Hmmmm I was not aware that the Bingo Industry has any standards. I wonder how they came up with that?

Mania has always had a good reputation unlike most sites...it just bothers me to know that 'bingo industry standards' are nothing more than rules that favor the site and not the player who deposits at the site. I suspect that the 'standards' that Mania is referring to is mainly UK regulations because that's where they are 'home-based' if I remember correctly.

I think Bingomania and bingohall are somehow connected, everytime there is a change at one site same change happens and other site,

They are definitely NOT connected. Bingomania has never given a problem with payouts. I had a major problem withdrawing $500 of winnings. They put me through the mill. I posted my experience in reviews of Bingohall on this site. Their rules of withdrawal make it very difficult to get a payout.

Also, with Bingomania you lose all your bonus bucks when you request a payout. With Bingohall, you don't lose your bonus bucks.

How long do most of the better sites that you have played require you to wait before you withdraw your winnings? personally the sooner I can withdraw my earnings the better!

I played at Bingomania and Bingohall for years. I don't think Bingomania had a playthrough rule. I don't know what Bingohall was, but up to about a year ago I never had a problem with payouts. Now they are playing games with their payouts. If you ask for a payout, you better have all they ask for up to date or they will decline you and you can't put another request in for another week. After they put me through the mill for a payout I told them to close my account with them.

I've been checking out a few more sites like Glamourbingo and Premierbingo. They have no playthrough.

Looks like they packed their diddy-bag and left. The website can not be loaded, which is very strange, as they are a 24 hour website.

BingoMania is still there LWhite I just logged in and the rooms are running.

Thank you Sherry. I now know they are closing the site after the last shift. Wow, I am going to miss them, because I can not go along with their new policy.

LSWhite...which site are you saying is closing? As far as I know, BingoHall and BingoMania are both staying open.

Why would Bingomania change their rules and then close. That doesn't make sense. Are they really closing?

Here is a link to a blog the owner of BingoMania did on May 28th, 2010. Perhaps it will stop all the confusion. http://maniastu.bingomania.com/

Since we deal directly with site management, they surly would have notified us if they were indeed closing. What we are dealing with here is some policy changes. If their changes concern you, I would advise you to email your concerns to hello@bingomania.com and ask that your remarks be passed on to Stuart.

I have some info that might make things a little easier for you all to understand.

USA went after operators with NO impact, they went after processors with NO impact. Now they are enforcing the UIGEA laws with the financial institutions to try to stop online gambling.

Some banks, for whatever reasons, will choose NOT to go by these rules taking a risk to continue, which results in higher fees for the processors that are passed down to the gaming operators. It goes back to what we learned in high school as "supply and demand". The more there is of a product, the cheaper it is and the less there is the more it costs.

Basically, ALL sites are changing their policies, NOT to make more money for the site, NOT to make withdrawls more difficult for their players, but to follow guidelines given by the processor requirements in order to have options for the players to not only fund but also withdraw winnings..

One requirement is to raise the minimum deposit to $50 instead of $20. The processors are doing this because it has been found that the amounts of small deposits are far greater than larger ones and tend to bring more attention because there are so many of them. This is NOT the site requirements, but those of the processors who are willing to take the chance of continuing.

Another requirement is the amount of TIMES one person may withdraw. The more you withdraw the more there is evidence indicating a possible need to look more closely into what is happening in your account. Bottom line is the processors have made requirements that the sites have to follow if they want to continue to use them. What the processors are ultimately trying to do is stay "under the wire" and attract as little attention as possible, while covering their asses in case they do get caught. Their services since June 1, 2010 have become CONSIDERABLY more expensive. They are passing that cost down to the site operators who, in turn MUST, in order to survive, partially pass those increases to the players.

I have witnessed the numbers on this issue and it actually blew me away. NBB, where I work, is non stop, looking for the best to be found that they can offer their players, because they realize they are the foundation of the online gambling industry. Players do not like change. The changes that are happening now are NO surprise to us as we have known for 4 years things were going to get tough.

We still have the option of playing or not playing, but I do ask all of you to read this carefully and if you don't understand, by all means, ask questions. I will be as specific as ethics allow and as thorough as I can be in trying to find your answers. I am asking you to sit back, take another look, see if what I have explained makes any sense to you at all and try to keep believing in the site that is your bingo home and know they are only following rules passed down to them too.

I went to work within the industry so that I could help players, as well as myself, to become more educated in WHY things happen the way they do. I want to stress here, that it is NOT illegal to gamble online for most USA states. The legalities are centered on the financial institutions and what they are allowed to do. Things have changed and will probably continue to change until the USA gets it's head into the game and figures out a way they can also get their "piece of the pie". As players, we either go with the flow, or throw up our hands and say we have had enough.... the part we do NOT see, or choose to think about is that online gambling sites have ONLY the very same options.

(quote intentionally shorted by me to improve readability, please read Sissy's post above for the whole thing)

Thanks very much for that insight Sissy. It makes total sense to me.

I have been playing at BingoMania for a few months now and really like it there. I'm not entirely pleased about the new playthrough requirement, but I decided to hang back and watch for a while before making the stay or go decision. In the meantime, I have been keeping an eye on Stu's blog (posted by someone else earlier in this thread) and he seems (IMHO) to be going above and beyond to keep his player base informed and included in the process.