Can you name anything better than bingo? I can’t. Cake maybe, but actually I think I would take bingo with no cake over cake with no bingo, so no, I can’t think of anything better than bingo.
But what if there was a way to make bingo itself even better?
Impossible, I hear you cry!
People have tinkered with the game over the years, adding features and what not, but that’s not really what I’m talking about.
Bingo is great fun and you can even win money doing it, but if you could get your hands on tickets without having to pay for them that would be pretty amazing, right?
Yes, free bingo is the subject of today’s article, and believe it or not, it does exist.
Not only does it exist, but free bingo is much more widely available than you might expect, if you know where to look for it of course.
Where to Play Bingo for Free?
Just before we get onto where you might be able to find free bingo, it should probably be made clear that there are different types of free bingo.
It’s a very popular game so there are more than a few software companies who have developed bingo games, and each has done so for their own purposes – they’re not all bingo and slots websites like the ones I talk about on this site.
So when you’re deciding where to try a gamer of free bingo, just bear this in mind and think about whether it ties in with what you want from a game of bingo on the house.
Let’s break it into 3 categories:
- Free online bingo with real prizes
- Free online bingo for fun with no prizes
- Free bingo in the real world
That last one will be trickier to go into detail about as a lot will depend on what is available where you live, but I’ll do my best!
Free Online Bingo With Real Prizes
You can often find free bingo with better prizes available as part of new customer sign up offers, or free bingo tickets given out as part of promotions, but this section is about more regular free bingo.
Well, believe it or not, most online bingo sites have free bingo alongside the regular paid bingo rooms.
Depending on where you play, they might only be open at certain times of the day, or for short periods, but they definitely exist.
Some run all afternoon and offer as much as £5 for a full house, plus, since everyone can ‘buy’ a maximum number of tickets (it’s often 12 for some reason), you know that the game is as fair as possible – no one is buying 300 tickets per game and increasing their win chances.
The other nice thing is that the chat rooms are always really really busy – often with 1000+ people playing (everyone loves a freebie!) so it’s great for having a natter.
My advice would be to look for free bingo where you already play, ask customer support if you can’t find any, and if they don’t offer it, sign up with another online bingo site that does.
There are quite a few apps promising cash prizes and free bingo too, but a word of warning here; many are scams that waste your time and make you watch endless adverts or try to get you to download other apps.
They promise money when you ‘earn’ a certain amount, but when it comes to it, they make withdrawing the money almost impossible with endless hoops to jump through.
If you get a sniff of this just give up, it’s really not worth the hassle, but there are some apps out there worth a look.
There are some that offer both free just for fun bingo and paid for bingo with prizes, but you can sometimes ‘earn’ free bingo tickets to the prize games by taking part in the free games, so this is another way to do it.
Another good option is something like Live Play Bingo, which is mostly just for fun, but there is in game currency to earn which can occasionally be upgraded for prizes or Amazon gift cards and things like that.
This game has a live presenter who always replies to comments and lots of flashy graphics so it’s great fun to play, and although you can spend money to get extra tickets, you don’t need to. They have a set number of bingos each game to be won, and once they are gone the game ends, so other people winning doesn’t necessarily mean you lose, it just means your chances of winning are getting smaller.
These apps change all the time as new ones are released and old apps are retired, so I won’t name any more, but you should be able to spot the good ones now you know what to look out for.
Free Online Bingo For Fun (No Prizes)
There are a surprising number of ‘just for fun’ bingo games and apps out there – some even have live callers or presenters that you can talk to as you play.
You can get bingo games that are available offline that you play alone, or bingo games that are very much like the usual online bingo that you play with others – it’s just there are no prizes.
These games to tend to have a lot more extra features though, or levels to progress through and challenges to complete. It means bingo is still at the heart of the game but there is a lot more going on around it.
For example, I played Absolute Bingo, which gives you coins you can buy tickets with, and the more experience points you earn by playing, the more cards you can buy. The game improves the more you play it by unlocking additional features.
Furthermore, during the game certain special symbols are added to some numbers on the cards which can grant instant wins, double experience points, extra coins etc., if the number they are applied to is called.
You can choose when to use them too, so in a game that is looking like a dud you might employ these extras to get something out of the game.
You don’t play against anyone else, but only a set number of balls are called each game, so you are hoping to get a bingo before that set number of balls are drawn.
This is just one example; go to your app store and type in ‘Bingo’ and there will be loads to choose from.
A lot will have the option to buy extra coins/tokens or whatever it is they use, so that you can advance through the game faster, but you don’t have to buy them.
Free Bingo in the Real World
Bingo is a fairly simple game to set up and run, so it’s a popular one for venues and organisations trying to gather a lot of people together and/or attract customers.
Of course, every game in the real world will be run in the way the organiser chooses, so you might find free games for fun, free games with small prizes, or even games with nominal entry fees (say £1) where there is a decent prize at the end
Churches and charities tend to use bingo for fund raising, so there are prizes but donations are expected or charged as cost of entry. On the other hand, pubs and small social clubs are a good example of totally free games where there will be prizes.
An empty pub or social club is not making anybody any money, and the longer it stays empty the less likely people will come to try it out, so getting people through the doors is a constant battle for the people running them.
They sometimes use bingo as a way to attract customers, hoping they will perhaps make a night of it, bring friends, buy a meal, and have a few drinks. Even if there is a small fee to join in, it won’t be much, as this would defeat the object – more people will come if it’s free after all.
There might be a £50 prize for the winners, or a free meal, or whatever, but it will likely be a much smaller game than at your local bingo hall, so you have much more chance of winning and it won’t really cost anything to play either.
Bingo halls occasionally have free bingo too, but to qualify for entry you usually need to have spent, let’s say £10, on regular bingo in the week. If you do though, then you are allowed a set number of tickets for the free session.
Other bingo club promotions have been held in the past, such as when Mecca gave readers of the Daily Record a free £30 session if they took in a coupon. They usually only do this sort of thing as part of a new member drive, but keep your eyes peeled.
Is Playing Free Bingo Worth It?
Of course it is!
There are so many different options for free bingo out there that there is bound to be one that fits your needs.
Maybe you are someone who can only afford to spend a small amount each week and you tend to get through it quite quickly. Well, with free bingo games you can keep playing without worrying about the cost – you can even potentially win small prizes too depending on what you play.
Maybe you are someone who just wants to get the very best deal all of the time, and if that sounds like you, then you could make a list of every single free bingo with prizes option you find, and work your way through them each week.
You might actually prefer the more gamified elements of the free bingo games with no prizes, the ones that have been sort of Candy Crushed, if you like. Perhaps the extra features and symbol upgrades and things really appeal to you, and you don’t need prizes to enjoy your bingo.
Whoever you are and whatever your tastes, there is so much free bingo out there that your needs can be met.