Although industry experts are prepared to acknowledge that many sites have seen a fall in membership accounts, ticket sales and prize money.The current economic climate has seen a recent slump in many growth industries as families tighten their belts and dig in until the fabled green shoots of recovery finally begin to surface. As a credit-hungry world begins pay the price of liberal spending, the previously irresistible lure of online gaming braces itself for worst.The online Bingo industry is currently awash with sites that lure in new players with massively attractive sign-up bingo bonuses, no deposit bingo bonuses and even free bingo games. Although the market is far from reaching a point of saturation, the level of competition between rival sites for their own respective share of the market is remarkably intense.

Bingo gaming sites also face competition from online casino and poker sites while mobile gaming, including Bingo, has seen a huge surge in popularity. The mobile betting industry is projected to be worth £3.6 billion by the end of 2009 with 30% of these bets coming from the United Kingdom.

This equates to a colossal chunk of the gaming industry market share being swallowed up by the enemy within, although many Bingo sites now use mobile software in a bid to retain their existing customer bases.

Even so, the overall prospects for online Bingo remain incredibly bright. Web portals that monitor the amount of traffic passing through Bingo and free bingo sites indicated a rise of 20% for the first quarter of 2009 to follow the massive 55% increase seen in the final quarter of 2008. This would indicate that the slight financial drop witnessed on some sites could purely be down to new players waiting until times are a little better before depositing money into their accounts and playing no deposit bingo games in the meanwhile.

This has provided the world of online Bingo with a ready-made platform for a new explosion of growth once the current recession begins to ease. It would appear that the stresses of the current economic slump can only be soothed by emotional escape and online Bingo communities continue to greet newcomers with open arms during these difficult times.