Online Casino blog

When it comes to bingo, not many players are aware of all the various bonuses they can get and how to get them. That is why they use a small part off all the bonuses they could get from online bingo providers.

Did you know that online bingo providers depend on your deposits? That is why they will do their best to draw you to that casino and get you to become a regular. They will offer you load of bonuses, all you have to do make the best of them. Below we have presented some of the various ways to get bonuses playing bingo online.

Sign up bonuses

Sign up bonuses refer to the various bonuses you will get just for signing up to an online casino. There is no deposit necessary.

Unfortunately not many online bingo providers offer such bonuses. The main purpose of the bonus when playing online bingo is to allow the player to test the game. Usually you will get a bonus of $5 just for signing up, no deposit necessary. This will allow you to play for about half an hour.

First deposit bonuses

A first deposit bonus refers to the bonus you will get for the first time you make a deposit into your online casino account. Usually the online casino will give you a percentage of the amount you deposit, or they will match the depositing amount up to a certain value. All for free of course.

Note that the first deposit bonus is a one time deal. It applies only to the first time you make a deposit.

Almost every online bingo provider offers a first deposit bonus. This is how it works. Make a deposit of let’s say $100 and if the casino offers you another $100 absolutely free, then you have just received a 100% bonus. If the casino gives you $150, then you have received a 150% bonus.

Note that most first time bonuses are limited to a maximum amount of $100 - $150.

Also make sure to take a look at the payment methods. Some casinos offer bonuses only if you use their preferred payment system. Neteller, Wire Transfer, and Moneybookers are just some examples of payment options offered by online casinos.

Later bingo deposit bonuses

You will not receive a bonus only when you sign up and when you make your first deposit. You will also receive various bonuses every time you deposit money into your online bingo account. This bonus varies from 20% to 60% of the depositing amount. All you have to do in order to get that bonus is deposit money into your online bingo account. Nothing could be simpler and more profitable than that.

Note that you can get various chat room bonuses just for playing and talking to other bingo players.

The “invite your friend” bonus refers to the bonus you will get for each person you bring to the online casino. Simply invite your friends to sign up and you will receive a bonus.

Make sure to visit the “current promotions” page of the online bingo site where you want to play. Online bingo providers advertise all their current promotions there. So if you visit it frequently you will always know what bonuses and promotions you can take advantage off.

Okay, so by now you should have all heard about this fast food style phenomenon called online bingo. Interested? Want to know what it tastes like? Slightly afraid you might become addicted to the flavour and so you are staying well clear?

Well, let me give you a bit more food for thought. It may help you decide that online bingo is a tempting dish, and if you do not play immediately you will enter a kind of spasmodic epilepsy, cured only by the sound of a voice in the distant bingo halls calling BINGO. Or it may confirm your initial view that online bingo is for those with an appetite for loneliness, a craving for bankruptcy and a hunger for the monotonous.

Fortunately online bingo is none of these things. For many people, bingo is a chance to meet new friends, to have a bit of fun and to spend money on something, in their spare time, which they feel they get a return from, whether emotionally for financially. Of course, a return financially is highly unlikely because the odds are stacked against you, right? Or are they?

Current bingo software is coded to deliver a return to the bingo operator of a specific percentage. Current research shows that percentage to be around 30-35%. That means for every 1 you spend, the bingo site will keep around 35 pence for operating costs and profits. The rest will go into the jackpot as prize money for each game with a percentage towards a progressive jackpot. And of course, it does not benefit a bingo site to keep most of the money for themselves, otherwise their players will soon realise that no-one is winning, their prizes will become small, the dish has gone cold, and the hunger for a different bingo site grows rapidly.

So to ensure that you are playing on a reputable site and one which delivers the right ingredients for a rewarding and tasteful experience, look on the homepage for a logo which refers to a Gaming Commission or Game Auditors, such as Thawte, or that the site is closely associated with GamCare. Also try and play on a site licensed within the European Union, for example Gibraltar, which is highly regulated. You can also tell if a site is paying out regularly by the numbers of people online against the level of the jackpots for each game. On first glance, a reasonable jackpot, with a good number of players, equates to a popular and successful site with good payout rates.

The odds of winning a bingo game depend on how many players are playing at a given time. But for everyone playing you can be sure of one thing - somebody will win and that someone could be you. There are sites that may use unscrupulous marketing ploys to tempt you to part with your money. Promotions you should be wary of are the ones like win 100,000 jackpot in under 40 balls. The odds of winning this kind of amount in under 40 balls, equate to about 20 million to one. You have more chance of winning the national lottery. Your best option is to keep it simple and keep it realistic. Don’t follow these types of outrageous promotions. No company is going to give away that kind of money in a hurry.

But we all know that the odds are stacked against us, right? Yet both the offline and online bingo markets are growing at an enormous pace. A recent survey showed that of the 3 million plus land-based bingo players in the UK, around 50,000 of these now play online bingo. Around 2000 land based people play bingo online every night, bringing approximate monthly tickets sales to over 10 million .So is playing online bingo another true form of gambling addiction, or is it just another way of feeding our fast-food like lifestyles, with the need for instant satisfaction and immediate fulfilment before we move onto the next fad

Psychologists suggest that the internet in itself is known to be addictive and presents particular problems for those who may suffer from a gambling addiction. However, recent research by Ms Winstone (a Southampton University psychologist) shows that it can improve reactive mental abilities in all ages.In some ways playing bingo is no different to playing the national lottery or having a flutter at the races. Granny used to play bingo and to call granny a gambler seems ludicrous. But the national lottery or the bookies are simple forms of gambling, and is bingo really any different.

Always the odds are stacked against you but yet people still place bets or huddle around the lottery TV shows, fingers crossed in one hand and lottery tickets in the other. And the demographic is changing too with 90% of online bingo players now below the age of 50. So whereas before, the bingo organisations would target granny’s hard earned pension, operators are now targeting a much younger and broader internet savvy audience, looking for a new way of feeding us instant fast-food like entertainment in an ever evolving internet dependant world.

So while the average household is spending 20 per week on fast-food (National Statistics survey) the fundamental reasons why people like to play online bingo are the same reasons why you and I may enter a Chinese Takeaway on a Friday night the need for a speedy response to a craving, a desire for instant satisfaction, and a longing for a taste that leaves you wanting more.

So before you lick your lips and tantalize your taste buds with the delights of online bingo, remember that it is to many a form of gambling and to others a form of entertainment. Make of it what you will but enjoy the taste while it lasts you will certainly be back for more! How our addiction for playing bingo games equates to the craving for fast food.

With the plethora of online bingo sites currently available (Which Bingo currently lists over 110 for UK alone) what is it that attracts players to one bingo game site over another? Bingo Games best of breed How do players looking for a bingo game, find those well established or newly released sites?

Once players have found a particular bingo site, new or old, what makes them want to sign up or continue playing? What makes a particular bingo site the best bingo game site online? Bingo online the search goes on of course online bingo is found on the internet.

Where else, you may ask! Well, many advertisements are starting to appear on a regular basis in national newspapers, advertising boards and television. With sites like 888 and mansion also appearing as sponsors of sports teams, it seems that site owners are finding new ways of promoting and attracting new players, increasing the advertising audience, but causing a new headache for governments.

Many of the advertisements that are being seen (particularly in newspapers) have been in breach of the advice issued by the UK government on gambling advertising. Ahead of the new UK Gambling Legislation (which is to be implemented from 2007) the gambling commission has issued guidance aimed at remote operators. Online searches still count for around 80% of natural site discovery. Keywords being searched for by players have not really changed from the outset, with the obvious words still being used.

Below is a list of the typical words and the amount of times they were used in the past 90 days (figures obtained in July 2006 from Dogpile and Metacrawler).
Bingo - 1654 searches
Online Bingo - 470 searches
Bingo Games - 180 searches
Internet Bingo - 74 searches
Play Bingo - 53 searches
Free Bingo - 50 searches

Site owners are still using these keywords within their site design, with only a few attempting to find niche markets with key phrases such as Win Big Cash Prize. There is an obvious reason for this. Bingo online is what it is. It does what it says on the tin. The difficulty for a player is to try to find newly released sites when there is a cat and mouse game going on between search engines and competitors. The problem is made more difficult for the site owners by the fact that search engines like Google seem to reveal similar results each time the word bingo is entered, even though it may be entered within a phrase, and alongside other words such as games, sites or play.

This never allows recently released sites to gain exposure and limits the immediate availability of the variation of sites available to the public. The key for a player is to search a little deeper and perhaps use phrases which are not typical to the same results. The more words used in the keyword setup for the site, and then in the users search, the easier it will be to find the site. Sign-up  your bingo site needs you First impressions last, so when someone first discovers a new bingo game site the look and feel is most important. Most bingo sites adopt a fun-based graphics approach. This is in keeping with the fact that bingo is a fun game to play. The majority of sites use software provided by development companies such as Parlay or Playtech, and that makes it difficult to adjust the game window design specifically for each site.

The trick is to try to balance the fun approach to graphics with a professional and quality look. This allows players to feel that the design has been well thought out, and that it is being run by a company who knows what they are doing. Even the top sites have made glowing errors in site design, using dodgy colouring, little attempt at professionalism and bad structure of site. Aside from a good logo clearly identifying your brand, it is important to use only a limited set of colours, achieve a balance between text and graphics and change the content on a regular basis. This helps attract new players and also keeps regularly players interested. There is nothing more off-putting than visiting the same site over a period of time to see the same homepage graphics and text as the previous months before. That can lead to players feeling that the site is being neglected. Software and Playability Except for the various pattern match games that are commonly used in American, bingo is bingo.

There are no differing strategies to work out, and no need to spend hours learning how to play before joining in the fun. This is what makes bingo games easy to adopt by players and easy for operators to run. The software should therefore be easy to use and simple to play, in keeping with the game itself. Of course nice little features like being able to select your auto-dauber icon and perhaps create a character representation of the player all adds to the fun, but the basics should be simple, neat game windows and no annoying bingo callers. The speed of the game can and is often adjusted. Proprietary game software is easier to manage in terms of graphics, gameplay and features etc; as the site does not have to rely on the development company for updates or changes. However, with software provided by developers (though more rigid in terms of updates and likely to be similar across many sites) you can be sure that the product will have gone through advance tests, and is likely to have been audited and approved by a licensing authority. Parlay, Playtech and Chartwell are to name a few who provide bingo software.

Bonuses strategies With the numbers of UK bingo sites available, site owners are using various methods in order to attract players to their site. Offering sign-up bonuses, loyalty points and free money are a few ways of attracting new players. But these marketing strategies will mean nothing if the site itself is unattractive, the software is dated and the chat rooms offer no opportunity to enjoy the community spirit that is so important in online bingo. What keeps you coming back for more? Of course attracting new players is the single most important factor in establishing a new bingo site and achieving continued growth. However, once the site is launched, loyalty plays a big part in maintaining a healthy bank balance and popularity of the site. Without the loyalty, particularly of VIP players, a site will soon discover the difficulties in operating and maintaining a respectable bingo product, and the numbers of players signing up and the total value of jackpot will soon diminish.

Sites can enter into an ever-decreasing circle, a catch 22 situation, without a healthy number of players, no healthy jackpot, without a decent jackpot, no new players and so on. Of course many of the newly released independent bingo sites can boast a healthy bank balance, as most new bingo sites are bankrolled by wealthy businessmen who want to grab a piece of the bingo pie. However, without an established liquidity of players, most independent sites have to rely on the quality of the brand and a precise and effective marketing strategy if they are to remain as a competitor in the ever increasing online bingo market.

The alternative for a newcomer to the industry to join a network of already established bingo sites. This allows them to enjoy the benefits of player and jackpot liquidity. St Minver’s site shows a list of white label media brands that have entered the world of online bingo games. This allows names such as Virgin and Yahoo to benefit of established healthy jackpots and players, while achieving the benefits of an already established brand and in-house marketing strategies. Community plays its part So the best bingo sites must take care to implement all the above mentioned elements. They must make their site easy to find. Produce nice graphics, with attractive and easy to use software. Implementing loyalty and promotional offers are important. They must do everything to ensure that you find the game fun, provide customer service 24 hours and ensure that their jackpots are at a good level and winnable. A site advertising, for example, £100,000 in 35 calls gives you little chance of winning, and doesn’t help towards making the site the best.

However, the single most important factor to the best site is having a good friendly bingo game community. Bingo is a social game, providing a chance for people to get together and have a chat, while enjoying the thrill of a win. The chat rooms in online bingo are the most important element in continuing this social aspect. Bingo at home is fun. Bingo at home alone is not. Be sure to view the numbers online and join in the chat rooms before you decide to part with your well earned cash.

Go on admit it -  you love playing bingo games. The thrill of the nervous waiting on edge, gasping for the satisfaction of being able to stand up and shout bingo, knowing at that single moment that it will be you alone who stands in the spotlight, graced by the hand of lady luck. At some stage in our life we will all get a chance to a play bingo game.

Whether as a child on a family holiday as part of the local hotel entertainment, at home via the increasing number of bingo board games available, or on a night out with friends, perhaps before you move on to the more hard core entertainment of drinking and dancing. I imagine also that there isn’t a single adult in the modern world who hasn’t heard of the game.

Bingo, whose roots can be traced back as early as 1530, deriving from the Italian lottery of the time, has always been an exciting and popular game. It has taken many forms over the years, from the early days of playing with beans, to the more sophisticated ball dispensing mechanisms and automated cards. It has evolved initially from being a method that churches used to increase charitable donations, to becoming a popular social activity.

In recent years however, bingo has been seen as a game played mainly by lady pensioners or adults with low income, perhaps because of the opportunity to obtain large sums of money, with little effort and mostly at low cost. Now however, bingo is played by people of all ages, both sexes and from all walks of life. Whether you are a Lawyer, Teacher, Cleaner or Plumber, bingo is now more accessible, more fashionable and more lucrative. However, it is only in the last two or three years that bingo has taken a further step forward, receiving an upturn in the number and type of players joining in the thrill and excitement of the game of bingo.This upturn and change of demographic is attributed to the ability to now play bingo online. Bingo is a game which has few rules, requires no previous knowledge of the game, requires no in-depth learning of a strategy, and provides players with a quick entertainment fix at minimal cost.

The internet is the perfect catalyst for such a game, and being able to play bingo online has allowed many to obtain this fix instantaneously. No longer do players have to wait to organise a group of friends to visit the local bingo hall, and no longer do players have to leave the comfort of their chair to obtain the thrill and excitement of winning at bingo. Bingo has reached the modern age. Internet has made it all possible. Computers have become more popular in homes and broadband has brought technology to our doorsteps. Games are evolving, graphics are improving and prize money is growing. The age range of online players has widened to 20-55, with the average age being 35. The percentage of male players has increased on some sites to over 30%, from the average of 20% in land-based bingo. Players are spending more money on online bingo too. Though the cards are slightly cheaper, players are averaging 5 per session. The time spent playing online bingo is now around 20 hours per week, as opposed to around 5 hours in land-based bingo.

So where are people getting the time to play at home, at work! In 2003, 77 million people in the US used a computer, with around 33 million in the UK (two thirds of the population). Well, most of us now use a computer in the office or at some point during our working life. Microsoft’s recent research shows that of working age adults (18-64) 78% use a computer, with 45% of those accessing from work. Of those accessing from work, NetApp, reports that approximately 31% use it for personal entertainment reasons. Well, if you are one of the many players now accessing bingo while you have a spare moment at work or during your lunch break, but you don’t want the boss to know, there are a couple of neat tricks to fool those nearby. www.donsbosspage.com is one of the many sites now offering a free downloadable Panic Button, which floats across your pc enabling you to click from whichever site you are on, whenever the boss or a colleague is nearby. This tools opens up either an excel document, or similar document, fooling those into thinking you are hard at work. This site also offers a sound busy tool which plays the sound of someone typing away on a keyword. Some sites like Chit Chat Bingo also offer an alert button which you can keep alive on your desktop even when you are not playing. This allows you to keep abreast of all the latest bingo jackpot and promotional offerings, and current numbers of players online.

So bingo is now modern, fashionable, fun and exciting. Even celebrities are joining in the fun, with many claiming to be fans of online bingo sites. It certainly is a quick fix for those with a spare few moments but one word of warning, play only when the boss is not looking, that is the boss both at home and at work!