LuckyMe was part of a large multi-year, multi-strategy initiative by USA casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 operator Harrah's Entertainment

Harrah's Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is a private gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion...

 to enter all sectors of the United Kingdom gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 market.

In addition to the LuckyMe Internet offering, Harrah's simultaneously launched a highly-publicized and promoted effort to win license approval from the UK government to build massive, USA-style casino resort destinations in government-selected locations such as Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. At the same time, Harrah's also entered into a joint-venture with the large, successful UK bingo-hall

Bingo (Non-US)

Bingo or housey-housey or housie is a gambling game that began in Italy in the 1500s. The game is believed to have migrated to France, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe in the 1700s...

 operator Gala Bingo to together develop a number of smaller, regional, bingo and casino gaming locations. In addition, Harrah's also entered negotiations with UK satellite-TV operator BSkyB to launch an interactive-TV gambling channel.

In the end, only the LuckyMe initiative came to fruition, and that only for a few months.

LuckyMe website

Opened in March 2004 only to adult British citizens (in order to comply with USA gaming regulations) the LuckyMe web site offered an innovative web gaming product and model, designed to feel familiar and desirable to the huge population of UK gamblers.

With traditional UK-style bingo as its core offering, plus several other games and betting products surrounding the bingo platform (as is commonly offered in UK land-based bingo locations), the LuckyMe site was available to consumers as a unique subscription-model—where a flat monthly fee allowed subscribers unlimited play and winnings. The site offered over 300 games a day with payouts ranging from £1 per game to £10,000 per game, and the aggregate chance to win £100,000 a month. Subscription fees ranged from £9.99 to £27.99 a month, with the first week free of charge.

The entire LuckyMe service, platform and all games were designed and created by a then-new USA games and gaming technology developer GameLogic, under exclusive contract to Harrah's.

LuckyMe was licensed by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission

Alderney Gambling Control Commission

Alderney Gambling Control Commission was established in May 2000. The Commission is independent and non political, and regulates eGambling on behalf of the States of Alderney. The Commission ensures that its regulatory and supervisory approach meets the very highest of international standards...

. At the time, several other high-profile gambling websites were also based in Alderney

Alderney

Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...

, including Sky Bet Vegas, Virgin Games and Hard Rock Casino. Harrah’s also acquired a UK bookmaking permit in order to run betting applications on the LuckyMe site, which launched with an innovative GameLogic-developed offering named Wingo, another subscription-based service wherein gamblers placed a single bet each month, but were entered into literally thousands of betting games each month (and were eligible to win any and all of them) and were notified and paid out automatically if and when they won..

Also developed by GameLogic to ensure LuckyMe enforced all UK, Alderney, and USA gaming regulations, the LuckyMe site featured a sophisticated player identification system that screened prospective gamblers in real-time and prohibited bets from the USA and other countries where Internet gambling was then prohibited..

Problems

In October 2004, as Harrah's negotiations with BSkyB had failed to secure a satisfactory agreement, and the company was terminating its Gala Bingo joint-venture over disagreements over how to move forward, and had failed to acquire any of the licenses awarded to develop large destination resorts, Harrah's suspended the operation of LuckyMe, effectively abandoning its entire UK initiative. Though at the time the company announced its intentions to return to the UK, it has not yet done so..