The Microgaming Progressive Jackpot network which was launched five years ago has announced it has paid out a total of $250 million.

This translates into the equivalent of $137,000 per day since the launch and the Microgaming Progressive Jackpot has now touched a massive $6 million. The Progressive Jackpot climb to the top was given a boost when last month a Finnish player Klaus E, became an instant millionaire after placing a $0.50 bet on the Mega-Moolah Progressive Slot Machine and walked away with a cool $5.5 million.

The Microgaming Progressive Jackpot network offers 21 progressive jackpot games and boasts over 6,500 winners to date. The network which is the largest on the Internet, has built up a reputation for creating overnight millionaires, with 13 lucky players having joined its hall of fame since 2003.

The CEO of Microgaming, Roger Raatgever, stated, “Having attained the $250 million in payments is an unbelievable milestone. It talks a lot about our commitment of making sure we offer our players the most attractive gaming experience on the net.”

He added, “The total amount to be won in the Mega Moolah jackpot has touched $3 million again and the Roulette Royale and Major Millions jackpots will shortly reach the $1million mark. I’m sure it won’t take long for us to reach the $300 million mark.”

The jackpot winners are paid in the same currency as the currency they have played the game. If a player plays in the United Kingdom, the amount will be paid in pounds and if he plays in Spain he gets paid in Euros.

The online bookies William Hill have made online casino player, Scott Robinson, richer by £17,000. Scott won the money playing bingo after he opened a new account to play online at William Hill. 

Scott had opened his account on the site just three hours prior to his big win, and also won a piece of the big jackpot for just 20p per spin on a slot game. This meant that he had won £5,500 for every hour he had been a William Hill customer!

The winner is a landlord of a pub in South Yorkshire,  and won the sum playing the ’Pirates Plunder’ game. This game is one of 17 different mini games he was trying to play for the first time having just set up his Online Bingo account.

The spokesperson for the bookies Jennie Prest said, “The win is just like the game the winner was playing. He signed up on the side and won a sum of money. The spokesperson added, “The win is good for us and the player as winning a sum just hours after signing makes everyone happy.”

Here’s what Scott had to say about his win, “I am in a state of complete disbelief. I was just trying out the different games on the site and before I knew it…I had won!”

He added, “I would like to take the people who work for me on holiday.” The total amount to be won at the Pirates Plunder jackpot is £80,000 following the latest win.

New Players wanting to play online poker at Titan Poker, now have many more reasons to do so. The site is giving them a chance to win thousands of dollars in exclusive free rolls six times each month.

The free rolls will give away prizes up to $3,000 during the course of every tournament. In order for players to qualify they need to collect Titan Poker Points.

They can earn these Titan Poker Points by playing in ring games and tournaments at the poker site. With the site hosting six free roll tournaments each month, new players have will have plenty of chances to qualify.

New players will also be eligible to participate in another free roll at the site the minute they make their first deposit. The free roll tournament will give players digital prizes that have a value of up to $600 and include items such as the iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iMV712 Mini Home Theater System or a Canon 8.0 mega pixel digital camera.

All these prizes come along with a host of bonuses and exciting promotions already being offered to players at Titan Poker.

PKR.com which is one of the hottest new online poker rooms, has now added another way for players to enjoy their favorite game.

It is now offering its players phase tournaments which combine the speedy excitement of sit-and-gos with the chance for big-money payments from small entry fees.

The site earlier offered its players two separate phase tournaments – 10-seat tournaments and heads-up tournaments. Now they are offering players the option of trying the Elite Heads-Up phases for bigger cash prizes.

According to the site card room manager Neil Wright the newly launched tournaments are an extension of the regular Heads-Up Phase tournaments.

He said, “The newly launched tournaments will give players the chance to win large amounts of cash on a small investment. Players can progress through each level – starting at Phase 1 for $3.80 (in the Heads-Up Phases) – and turn that entry fee into $1,500.”

Players who have progressed through the Heads-Up Phases will then have a choice when they make it to Phase 9 to either move on to Phase 10 to play for a $380 prize, or they can gain entry into the Elite Heads-Up Phase 1. Poker players who don’t want to move up the ladder from the small stakes can also opt to pay the entry fee directly for any of the Elite Heads-Up phases as well.

Wright added, ”Any player who is used to heads up strategy will be well suited to take on the challenge of reaching the top of the ladder. The game of heads up poker is all about fast decision making, finding out about ones opponent and dealing with constant pressure on every hand.”

King.com, which is one of the biggest sites for online games in the world, has agreed to host an online casino. It generally offers games of both skill and chance, but this will be its first entry into the world of online gambling.

The company has entered into a licensing agreement with Net Entertainment’s Casino Module which will provide it with casino software and 60 casino games. The opening of the new casino will happen in the next few months.

The company King.com has over 18 million registered players. It expects these numbers to go up with the new additions. At the current moment it hosts 21 puzzle games, such as “Deal or No Deal”; 17 strategy games, such as variations on Mahjong; 14 card games, like Hearts; 18 action games, like “Daisy Defender”; 9 sports games, such as nine-ball pool; and 8 word games like “Word Link”.

David Blomquist, Director of Business Operations and Games at King.com, said, “It was important for us to provide our players good entertainment. We chose our games software provider as we think that they have the desired products to support our ongoing expansion.”

Echoing David’s Views, Johan Öhman, CEO of Net Entertainment said, “The adoption of our software by King.com is a major victory for us. I am happy that they chose our software.”

King.com was launched in 2003 and is now available in 9 languages and 7 currencies. It is a private company based in the United Kingdom having a development campus in Stockholm, Sweden.

Gareth and Sara Beynon from Pontyclun in South Wales, won the top Thunder Ball prize, and a sum of £250,000 after the numbers on their ticket matched the winning six numbers.

The wife Sara bought the winning ticket at the Bryncae Post Office in Llanharan a few hours before the draw and the husband went online to check the numbers later that night.

Gareth who is 43 and works as a part-time coach driver, said: “The win is yet to sink in. I returned home in the evening on Saturday from work and checked on the laptop.”

He added, “I checked each number and thought to my self that we had done well.”

Speaking about his future plans the 43 year old said, “I may not quit working, but may look to change jobs. I will make a decision on my working future a little later.”

He and his wife have an eighteen month old son and want to spend the money buying their dream car – a Mitsubishi Outlander. They are also investing some of the money towards buying a new house.

Gareth, who has 4 kids from his earlier marriage, said, “The children have been wanting several things. I had won £107 in the Lottery a couple of years ago and £97 on a scratch- card. I will continue buying tickets.”

Sara said “It was a shock for me when my husband won. The win has come at the right time as the money situation was tight.”

The Online Casino All Bingo Club which is a part of the Jackpot Factory group has announced the launch of its Count Our Balls promotion program.

During the course of the program it will reward one lucky player with £2,000 worth of holiday vouchers. The latest promotion centers around bingo balls on the online casino website. A Player needs to guess how many bingo balls are in the container. If the player guesses the right number or closest to the right number, they will win the prize.

The site is also offering online players the opportunity to qualify for additional entries. For every person a player invites, they will get an extra entry and should the person who was invited win; the original player will win the runners-up prize, which is £1,000 worth of holiday vouchers.

The site manager said, “The new promotion will be fun for the players as it will get them involved. The promotion we held last month was a big success and we want to build on it.”

He added, “We have set out on a task to create a special, authentic bingo atmosphere for online players that will include more than just a chance to play bingo.”

The site was recently launched and is a brand new online bingo hall that is part of the Jackpot Factory and is reshaping the way a player thinks and plays the game.

The online casino InterCasino is celebrating the 2008 Wimbledon Championships this July by hosting a Pontoon tournament which has a total prize of $500.

The idea behind this tournament is to achieve the highest balance possible within a given time frame of 30 minutes. All the players who take part in it will start with the same amount of tournament chips.

This tournament has a $10 entry with the runner up receiving $100. The players who finish in places 3-8 win $25 each. All the money used in the tournament is play money, with only the prize money being real.

All a player has to do to sign-up for this tournament is to visit the InterCasino lobby and select the tournament from the list. Players will be allotted $500 worth of chips, and can choose to end at any time if they believe to be ahead of the pack.

The player will be provided with a leader board that will help him or her track who the leader is, so that a player can at a glance decide whether to keep on playing. The winning accounts will be credited within an hour of the tournament ending.

The Greek Company Intralot has bought the entire share capital of William Hill Codere Italia Srl. The company William Hill Codere Italia Srl was a joint venture between William Hill Plc and Grupo Codere SA. The gross sale price agreed for the sale between the two is 5.5 million euros. The sale amount will be shared equally between the two shareholders.

The Greek company said that it was buying the joint venture company with an aim of strengthening its presence in the Italian market. The buy out will mean that the Greek owners will have 55 outlets for horse-racing and sports betting in Italy.

The joint venture company was set up in 2006 with a view to enter the Italian horse and sports betting market following a tender process in Italy for sports and horse race betting. The recent sale of the company includes the internet betting licenses that were secured in the 2006 tender.

The Greek companies Italian existing subsidiary has 416 exclusive point-of-sale licenses and a further 164 non-exclusive licenses to operate in Italy. It is the world’s second-largest lottery systems provider, and is present in 45 countries. It also runs sports betting in 12 other nations.

William Hill has said that the sale will result in a write off of around GBP 1 million in the group’s 2008 interim accounts. These write offs will come into effect after accounting for operating losses in 2007 and till the date of sale this year.