Posts Tagged ‘social’

Social Networking and Online Casinos

Social networking and online casinos are two of the biggest web phenomena today. Twitter and Facebook have taken the entire digital universe by storm, letting people from any corner of the globe communicate with each other over common interests. Since one of the most active communities in the online world is the online gaming community, it was only a matter of time before these two worlds collided. And now, online casino operators are finding ways to integrate social networking media apps into their sites.

ShoutBox is a social networking app launched by Bwin, and it is becoming very successful, allowing online players to chat amongst themselves while playing casino games online. The app allows players to invite contacts to try games and participate in online tournaments, such as slots or poker tournaments. Online gambling experts believe that this type of social networking will become an integral part of the online casino of the future.

Online wagering sites that have not installed their own social media apps use existing social networking sites to keep current players interested and to bring new ones on board. Twitter accounts and Facebook Fan pages are ways in which casino operators expand their reach, by using advertising promotions and answering questions quickly. There are even games on Facebook, such as Zynga Poker, that web casinos use to drum up interest in their sites. Such social networking tournaments allow players to compete for free while encouraging them to visit the owner’s gambling website.

But while Facebook is extraordinarily popular all over the world, in the UK, it is not as popular as online gambling itself. A 2010 survey by Nielsen reported that in the UK, the number of internet gamers increased by 40% over the previous year, while the increase in UK use of social media was significantly lower.

The UK is a world leader in online wagering, so the numbers are not that surprising. Other European countries are following closely on their heels as most of Europe now has regulated web gambling. When the numbers are broken down, it becomes clear that middle aged men account for most of the increase in UK online wagering numbers, though women are big fans too, with poker and bingo being the most popular games among the British.

Because so many of the web gamers in Britain are middle aged, and because so many Facebook users tend to be younger, it may be that the mix of social networking and gambling won’t happen on as large a scale until the casinos themselves build social networking into the sites themselves.

Additionally, if the US eventually regulates online gambling, making it clearly legal rather than residing in a somewhat vague legal status as it does in 2010, a number of UK gambling companies are poised to apply for licenses to operate in the US, and this should marry online gaming to social networking even more strongly.

Social Benefits Of National Lottery

UK National lottery, the most famous gambling game popular among the people in United Kingdom who have tendency to take risk and desire to get rich or have inherent desire to seek fun out of adventure have ample reasons to play national lottery but has social implication too.

The national lottery, merely, not only accomplishes the submissive desires of its players but also play a massive role in casting the funds and charities towards the social up-liftmen of the nation. In the United Kingdom according to the statistics, the pounds raised by spending money on lottery so far has been utilized in nearly 280, 000 smaller and larger projects.

But there is a method and procedure for how that money is spent it doesn’t go straight into the hands of the monitors of the projects. For example, Camelot recently was appointed as National Lottery Commission to run Lottery from 2009 to 2019.

There goes unbelievable 28 pence from each pond spent on lottery towards social cause. The 28 pence from a single pond spent of lottery goes into a pool which is looked after by the Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This department also looks after the National Lottery Policy and the framework within which Lottery funders work.

However, it is not in discretion of DCMS to decide upon how money has to distribute among organizations and sectors but by 14 organizations that are in charge of departments like art, heritage, sport, community and voluntary organizations each having expertise knowledge of its area.

A project seeking a lottery grant needs to apply to particular department with proper planned application to get an aid in the sector it is working for. The application falling into in any one of the sector catered by 14 departments if gets go ahead, the aid is provided in installments with a close vigil towards the project from the lottery fund.

For example National Lottery Sports Funding is one such scheme regulated by the one such body Sport England to support and aid sport organizations and sport activities in England. Under the head, the funds which are used for joint distributor’s award are also diverted into two major funds. Communities Projects Capital Funds are directed towards the equipment projects costing over £5,000 top motivate young people, women, people on low incomes, sport persons from ethnic communities.

The other scheme is Active Communities Development Fund to help people from the low-income groups, people with disabilities, women and girls and people from ethnic minority to raise standard of their life. The amount in this is for the projects required sum between £5,000 and £30,000 a year for up to five years. For restrain the aid seekers should have certain amount of their own or proof that they had applied in past for seeking aid at places. During the Manchester Commonwealth Games there £112 million were invested from Sport England Lottery Fund to develop and construct sport facilities in the country. This is only an example how a lottery funding contribute to the social cause of society.

Is Online Bingo Pushing The Social Media Envelope Too Far?

There has been a recent push into the social media arena by many of the top UK bingo sites. One new site – Gossip Bingo – built their entire theme around the social aspect of the game, and industry leading software supplier Virtue Fusion should incorporated “virtual gifts” in the functionality of sites predicated upon their platform. Bingo site operators are keen to avoid the sense of isolation as players now are able to play bingo from their own homes, and social media appears to be the prominent solution towards this end.

JackpotJoy Bingo – among the most popular bingo destinations online today – sought to leverage social media with a strong presence on Facebook. However, despite its widespread popularity in the UK, bingo is still gambling. Many still view gambling as immoral, and large sites like Facebook are highly sensitive when it comes to potentially offending their large mass of users. Consequently, Facebook decided that the gambling oriented content on JackpotJoy’s page was just too much, and JackpotJoy ended up being banished from Facebook. Surely, many other site operators with active Facebook campaigns are closely watching this development.

Despite their banning from Facebook, JackpotJoy will surely remain one of the most visited bingo sites in the UK. Bingo bonus like a 200% initial deposit match bonus obviously help drive traffic to the site, and their free bingo games round out the package on the site. You might not be able to find them on Facebook now, but you’ll still find a huge variety of bingo games on their site.

How do I access the social games (slots, bingo, etc.) on King.com?

Last night there was a category under games called Social and Fun or something along those lines. It had slots, bingo, and other chance type games.

Now I can’t find that section on the site. Do they just offer that at random times? Particular times? Is it only for gold members?

Thanks.