It doesn’t really matter how long you are around online bingo or how many reviews you read or how many articles you write about the pleasures and pitfalls of the game, you still get sucked into things you know you shouldn’t.
This weekend I couldn’t resist dipping into the bonus that Bingo Champ keep sending me week in and week out and thought I’d go back and have a look and see if any more players had materialised and what the games were like.
All seemed well. There weren’t a shed load of players, but the ones that were there were very, very friendly. There are only 2 rooms, one of which is a free bingo room and I thought ‘how complicated can this be?’ and launched straight in.
All the bonus cash I had been getting appeared to be in my cash balance and I was playing along, but on every game the line would go and a couple of seconds later it would go again. Then the 2 lines would be won and again it created a second winner and the same again on the full house. Each winner got the published amount of prize, not a reduced amount.
What I thought odd was that this wasn’t highlighted anywhere when it is a great feature. However, I’m also sure that I kept receiving ‘wins’ into my balance when I wasn’t looking as every time I went away and came back again I could swear my balance was bigger!
I played the slots a bit and got to over £50. So, I thought I’d deposit! I know, I know, I should have resisted. I knew the wagering was 4 times deposit and bonus and the minimum withdrawal was £50 and that you had to have deposited £20 or more in the last month to withdraw, but you never know. Well, I of all people should have. I worked out that it was the same spend to deposit £20 and get the 200% 1st deposit bonus as to deposit 3 lots of £5 and get the 200%, 300% and 500% that is paid on each of the first three deposits. Clever eh?
So whichever way round you had to spend £240 on bingo – more on slots. Well, if the winnings kept coming that wouldn’t be a problem would it?
I also got suckered into a ‘£500 jackpot game’ and got all excited, before realising when the pot started dropping at 26 numbers that the magic ‘guaranteed’ was missing. The final prize could have been £50, but even this was under discussion as the winner said she only got a fiver!
The second day saw all sorts of problems too. It wouldn’t let you buy tickets, the ones you bought disappeared, people said they were being credited with winnings they shouldn’t have – it was all kicking off.
Anyway the long and the short of it is I’m down to about £15 in cash balance and I still have £40 odd in bonus to get rid of, but I doubt that I am going to win enough on bingo to meet wagering and get the magical £50, but I will keep trying.
Like I say, everyone was friendly enough and the hosts were helpful and were manning support as well, so coped well with everything that was going on. I’ll go back again in a few days when things might have settled down and have another go. There’s nothing like a little hope winning out over experience I say!
