market. Online bingo jackpots just keep getting bigger and bigger and it is only a matter of time before online bingo millionaires become as common as land based bingo millionaires. Unfortunately at the present time, US players do not have access to these huge jackpots but thanks to recently introduced legislation that may change very soon.
