I do like a good no deposit bingo bonus and Bingo Funland provides a free £10 to play with. However, a word to the wise. This is a Bingo Entertainment site, so any winnings from the bonus cannot be withdrawn until a deposit is made and then would be subject to a huge 15x wagering requirement. The good news is that by making a first deposit on sign up there are no wagering requirements and any winnings from cash or bonus can be withdrawn at £30 and over.

I take this opportunity to issue this timely reminder as I recently took some bonus cash offered by Ritzy Bingo on the same platform, forgetting that when that site launched at the beginning of the year I hadn’t cottoned on to the fact of the wagering on winnings from bonus.

I was lucky enough to have some small bingo wins and a £40 win on a slot spin, but of course I could not draw out as it turned out I hadn’t deposited. I put that right and fortunately managed to keep having a few small wins to keep me going and I finally made the 15x wagering, but it was tough going. It’s a good job I was enjoying playing the software. I’m determined not to fall into that trap again and I don’t want you to either.

I think this is a great deal and well worth a small initial investment. As a new site the rooms are not overflowing with players and even the networked games are not madly oversubscribed. Having said that it is worth looking out for the guaranteed games that feature in some of the rooms for the chance of some better prize pots.

Bingo Funland offers something a bit different for those that are looking for a change from the standard Dragonfish and Virtue Fusion offerings and that is certainly to be welcomed.

The purple and green colour scheme won’t be to everybody’s  taste, but again people can only take so much candy floss pink and turquoise and white that so many new bingo sites have been adopting.

The big thing though is that people join and populate the bingo rooms to make the prizes worth winning and at least a decent bingo bonus offer makes this more likely to happen.

However, it appear that this is just what is happening over at Bingo Cams and so they have gone on TV to show that it is ok to have some fun in front of a camera and nothing to be embarrassed about.

The idea went down a storm in Holland where Bingo Cams was first launched and the site couldn’t wait to open a UK bingo version to let us join the fun. As there are still more of us that are playing without the webcam switched on, Bingo Cams are using TV advertising to try and persuade us to give it a try.  The message is that when you get used to it you won’t be able to resist a camera.

The ads are a bit of fun, with random ladies barging people out of the way to get on camera in a store and at a tourist attraction, being unable to resist the camera or a bit of a celebration. Both of these things go hand in hand at Bingo Cams and while I am sure that my simple ‘arms in the air’ winning celebrations will never net me the £1,000 monthly live win moment prize, it makes me feel good and hopefully makes other players smile too.

The point about online bingo is having fun and being able to chat with like minded people – with Bingo Cams that premise goes one further with the introduction of the camera. Hopefully these TV adverts will persuade more people to tune in and turn on those webcams. If the campaign is successful I can see the live win moments becoming epic productions of Ben Hur proportions – should be fun to watch.

I’m so excited. I’ve just read about Isobel O’Rourke the Scottish lady that has recently won a seat on the plane to Gibralter to take part in the Gala Bingo Ultimate Bingo Championships by playing in her local club and it turns out I might get to go too!!

I’ve rediscovered my local Gala Bingo hall again lately as I was getting stir crazy looking at a pc screen all day and then looking at the laptop all night for my fun! It was very exciting. You can play on paper cards or electronic terminals and it was great mixing with lots of people again all with a love of bingo.

On one of my first return visits the session pack included extra tickets for a special Ultimate Bingo Champion game that will give winners a last chance to grab a seat on the plane.

Of course, I’ve been writing about the Gala Bingo online chances to win a place, but didn’t even realise they were doing it in the clubs too.

Anyway, as the session went on I won the one line and two lines on this special game and as well as my winnings I was left with these special vouchers. It was only afterwards that I realised that they entitled me to two free prize draw tickets at a special Gala Bingo event on 25th September. That means I currently have two chances of being on that plane to Gibralter myself along with Isobel and all the other lucky qualifier winners, both online and land based.

It must be so exciting taking part in an event like that, with big prizes in every game, a lovely sunny location and the chance to win a Las Vegas holiday as well. Keep your fingers crossed for me on 25th September, won’t you.

Well done Gala Bingo – the Ultimate Bingo Championships were an inspired idea and I for one hope you do it again next year!

When I received this offer from Mirror Bingo I decided that this would be a good time to spend a bit longer there, as up to now I have only spent some no deposit bingo bonus they offered a while ago, which as we all know limits where you can play at most sites until that all important first deposit is made:

“Today is officially the longest day of the year so while the sun is up we’ll be running a 200% deposit bonus for TODAY ONLY up to £100!
So if you deposit £20, we’ll add a massive £40 on top giving you £60 to play with!”

I duly made my deposit and was disappointed to receive just 100% in bonus. Needless to say an e-mail was soon on its way to Mirror Bingo and this morning I have been firmly put in my place with this response:

“Please be advised that that the deposit of 10 GBP you made yesterday 21st June was your first deposit on the site. As such, you are eligible only for our welcome offer, which is for a 100% bonus match. This is stated on our site as well and you can check it once you
click on the link below:
http://www.mirrorbingo.com/skin/welcome_promo.php
I would also advise you to read the full Bonus Terms and Conditions that apply on the site:
http://www.mirrorbingo.com/skin/terms/bonus_tandc.php
I wish you good luck with our games!”

Now I of all people do know that 100% is the base offer at Mirror Bingo, but with the sophisticated methods that are available these days to enable bingo sites to identify which players on their database have already deposited or not, surely such an offer should not have been sent to anyone that had not yet made a deposit.

These days players are much more sophisticated and only expect to receive offers that apply to their current standing at a site. So yes, I made a mistake in assuming that Mirror Bingo were making me an enhanced welcome offer to attract that all important first deposit, but by making it abruptly clear that they are laying the blame for the misunderstanding firmly at my door means that the site will have to work extremely hard from here on in to get any more of my money.

This is a shame as the site has lots to recommend it, but to me this is a basic flaw and I am sure I will not have been the only one to have made this error. I think this just goes to show how easy it is to lose a potential regular player by falling at the first hurdle and such inflexibility could be very costly in the long term in such a competitive market, when so many new bingo sites are opening to challenge the established names.

Feel free to check out Mirror Bingo and let me know if you think I have been too quick to judge and should chalk this one up to experience and give them another chance, lol.

I don’t know about you, but I would have problems getting my bank to accept bingo tickets into my account instead of cash, lol.

As you would imagine the National Union of Journalists has not taken too kindly to this latest development by a company said to be failing in a lot of areas.

Jenny Lennox, on behalf of the NUJ, said:  “We are entering a whole new never-never land when we find that the company is now resorting to bingo to keep afloat – and pay massive management salaries – while cuts to its journalistic service to local communities are driving away readers, advertisers and revenue. She went on “It will take a lot more than Bingo to restore that reputation, and the NUJ demands that Johnston management begins today to work with its skilled and dedicated journalists to rebuild a stable of newspapers of which readers, staff and the group can be proud.”

The offer is said to be 40 free games, but with a provision that says they are not allowed to win the largest prizes. Now this might sound generous, but a quick look at my local paper shows that the publication is offering readers 30 free games too. Looking closely this actually means 30 free tickets, which we all know doesn’t go far. Bingo Today does offer £25 free for a first deposit of £10, but those 40 free games that the journos are being offered won’t go far to filling their wallets if my experience in online bingo is anything to go by.

It’s not clear if they are being offered the games as a one off or on a daily basis, although my guess would be it is a one off and possibly more a stunt to have lots of other publications print the story and bring attention to the new bingo site – clever eh??

I wonder if The Sun or The Daily Mirror will follow the example of Johnston Press and offer their staff free tickets at Sun Bingo or Mirror Bingo? How  will they get round the terms and conditions of the sites that usually state that employees and representatives and their families cannot take part in games or competitions run by the paper?

So many questions, so few answers. Free, much needed, publicity is the common theme that keeps running through my mind and if this is the case then job done. If it is a genuine offer then shame on you Johnston Press.

Wayne, the brains behind FreeBingo.co.uk who works just across the office from me, has been experimenting with new ideas recently and wanted to get stuck into transforming the podcast by syncronising it to video.

Along with the original bingo podcast, we are unaware of any other bingo site out there currently doing anything like this and I think it’s a great idea. While listening to my little review of the new site design or my interview with Cristie from Wonder Bingo, you now have a graphical walk through. The video gives the words much more meaning when you can actually see what is being described.

What do we call it? Anything from video cast to video blog has been mentioned, either sounds OK to me!

We now have plans to take this even further and have some great ideas on where to go next. Watch this space, WhichBingo is going into the video business!

You can view the shiny new ‘WhichBingo UK Podcast with video’ below:

Over at WhichCM we have created the only website on the net that dedicates itself to celebrating and rewarding all the hard work done by bingo CMs everywhere. Every month all bingo players are invited to vote for their favourite CM, with the CM of the Month crown awarded to the chat team and individual CM with the most votes. Just so you are kept up to date on the progress, a weekly leader board is published every Wednesday.

As every single bingo site is listed at WhichCM, so you can vote for absolutley any CM you have had the pleasure of playing with. If you find someone is not there, let us know!

All this builds up to the year end when the top chat teams from throughout the year are shortlisted for the prestigious CM of the Year award. Only those sites who have consistently appeared high on the monthly leader boards make the shortlist, and as the monthly votes have never been closer only the very best make it! So far this year our monthly winners have included 888Ladies, Mecca Bingo and Better Bingo Network (which operates Crown Bingo) – I couldn’t possibly confirm if these sites have made the 2010 shortlist…

This year’s shortlist will be announced towards the end of the month, and the vote will kick off on December 1st and run right through the month. We are also immensley proud to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of CM of the Year, so in typical fashion some great things are planned!

See you there!

I sat with breath held and I seriously wanted it to be great. Online bingo needs to be brought more mainstream and this seemed like the ideal opportunity.

Unfortunately, despite the millions that will be spent on the campaign, first impressions are that this will not be the one that will make it so.

In my view the whole screen was too cluttered, I couldn’t really get what the girl was singing and the fact that the ad is about online bingo at all is a bit lost in the whole producation – deposit £10 on what, to get £30 to play on what?

The eagerly anticipated Barbara Windsor giggle didn’t appear to me to be a spontaneous part of the production, but sounded like it had been added later, having been plucked from one of the early Carry On films and taggged on later like canned laughter on a not too funny sitcom.

The silent movie villain and heroine didn’t sit well with me either – what we wanted was something with a modern feel, instead we got a medieval royal court and silent movies.

Barbara looked good and the behind the scenes footage makes it look like they had a lot of fun making it, but I hope that Jackpotjoy revisit the whole tone of the campaign before putting the next ad together, or those millions could be wasted as they risk turning more people off online bingo than they bring onboard.

The welcome offer is a good one and there are certainly plenty of related promotions and activity on site to support the campaign, but will this be enough?

What did you think – watch the ad and leave your comment below.

I took advantage of the spend £5, get £5 free promotion that Mecca Bingo are running to encourage existing bingo players to give the new game a go and I must admit that at first try it felt like there was a little too much going on. I almost missed confirming my online bingo ticket purchase a couple of times as I was scrolling through to find the Bonus Balls Jackpot numbers I wanted, but it is possible to save a selection if you want to use the same ones every game.

Every now and then the scratchcard popped up and that delayed buying tickets too and there is not a win every time it appears as with the scratchcard games on some other bingo sites. All in all however, the new game is very playable and the graphics are excellent considering there is so much going on.

There were nearly 400 players in the room when I was there and the games moved through very quickly, but the pots were good and the ticket prices varied from low to high and that is good too.

However, once I had spent through my qualifying £5 I decided that a better option for a win might be one of the other bingo rooms that would be a bit quieter while many people were playing the Britain’s Got Talent game and this proved to be the case. I will go back though once the initial rush has died down, but it will be interesting to see which of the TV formats wins the day – the Deal or No Deal bingo game or the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game – the Banker takes on Simon Cowell!  Who do you think will win?

Clover Rollover Progressive reaches £2m

I took my free £5 and moved to the 75 ball Lucky 7 bingo room and played my online bingo quite happily for the next couple of hours, aided by some small bingo game wins to keep me playing and some wins on the Clover Rollover slot.

I like to ensure I make a few spins at 50p a go on Clover Rollover to ensure I would qualify for the Share the Wealth promotion and part of the £10,000 pot on offer by Mecca to be shared by anyone who has played the day the £2m+ jackpot is won.

Don’ forget it is not just existing customers who get free money to try the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game, Mecca Bingo are offering all new customers £5 free to play too. Players just need to register, go to the BGT game in the bingo lobby and £5 will automatically be credited. This is on top of the first deposit cash match offer up to £50 for new players to the site.

Plus as an added bonus all Mecca Bingo customers who play anywhere on Meccabingo.com in May will be in with a chance of winning Britain’s Got Talent Grand Final tickets.

I write a lot about Mecca Bingo, but the offers it comes up with and its games are second to none and it is only fair that I share them with you even though I might then have to fight you for those elusive bingo wins!

Traffic to the site was not great, but the players that found the site really appeared to enjoy the experience once they
had managed to get hold of the bonus cash on offer of a no deposit £5 – I know I certainly did. The only other initial complaint was the lack of players to swell the bingo prizes and to make for a good challenge on the Weakest Link trivia game.

Players tended to move back and forth between the bingo games and the Weakest Link, but suddenly the Weakest Link game kept disappearing for long periods at a time and then was withdrawn altogether and replaced with a holding page saying that the game was coming soon in April 2010. Enquiries revealed that due to some of the glitches and bugs that were being experienced by the site the BBC had insisted that the game be taken down until they were fixed.

As Amuso is the exclusive producer of online and mobile game shows for the BBC Worldwide and Endemol with the brand responsibility that this entails this would appear to be a perfectly legitimate request, but in the meantime potential loyal players have become discouraged. Continued visits to the site over the last few days have seen regular chat questions asking about the fate of  The Weakest Link.

However, The Weakest Link on amuso.com is now up and running again and to encourage players to the site the trivia game is currently running for free, but with the chance to win real cash. The game is great fun playing against only two or three other people, so if more people take part the enjoyment will be multiplied. The questions are trivia and current affairs with multiple choice answers and a limited time to chose an answer which adds to the excitement. At the end of each round a player gets voted off, just like on the TV.

Pay a visit to the site and encourage friends to visit to get the bingo pots climbing too. It would appear that the most
players so far achieved is in the region of 20 with a pot of £12 – although there are progressive jackpots also available for the really lucky. If first appearances are anything to go by amuso.com is gearing up to be one of the friendliest and most fun sites available where players can get their fix of bingo online.

Spread the word and let’s see if the site lives up to the expectations of demanding online bingo players looking for something a little different different. See you there and may the best man (or woman of course) win – I don’t want to be the weakest link, do you?