I’ve always prided my posts as being a legitimate bingo guide for casual fans of the game. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of online bingo so I try to help out as often as I can with this advice.

Here is a question that I was recently asked by a visitor:

“Is there any place that I can try playing the bingo games before I make a deposit at a website?” – Jan in FL

Yes Jan, there is. But, remember that there is nothing that is truly free. A lot of the “Free Bonuses” are simply a way to give new players a trial run with their games. I have found two websites for you to try though:

One website called Bingo Flash and the other is called Big Time Bingo. Both of these websites will allow you to try bingo online free!

Let me go into a little bit of detail with these two sites.

Bingo Flash

Bingo Flash is offering $20 to try any of their games for free. This includes all three of their bingo rooms (Green, Purple and USA) as well as their slots and casino games. All you have to do is sign up for a new account and you will receive this $20 offer.

There are a couple of restrictions with a free bonus (there has to be):

1) You need to wager at least 3 times the $20 on bingo cards or 30 times the $20 on other games in order to complete the wagering requirement. If you lose the $20, this requirement will also be completed.

2) You will only be eligible to win $50 max if you complete the wagering requirement and do not make a deposit.

There are three different bingo rooms to choose from: The Green Room, Purple Room and USA Room. The Green Room will always have 25¢ per card games; that’s a total of 80 bingo cards for free! The Purple Room is already a free bingo room; you will be limited to one bingo card and you don’t have to risk money! The USA Room includes a wide variety of different patterns to cover and different prices for cards; between 10¢ per bingo card up to $1 each.

Big Time Bingo

You can also get a $5 free trial to play at Big Time Bingo. This will allow you a chance to play bingo in one of their four rooms: $1 High Roller Room, 25¢ Quarter Room, 10¢ Dime Room, Free Bingo Room.

You can Pre-Order Cards for the next game that will take place. The High Roller Room at Big Time Bingo doesn’t open until 5pm ET. The other rooms will usually be available during the lunch hours.

You can play these traditional bingo games with over 100 different patterns to cover. These patterns are randomly chosen before each bingo game.

Big Time Bingo does offer other games such as Slots, Video Poker, Keno and Pull Tabs. However, the free $5 cannot be used to play any of these games.

Any online bingo hall worth its salt is going to be offering you a bingo bonus to get you to start playing at their website. They will usually offer you a first deposit bonus that can be very helpful if you choose the correct one. The trick is making sure that you choose a good bonus out of the hundreds that are offered.

These are the basics of bingo bonuses that you need know before you make a deposit with a bingo site. First of all, if it seems too good to be true, it almost always is. Any bingo bonus that offers you a really high percentage or really high value has to be scrutinized before you accept it. I would say that a “normal” bingo bonus is going to have a value between $/£25 and $/£200.

The percentage of bonus of 500% or more is only going to be worth while if the value is really low. For example, Bet365 has a straight forward bonus where you must spend £5 and you will receive £25 for free. Otherwise, you are going to want to find a 100% – 200% bingo bonus.

What you will have to watch out for with the really big bonus are the rules that are attached to the bonus. Some of the rules may include a very high rollover. The rollover is how many times you must wager the bonus money that you receive. Usually, the rollover shouldn’t be higher than 4 times. Some bonuses may also have rules to how much money you can win. Imagine hitting a jackpot worth thousands and only being able to win a small percentage of that because you are using a bonus with these rules.

Also, be aware of what you are able to do with the bonus money that you receive. Some bonuses can only be used to purchase bingo tickets. Depending on house rules, they may choose to void your bonus if you use the bonus to play any side games like slots or casino. Other bonuses may allow you to play these games, but not count any wagers towards the rollover. If you are allowed to play these side games with the bonus, it will likely have a higher rollover than purchasing bingo tickets – about 15 to 20 times.

Best Bingo Bonuses

Costa Bingo – For all UK bingo players, you can receive a 200% bonus up to £40 when you make your first deposit. Spend £20 and you will receive a 200% match giving you a total of £60 to start. In addition to that, you will also gain free entry into the £15 jackpot which is reset each half hour.

Some bingo sites only offer you one bonus and that’s it. That is because they are trying to draw new players and they hope to keep bingo players. Costa Bingo will offer you a 50% deposit bonus on every other deposit you make.

What does it take to become one of the top online bingo websites? There are some important criteria to think about when you are choosing an online bingo room.

First and foremost, the bingo gambling sites must be reputable. This means the following things:

1) The bingo site pays their players in a timely matter
2) There is a responsive support staff that is always available
3) The bingo room uses licensed bingo software that ensure safe and random games

Really quickly, I am going to list out the best 3 UK bingo sites and the top 3 US bingo sites:

Best 3 UK Bingo Sites

Since a lot of the UK bingo rooms use similar software and host similar bingo jackpots, it is often up to the online bingo deposit bonuses to determine which bingo rooms are the best for new players to try playing at for the first time.

1) Bingo770 – They are one of the only online bingo sites in the UK to offer a 200% welcome bonus and it is by far one of the largest ones available. Deposit up to £150 and you can start with £450 to purchase bingo tickets with.

2) William Hill Bingo – William Hill offers new bingo players a £25 for free to start playing in your favourite bingo jackpots. Give William Hill a try without having to make a deposit to see if you enjoy playing there. One of the more popular games are the Bingo Linx which are large combined bingo games shared by several different bingo rooms. These games have large jackpots worth over £1000.

3) Bet365 Bingo – They also offer £25 for free to new players. However, you must deposit at least £5 before you can receive this bonus. You will receive a 10-digit Offer Code ending in BBFTB in your email. Enter this code when you make your first deposit. To bet with the bonus money, you need to purchase at least £5 worth of bingo tickets.

Top 3 USA Bingo Sites

1) 123Bingo – You can get $25 for free and a welcome bonus of 300% on your first deposit at 123Bingo. In order to make a withdraw ($50 max) on the free bonus, you must deposit at least $25 in your account. You must wager your deposit money 1 time before you account will be credited with the 300% bonus.

2) Big Time Bingo – You may have seen their commercials on the cable TV networks such as the Game Show Network. They are offering a 100% signup bonus worth up to $500 free. Unlike most other bingo sites, you can use the bonus money to play side games like slots and video poker. If you just want to try before you make a deposit, you can get $5 for free is you are a 1st time players.

3) Bingo Hall – You can get a $25 welcome bonus and a 300% 1st deposit bonus at Bingo Hall. This online bingo room has been around since 2002 and they are serious about the security and safety when you play their bingo games. You can play any one of dozens of different cover patterns such as Any 3 Corners, Any 2 or 3 Lines or even unique shapes like an Anchor or Beanie.

Online bingo players need to consider a few things when they are looking the best online bingo site for them to play on. They want to be sure that they have become a player on one of the online bingo sites that gives those banking options that will work for them. There are quite a few banking options that players will have to choose from and this gives the players the freedom to choose the one that they feel the most comfortable with. Players in the UK will see that they shouldn’t have any problems when it comes to finding online bingo websites that will allow them to take care of their banking needs with ease and a feeling of security.

By choosing common deposit and withdrawal methods that are popular with a lot of online bingo players, a player will see that they will feel much better about taking care of their money transfers. They will know that they are using a method that has proven to be good for many other online bingo players and they will find a sense of security in this. The more common deposit and withdrawal methods also tend to be easier for the players to use. Also, they may have already used a particular method when playing on another online site.

Some of the more common deposit and withdrawal methods that a UK player will find available for them to make use of include credit cards, Moneybookers, NETeller, PaySafeCard, EcoCard, Ukash, Maestro, and many others. Players will want to be sure
that the online bingo site they play on offers great security in all aspects. While the security that is provided for money transfers is of the utmost importance, it is important for all of the player’s information ad entire gaming experience to be secure. This is why it is important for players to read up on the online bingo site they are thinking about joining and make sure they pay attention to the content on the bingo site.

Since there are so many great online bingo sites which offer those in the UK the chance to enjoy bingo in an environment they feel good about playing on, players should have a simple time finding one that gives them what they want and makes a point of offering banking options that the players can use in a hassle free manner. By going to the banking or cashier section of an online bingo site a player will be able to find out the different options that they can choose from. Also, some of the online bingo sites will offer the payment and withdrawal options on the bottom of the home page.

When online bingo players located in the UK join an online bingo site they will want to be sure to try to take advantage of any deposit bonuses they are eligible for. This means that they should be sure to follow the instructions closely when depositing their funds for the first time.

There are a couple of new feature that you will find at online bingo rooms: people playing bingo while using web cams and people playing online bingo from their mobile devices.

These are just a couple of ways that online bingo rooms are trying to branch out with the new technology coming out onto the market. In the process, they are creating these new niches for bingo players to try.

Online bingo sites are very competitive, so once one of them strikes upon a good idea more will follow. Take a look at the bingo bonuses that are offered; one bingo site ran a promotion for new players and all of their competitors immediately start to run similar deals.

The same can be said for bingo jackpots; they all claim to have the largest jackpots. Then, they started to combine their efforts between bingo rooms and created the bingo linx. This was like a super jackpot.

The idea behind these innovations is to get more people excited and playing in their bingo rooms. Being popular makes you popular. If you have more people playing at your site, more people are going to be willing to play. So each bingo hall comes up with their own innovation to try and get people interested.

Online Bingo on your Mobile

In particular, I am thinking of mobile bingo. I can see the mobile media exploding in popularity as more and more people become very familiar with the newest mobile devices. There are already millions of apps being created for these devices.

More people are on the go all of the time nowadays. If you can bring your product to a mobile device, odds are you probably should before someone else beats you to it.

In the past year, I have seen online gaming of all sorts being merged with mobile technology. This includes mobile poker tables, mobile casino applications, mobile sports betting and finally mobile bingo rooms.

Several bingo websites have made the jump to hosting their bingo rooms on a mobile phone application. The majority of these still require you to download the software from their website; but you will find more and more companies set up on the iPhone Store and Android Market as time goes on.

The popularity of mobile bingo will only increase as people do not have to be in front of a computer or laptop in order to play a particular bingo jackpot. The best mobile bingo rooms will be those that incorporate the mobile bingo players in with all of the rest of the online bingo players.

Looking for a place to play mobile bingo? Try meccabingo.com

Playing Bingo with a Webcam

Here is a slightly more esoteric technology as far as the popularity goes towards online bingo. That is this technology is more of a niche as far as how popular it will get.

There are basically two reasons behind playing in a bingo room while using a webcam:

1) You can elect to have yourself recorded when you win a jackpot in a bingo room. This has become fairly popular at bingocams.co.uk primarily because they will give winners an extra 15% to allow them to record your response.

2) I think more importantly that this would take the place of having to type messages in a chat log. Having a webcam available would almost turn your online bingo room into a version of Skype where you can connect to your friends via video chat while you are watching the numbers being called.

It will be interesting to watch these two technologies develop as far as seeing whether all of the bingo halls will adapt and offer these new features to their bingo players.

Would you like to learn more about playing bingo with your webcam? Take a look at webcambingo.org for more information.