Wholesale Bingo Supplies Introduces Scholarship

WholesaleBingoSupplies.com has introduced its Wholesale Bingo Supplies Scholarship. Schools are a large part of their charity bingo customer base, and we wantd to give back to those schools by helping students out in a small way.

The Wholesale Bingo Supplies Scholaship is a $500 scholarship with a fairly easy application process. Meant to be more fun than difficult, the application simply asks future and current students to answer a small series of questions. The winner will be chosen

For complete details please visit our Bingo Scholarship Pages which will outline the rules and complete submission process (which like I said is pretty easy). The cutoff date for this year's entry is February 28th, 2010.

A Belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to Everyone!

I know, I know...it's now January 6th, so that's admittedly pretty late. I apologize for that, but things have been fairly busy around here, as is the case probably everywhere. It sometimes seems like each new year brings new and greater responsiblities, but that's not all bad. We've got some new and fun stuff that we've been working on.

Okay, now that I've droned on a little, what "new and fun stuff" am I talking about. First, we've created what we believe is the first scholarship in the bingo supplies industry, called simply the Wholesale Bingo Supplies Scholarship. We'll go into more depth on this in a later post, but if you know of a student or future student that may be interested, you should have them check it out.

We've also should have a redesign of our popular Robbie Rotten bingo dauber available shortly. We love this design and think that it will be very popular with bingo players.

Speaking of redesigns, our partner site Discount Party Supplies has received a bit of a makeover. It looks great and is even easier to use. So, if you need themed party supplies (i.e. plates, napkins, cups, etc.) for birthdays, holidays, special events or more, please check it out.

Finally, we've got some other bingo related stuff we're working on as well, that we will talk about later on.

Again, we wish you and your family a belated but Happy New Year, and thank you for your support.

FireKeepers Leads to Higher Traffic For Some Area Businesses

While no real solid numbers are available, many businesses located near the FireKeepers Casino have seen higher traffic. However, some area businesses located further away may have seen traffic declines.

Overall, studies have shown that counties with casinos (and surrounding counties) will experience meaningful economic growth within the first few years of a casino opening. Plans for a new hotel across the street and other area growth should help local businesses more in the future. Typically, new business growth will beget more new business.

As far as area nonprofit bingos are concerned, most seem to have suffered lowered attendance by the competition from the FireKeepers bingo hall. FireKeepers opened their bingo last fall, so the record is incomplete. Many feel that they are adjusting and this may only be a temporary setback.

For more information, please see Casino neighbors still await payoff.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and well wishes to you and your family from myself and everyone at WholesaleBingoSupplies.com.

Is Las Vegas the Next Detroit?

Ran across an interestting article from a former Detroiter, Mary Riddel turned economics professor at UNLV comparing the problems staring at Las Vegas with the problems that hit Detroit (and Michigan) in the 1970's and continue today.

As we all know from living here, Michigan and Detroit have struggled to diversify their economy away from the auto industry, and have also fallen behind in educating their workforce. In fact, Michigan's population just dropped below 10,000,000 for the first time since 2000. (See, Michigan's population drops below 10M). Ms. Riddel warns that Las Vegas may be facing the same fate.

With the economy still reeling, an overreliance on gaming and the travel and leisure industry has left Las Vegas suffering more than most. From the article:

"Let's be careful comparing Las Vegas to Pittsburgh and Detroit because our story hasn't played out yet," she said. "But it's in decline. We have increased competition. We had massive home price increases. There were people smart enough to say, 'I can't afford to buy a home.' I don't know how many people.

"We're at a crossroad. We don't need any more houses. The gaming industry doesn't need any more expansion. What about new industries? What can we take from Detroit? What can we do better and cheaper than other places? What are our resources?"

Will Las Vegas look to Detroit's struggles and try to diversify their business base? Will the economy turn around and Las Vegas reclaim its footing? Or, will Las Vegas become the next Detroit?

For more information, please see Does Las Vegas face a similar fate as down-and-out Detroit?

"Bingo Confidential" Movie takes Light-Hearted Look at Bingo

It's not often that bingo is made the central focus of a movie, let alone a comedy feature that garners some award recognition, but "Bingo Confidential" has done that.

Winner of the Long Island Film Festival's Best Comedy Feature Award, Bingo Confidential tells the story of Ethel Bell, a deceased bingo lover who has bequeethed a million dollars towards a bingo game in her honor. The tale centers around 6 wacky characters who all have a strong desire to win the big prize.

We just came across this movie a few days ago, so we haven't seen the movie, although it looks pretty funny...especially for those who play or work bingo games. Apparently, they are offering free shipping of the DVD until the end of December.

We'll probably get around to seeing it sooner or later, and when we do we'll post our comments here. If anyone has already seen it, please let us know your thoughts.

Governor to Sign Smoking Ban Today

Governor Jennifer Granholm will sign Michigan's smoking ban into law sometime today. The ban will take effect in May of 2010.

As we discussed earlier, the ban will not exempt Michigan charitable bingos. The only exemptions will be tobacco specialty stores, cigar bars and the gaming floors of the Detroit casinos. Of course, tribal casinos in Michigan will not be subject to this law and can allow smoking or not on their own.