budweiser poker sets

Online Bingo – Has the Game Lost Its Magic?

As we all know, gambling has become a huge industry on the internet very quickly with pretty much any game in Vegas available to play online. Some Poker sites offer video play with 3D players and the option to change your player’s appearance – you can even go as far to upload an image of your own face to slap onto your character at the table!

I’m not writing about poker though - it’s Bingo I have a love for. It all started on a Haven Campsite when I was younger, you know the drill, five kids in each caravan, grandparents along for the ride, barbeques outside the awning, all that mullarky! Every night we’d have a go at sinking the balls to win Arabian Nights and depending on how much the adults had drunk the night before, head to the main tent for the cabaret or go sit through a few rounds of Bingo.

Not that my parents may have known at the time, but bingo was my first choice – hands down. I don’t now about you but me and my younger sister weren’t ones for being dragged onto a stage by a sweaty nineteen year old from that afternoons ‘fun club’ - to do the birdie in front of 200 equally sweaty parents boozed up on Budweiser and Vodka Sodas. There was always something magical about blotting the boxes, seeing those numbers line up and losing any kind of childhood shyness, jumping up onto your chair shouting “BINGO BINGO!”. The fact that they didn’t really expect 5 – 8 year olds to be in the bingo hall at 9pm or ever for that matter and consequently the only available choice of prizes ranged from a decaffeinator to a quick-boil kettle didn’t matter. I won and I’d beat the adults. And I was still up at 9pm!

Anyway, that’s where the magic began. Now the question is - now I play online, mostly because my local hall has recently banned smoking and it’s just not very fashionable around here to be playing bingo at 27, do I still want to get up on my seat and rub in into the adults. Well, my answer is yes, but not always. The outcome of this subject is obviously going to be a matter of opinion, but I think half the magic of playing online these days lays in the creativeness and interactivity of the game you are playing.

For me, after having a dabble at the obvious two - Gala.co.uk & Meccabingo.com, there is now one clear favourite available at Jackpotjoy.com. I stumbled across the game after seeing its factual site being talked about on a forum. The game is based upon a game show, The Price Is Right. For those of you who don’t know of or have never seen the show before it’s quite simple. Contestants go on and guess the price of a number of items, if they get the price correct or closer than the other contestants they start bagging the items. Now there are many game show based bingo games out there at the moment, a large potion being based on Dear Or No Deal but none other I have come across captures the spirit of the show so well and offers so much added entertainment as this one.

Obviously, many of you are probably sitting there asking why bingo needs to be integrated into a game show set up. Well, it doesn’t. People love bingo for what it is, a simple game that anyone can play and one of which obviously carries a decent social scene with it. But I’m 27 years old; I have a Nintendo Wii in the front room (mainly because it’s pretty!), drive a Volkswagen Golf GTI and am very well acquainted with my microwave oven. I want it all and a game which offers a little more than the norm, is well related to some already fond memories and offers extra ‘bonus games’ between my rounds of bingo as opposed to a cheeky fag outside the local Mecca is all very find by me.

These bonus games in The Price Is Right Bingo offer different kinds of opportunities. The games are, for those of you in the know, Way to go Plinko!, Spin The Wheels & Come On Down. These allow you to treble you winnings (or half, up by 75% or lose etc), win some extra cash on top – or a Mini Cooper at the moment or simply be awarded some extra winnings along with two other contestants picked at random. Now winning bingo is good enough, but to take part in these kind of bonus games (or not) is a decent addition in my book. There are of course more ‘usual’ bingo games available at Jackpotjoy but if you want to see them you’ll just have to visit the site.

For me, the answer to my original question is no, Online Bingo has not altogether caused the game to lose its magical appeal – it’s just about finding the right game for you.

I well recommend The Price Is Right game. Enjoy!

About the Author

I've been playing bingo for years, and about just over a year online. Thought it was about time I started talking to more people about it and getting them involved since the halls are beginning to die off!

Mercury Racing Dominates Oss Winston Offshore Cup

FOND DU LAC, WI., June 15, 2006 – Twin  consumer performance engines coupled to dry-sump Mercury Racing Six drives powered Team CRC, a 39-foot MTI catamaran hull piloted by driver/owner Mike DeFrees of Vancouver, Wash., with veteran throttleman Jeff Harris of Greenville, N.C., on the sticks, to a win in the OSS Cat Extreme competition at the OSS Winston Offshore Cup, Sunday, June 11, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The race was round three of the 2006 Offshore Super Series (OSS) season national points chase.

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Team CRC and Budweiser Select, another MTI hull powered by twin 1,500 hp Sterling race engines with world champion throttleman John Tomlinson on the sticks and team owner David Scott behind the wheel, had an intense duel in the first two laps. Team CRC closed the window coming out of turn three at the start of lap three. Team CRC pulled away from Budweiser Select and never looked back to capture the checkered flag. Budweiser Select and Cintron rounded out 2-3. Team CRC now leads the OSSCX national points chase with 290 points, followed by Budweiser Select and Cintron with 286 and 282 points, respectively. Team CRC owner/drive Mike Defrees was ecstatic with the win and the performance of the 1075 SCi consumer engines.

“The 1075 SCis ran flawlessly,” said DeFrees. “They are amazing. We have two poker runs and three races on them – plus tons of test time. They just continue to purr like kittens – they haven’t missed a beat.”

“We haven’t had to touch them,” added DeFrees. “Our competitors are rebuilding engines every race. I think they are curious to know how we can continue to run as well as we have with consumer engines – particularly against purpose-built race engines that have a 400 horsepower advantage.“

“This was a tough race – which required a lot of set-up. Prop selection, boat set-up and balance were critical. Jeff’s throttling skills were invaluable here. I’ve never seen him work as hard as he did in the rough open water that we had here,” said DeFrees. 

OSS Cat
Billy Mauff and Jay Muller extended their OSS Cat national points lead by winning their second consecutive OSS Cat competition aboard WHM Motorsports, a 40-foot Skater catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing OSS Cat race engines coupled to Mercury Racing dry-sump Six drives. WHM led the race from start to finish. Reliable Carriers, a Sterling-powered MTI catamaran piloted by Tom Abrams and Steve Curtis, placed second. WarPaint rounded out third. WHM has a total of 295 national points and has accumulated bonus points for completing three consecutive races without an engine rebuild. Reliable is second with a total of 286 points. JB Byrider rounds out third in the OSS Cat points chase with 186 points.

OSS Cat Lite
Twin Mercury Racing HP525 EFI engine packages coupled with dry-sump Six drives-powered Motley Crew, piloted by Scott and Ron Roman, to its third win of the season. The win showed the Crew can dominate in rough water like it did in the calm waters of the previous races. The Roman brothers were way ahead throughout the race, followed by Hooters in second and Reliable Carriers in third. Reliable and Lightning Jacks were both penalized – moving Popeye’s into third. Reliable and Lightning Jacks rounded out in fourth and fifth place. All were powered by twin Mercury Racing 525 EFI engine packages.

OSS Vee
Wazzup, a Fountain hull piloted by the father-and-son team of Ed and Anthony Smith, continued its winning streak claiming their third consecutive race after leading the field start-to-finish in OSS Cat Lite competition. Fury was on their heels for most of the race, but a mechanical failure forced it out of the race on lap seven. Miccosukee Indian Gaming finished second, with Black Pearl rounding out third. Miccosukee was accessed a three-minute penalty as its propeller was found to be illegal during inspection. The penalty placed Black Pearl in second and Miccosukee third. Fury and Bad Boy Powerboats/God Speed rounded out fourth and fifth place. All were powered by twin Mercury Racing 525 EFI engine packages.

OSS Vee Lite
Laveycraft pilots Brian Devlin and Kevin Cooper won their first OSS Vee Lite race of the season. Wild Ride, WHM MINI Me, Senor Frog and Screamin’ Eagle rounded out second through fifth place. All were powered by twin Mercury Racing 525 EFI engine packages.

OSS Cat Outboard
Twin Mercury Racing 2.5 EFI Race Offshore outboards powered Medella Light to win its first OSS Cat Outboard race this year. Mapel, Loan Shark Mojo and American Dream Home Builders rounded out second through fifth place. All were powered by twin Mercury Racing 2.5 EFI Race Offshore outboards.

Mercury Racing supports OSS with a $150,000 contingency prize purse for the 2006 racing season. The purse rewards racers who use Mercury Racing-approved outboards and sterndrives in OSS National Series events in OSS Cat Lite, OSS Vee, OSS Vee Lite and OSS Cat Outboard class competition. OSS Cat class competitors using Mercury Racing-approved OSS Cat engine packages will be rewarded a separate Mercury Racing Winners Circle promotional credit program. 

27/08/2008  http://boatstuff.info

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