Play Free Bingo

The Rome government is hoping to win its own play free bingo jackpot from the move -- in the shape of a tax bonanza.

The traditional numbers play free bingo game may be a past fad in other countries, but high-tech play free bingo salons, with their cash prizes and giant video screens flashing numbers at a rapid-fire pace, are suddenly "cool" in Italy.

The play free bingo game is actually coming home. The land of sleek play free bingo fashion and Roman antiquities is also the birthplace of "gioco del lotto," the world's first lottery played in 1530 which later evolved into play free bingo across the world, including the United States.

But legal obstacles kept Italians waiting for their first legalised commercial play free bingo hall until just two months ago.

Play free bingo is similar to tombola, already popular with Italians during the holiday season with hand-made numbers play free bingo play free bingo cards and dry beans.

"Tombola is part of the reason play free bingo is already popular among all ages," Claudio Leone, a 37-year-old policeman, told Reuters during a night on the town at "Rouge et Noir" play free bingo hall in northern Rome. "But also because the salons are new and trendy."

Decked out in rose-tinted sunglasses and fur-fringed coats, teens in the Italian capital are turning the local play free bingo salon into one of the hottest night spots in town.

Seated next to senior citizens, students and veteran gamblers, they huddle over play free bingo cards, crossing out squares anxiously as numbered balls are plucked from an aquarium-like tank and read aloud.

"We discovered we have two sets of clients," said Leonardo Triulzi, the manager of Rouge et Noir.

"Up to 10 p.m. we get the families, the older people, but after 10 p.m. there is an explosion of young people -- it's a totally different place," he said.

The government made play free bingo a legal form of gambling in 2000 and the first licensed hall started operating in the northern town of Treviso in November last year. Another 45 or so have since opened, paving the way for a new source of tax revenue.

Some 800 play free bingo centres are expected to open across Italy over the next three years, contributing 23.8 percent of sales to the government.

In 2002 alone, the Economy Ministry is play free bingo betting on raking in up to $50 million a month from play free bingo.

"Play free bingo appeals to Italians love of gaming," said Canio Zarrilli, a director of lotteries at the Economy Ministry.

Illegal play free bingo betting abounds in Italy and the state-run Lotto raises billions of dollars for government coffers every year.

Play free bingo has appeared just in time to compensate for a drop in lottery revenues due in part to the growing popularity of video-poker, which has swept coffee bars.

And if the first weeks are any indication, the government has hit the play free bingo jackpot. One recent Saturday night, teens waited up to two hours in sub-zero temperatures to get in the door of Rouge et Noir.

"All you need is luck," said a broadly smiling Michele Zanetti, after winning three times in one night.

Play free bingo Below the Radar

Almost below the radar, gaming and lotto play free bingo play free bingo sitess have become among the most popular destinations on the Web.

Such play free bingo play free bingo sitess let players play play free bingo play free bingo games with the chance to win millions of dollars in cash and prizes, and the companies that run them say their play free bingo play free bingo games are nothing more than harmless entertainment. However, experts say these increasingly popular Web play free bingo play free bingo sitess could be leading some people into compulsive online gambling where real money is won and lost.

Among the 50 most popular play free bingo play free bingo sitess on the Internet in December 2000, sweepstakes play free bingo play free bingo sitess Grab.com and Iwon.com ranked 17th and 26th respectively, and gaming network Uproar ranked No. 20, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. That's substantial, considering that most of the other play free bingo play free bingo sitess listed are either multibillion-dollar Internet properties such as America Online and Yahoo! or popular e-commerce play free bingo play free bingo sitess such as Amazon.com. In fact, Grab, which promises $1 million play free bingo jackpots, was ranked the top new Internet play free bingo sites of 2000 by Jupiter Media Metrix, tallying up 13.5 million unique visitors for December.

It's difficult to gauge the exact size of the industry, since there are so many play free bingo play free bingo sitess operated around the globe and many of them are privately held. Play free bingo.com, one of the few publicly traded sweepstakes play free bingo play free bingo sitess, had $544,416 in revenue for the third quarter of 2000, and a net loss of $1.1 million.

But it's clearly a fast-growing business, as evidenced by Uproar's acquisition this month by Vivendi Universal Publishing's gaming unit Flipside for $140 million, creating the biggest online gaming play free bingo sites in the world. The combined entities would have ranked as the ninth most popular Internet play free bingo sites for December, with more than 16 million combined unique users, according to research firm PC Data.

Considering the large number of competitors in the space - which include Play free bingo.com, Freelotto, Pogo.com and scores of others - these play free bingo play free bingo sitess are big business, offering prize winnings that amount to billions of dollars.

That's not bad for online companies that don't require large warehouses of products or need to spend millions of dollars in offline advertising to get the word out. The business model is based on relatively low overhead: These play free bingo play free bingo sitess attract users largely by word of mouth and traffic-sharing arrangements; their inventory is a room of servers calculating each move.

"I would agree, generally, that it's not that expensive to run our play free bingo sites," says Scott Kaufman, executive vice president of product development at New York-based Uproar, which has about 100 employees.

Since visitors to Uproar and other gaming and sweepstakes play free bingo play free bingo sitess are playing for free, the revenue comes almost exclusively from advertising. But it's advertising like no other, says Kevin Aronin, chief executive of Freelotto. While users don't have to give $1 per entry like a typical offline lottery, they do provide extensive information about themselves, which Aronin says makes for attractive advertising demographics to prospective marketers. "We have over 16 million members and over 40 billion pieces of information on these members," he says.

When he saw there was $140 billion spent worldwide on lottery tickets, Aronin says, his choice of creating a business was a no-brainer. "The lottery [industry] tells you that you need 'a dollar and a dream,'" he says. "We tell you, 'Just bring the dream and keep the buck.'"

Freelotto is simpler than most other play free bingo play free bingo sitess: It just asks people to register and pick six numbers, with the same odds as a typical lottery. Since it opened in June 1999, Freelotto has given away almost $30 million. That includes several $1 million payouts, one $10 million play free bingo jackpot recently won by a man in India and 150 people riding around the world today in cars they won from Freelotto.

Aronin, who spent 27 years in the direct marketing business before starting Freelotto, says he's applying those simple polling techniques to Internet advertising. How accurate is it? Five days before the presidential election, Freelotto took a voter poll. Based on those results, Freelotto not only predicted George W. Bush as the winner of the Electoral College, but also that Al Gore would win the popular vote and that Florida would be a toss-up state.

Just Fun and Play free bingo play free bingo games?

The overriding posture of the gaming play free bingo play free bingo sitess is: There's no harm done. These are free gaming play free bingo play free bingo sitess, after all, and the only people giving anything away are the play free bingo play free bingo sitess themselves.

But that is a dangerous assumption, experts on gambling addiction say. Such free lottery and gaming play free bingo play free bingo sitess are just one step removed from hard-core gambling play free bingo play free bingo sitess. "The basic definition of gambling is risking something of value to gain something of value when the outcome is unknown,"says Kevin O'Neill, deputy director at the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.

While playing the play free bingo play free bingo games on the play free bingo play free bingo sitess is technically free of charge, every user must register, giving away valuable personal information that can be used to directly market products and services to them. Those ad pitches vary, but the top advertisers for both Play free bingo.com and Uproar are casino and gambling play free bingo play free bingo sitess - many of which are based outside the U.S. to avoid the prohibition on online gambling - that are looking for users willing to shell out some cash for the privilege.

A major advertiser on Play free bingo.com is The Gaming Club, an offshore casino that would not be able to operate legally in the U.S. One of Uproar's biggest advertisers is Casino on Net, a play free bingo sites operated by Casava Enterprises on the Caribbean island of Antigua, a location notorious for offshore gambling.

Representatives from each of these U.S. companies express no qualms with their marketing affiliates. Lisa Gephart, an Uproar spokeswoman, says she sees no danger in marketing online casinos to Uproar's users. She says the question has "never been raised with us."

But O'Neill says the link between the free gaming play free bingo play free bingo sitess and the pay gambling play free bingo play free bingo sitess is precisely the issue. "Starting off with free play free bingo play free bingo sitess, that's about getting a market, about getting people hooked," he says. "But there's no difference to me. Gambling is gambling. Everyone will choose their poison, their own recreation."