BingoPlus

Almost every online bingo site is a random number generator with a chat window bolted on. BingoPlus is not. Here a human being sits in a room and calls the balls in real time, from 10am to midnight every day of the week, and you can join for as little as 25p.

I do not think this operator invented the idea of live bingo online, but it is one of the very few that has committed to it wholly rather than treating it as a novelty room. The presenters are the product.

The site is run by Leisure Electronics Limited under Gambling Commission account 2016, with Wexel Gaming Limited under account 31237 covering part of the operation, and its published licence numbers include non-remote permissions as well as remote ones. That is unusual and it tells you something: this is a business with actual bingo halls behind it, not a web operation that chose a bingo theme.

Welcome Offer

There is no welcome offer published on the site, and that is the honest answer rather than an omission.

If you choose a bingo site by comparing opening offers, this one will come bottom of your list and you should know that before you register. What it has instead is a loyalty currency called PlusCoins and a Plus Wheel, with the site's own FAQs suggesting PlusCoins can be earned without even signing up first.

That is a different proposition from a welcome bonus: it rewards turning up rather than depositing. Whether it suits you depends on whether you want a bigger first balance or a reason to come back on a Tuesday.

Promotions and PlusCoins

PlusCoins are earned through play and spent through the site's own mechanics, with the Plus Wheel as the main outlet, and the FAQs cover how they are earned and whether an account is needed.

Bingo jackpots run throughout the day, 7 days a week, and the schedule is published. More interestingly, it is the same schedule the operator shares with bingo clubs the length and breadth of Britain, so the games you are playing online are the games running in the halls.

The headline is the National Bingo Game, which is covered in its own section below and is the strongest promotional draw on the site by a distance.

Bingo Rooms and Games

The live room is the heart of it. Presenters call the numbers, chat to players and keep the room moving, and the tone is friendly and occasionally cheeky rather than scripted. That is as close to a bingo hall as a website gets, and it is the reason to be here rather than anywhere else.

Alongside it sit the classic formats, 75-ball and 90-ball, and a slots lobby that knows its audience: Fluffy Favourites, King Kong Cash, Eye of Horus, Fishin' Frenzy, Cops 'n' Robbers and Slingo titles, with new releases added steadily. Nobody is pretending the slots are the draw, and they do not need to be.

The one limit on the live room is the clock. It closes at midnight and opens at 10am, so if you play late there will be nights when the thing you came for is not running and you are left with the software rooms and the slots like everybody else.

The National Bingo Game

This deserves its own heading because no other website has it. The National Bingo Game has been running in British bingo halls since the 1980s, played twice a day, linking clubs across the country into one game. BingoPlus is the only place online where you can play it.

The jackpot reaches £50,000 and it runs twice daily. For anyone who grew up with bingo as something you did in a building with other people, playing the same game at the same time as every club in the country is a genuinely different experience from clicking through a software room.

Depositing and Withdrawing

The cashier is documented in the site's own FAQs, which cover the accepted payment types, and the entry point for play is low: live bingo tickets start at 25p, which is less than almost anywhere.

One structural note that counts in this operator's favour. Because the business holds non-remote licences as well as remote ones, it is regulated for physical premises too, and its online schedule is tied to those clubs. That is a different kind of operation from a brand licensed through an offshore shell, and the accountability sits closer to home.

Customer Support

Live chat is offered from the site, and the live bingo rooms themselves are staffed by presenters who are present and responsive, which is not the same thing as customer service but changes the feel of the place entirely.

The responsible gambling material is prominent, including the national helpline number and its 24 hour freephone line printed on the page rather than hidden behind a link.

Review Summary

Five out of five, and the score is for doing something nobody else does rather than for doing everything well.

Live bingo with real presenters from 10am to midnight, tickets from 25p, the only online National Bingo Game with a £50,000 jackpot, a schedule shared with real bingo clubs, and an operator licensed for premises as well as online. If what you miss about bingo is the bit where somebody calls the numbers out loud, this is the only site that gives it back to you.

The bonuses could be better and there is no welcome offer at all, which on a comparison site counts against it. Think of it as an extension of your local club that happens to be open in your living room, and that stops mattering.