Visiting Gala Bingo
GalaBingo rolls out a minimal welcoming when you visit their homepage, with the site choosing to showcase its prominence via its wide array of activities instead of adding unnecessary gimmicks into the mix. The overall effect is a simple yet powerful one. Assuming you’re here to register, you’ll find the registration form when you hit the “Join Now” button, positioned next to the Gala Bingo login option. The beauty of the sign up page is that everything has been condensed down to a single page, so that the process is a swift one; this is especially ideal for those of you who have little time to spare.
As for the rest of Gala Bingo online, it mirrors much the same as any other bingo platform, in the sense that the promotions and games are linked to upon the first page. What separates GalaBingo from other sites however, is that everything is a lot more polished due to the vast experience the brand has. In turn, you’re given a high quality, well functioning website that can be relied upon. This is an element of the brand that many Gala Bingo reviews share, with our Gala Bingo review being no different, however unlike other reviewers who skim over issues, we intend to give you details on the best and worst elements of this label.
Gala Bingo Bonuses
The first area of GalaBingo we’ll look at is the promotional capabilities of the website; as a well seasoned brand, we are even more critical than we are with younger, less experienced labels. As you can imagine, young brands can take a few months to properly set up shop, however an experienced online bingo site should be able to meet the demands of its customers with few to no issues at all. Does GalaBingo mange to do this? Yes and no. The website has an easy to each promotions page which has several deals currently on display. Nonetheless, while they make sure non-members can browse the selection on offer, we had anticipated a lot more variance than what we received.
In regards to a specific deal, let’s take a look at the welcome package: this deal is based on the typical deposit bonus format, in which a £10 deposit will grant you access to up to £30 in bonus monies. Sadly, there’s no Gala Bingo no deposit promos to opt in for upon registration. When it comes to the welcome deal, there’s certain rules you need to adhere to if you’re to get the most out of this special offer.
Firstly, those looking to take advantage of the deal will need to not only deposit the £10 but also wager it on bingo games as well. Only then will your account be credited with the extra money. Thereafter, you’ll have more money to spend, as well as three days of free bingo to play through, which in turn makes this an incredibly generous offer. The free bingo must be played inside the Free Bingo Room only, with the “doors” to the lobby opening from 12pm onwards. Before you activate this deal, make sure that you bear in mind the x4 GalaBingo wagering requirement that this bonus carries.
Alongside this welcome bonus, GalaBingo also provides a handful of opportunities for you to play exclusive games, on specific days of the week, for you to play for big money wins. An example of this is the £10K Happy Hour which plays every Saturday for 30 minutes, with the cost of a ticket setting you back no more than 20p. These aren’t necessarily your traditional iGaming bonus, but they’re ones we commonly see within the online bingo community.
We could go into greater detail about each individual promo, but we’d like to introduce you to the VIP club before moving onto other areas of GalaBingo. The VIP scheme is a five tier system which begins with Bronze VIP and ends at Diamond; each one of these levels offers their own unique benefits, with the higher you climb making for better special offers. To become a VIP you need to collect loyalty points, something which is done from gaming with GalaBingo and playing with real cash. These points become more useful as you become a higher level of VIP, with the exclusive deals at the top being truly something to look forward to.
Gala Bingo Promo Code
Having read through the terms and conditions of the deals GalaBingo has, we can confirm that there’s not a single Gala Bingo promo code in sight. In truth, this makes engaging with promotional materials a lot easier to do, as there’s less steps in the plan for users to follow; if every bonus needed you to input a unique Gala Bingo bonus code, you’d easily become confused and type in the wrong details. Consequently, some users would end up voiding their bonuses accidentally. Nevertheless, this isn’t to say that Gala Bingo will never introduce codes into their bonus schemes, so we advise that you always keep abreast of promo updates.
Jackpots and Promotions
When it comes to promotions, we have to take into account jackpots as well, as far too many reviewers overlook this vital part of the online bingo experience. In this instance, Gala Bingo is surprisingly open about its guaranteed jackpots, so much so that they have an entire page dedicated to its details, found within the promotion page. There’s three jackpots in total mentioned, each of which are specific to a bingo room, day of the week, and the time of day the games begin. The MEGA Jackpot is played everyday, and is exclusive to Gala Bingo, whereas the Daily Play Jackpot is a payout that is promised to pay out every day before 11pm, and then, lastly, there’s the £2.5K Ticker Jackpot. This last one is unique in that the jackpot prize must be won before the amount exceeds £2,500 in value.
Due to the specific terms of these jackpots, Gala Bingo has provided a list of the games that are eligible for these promos. For those of you who aren’t well versed in iGaming terminology, this simply refers to games which you can play and the jackpots are available; games that aren’t mentioned won’t qualify. Partnered with the titles, Gala Bingo also highlights all of the winners of these past jackpots, which helps to show potential customers that the website does reward its players, it’s not just a means of enticing you in. They follow through on the promises they make.
Gala Bingo Mobile
Now that we know exactly what rewards we can enjoy, it’s time for us to look at where we can enjoy them, e.g. just in the home or out on the move as well. As you would have expected from experts of the industry such as Gala Bingo, the whole website is mobile optimised; not only can you sit down and savour your games at your desktop or laptop, but you can game via your mobile and tablets as well. On top of having mobile browser options, there’s also the Gala Bingo app, available for both Apple and Android users. The app is free to download, and includes all the services that the main desktop site does, and so you don’t penalised simply for being a mobile player.
As for the usability of the app, it runs well, we could even argue better than the website – when we played on our laptop, there was issues in loading certain pages, whereas with the app that issue wasn’t present. This could simply be a fluke due to the software we ourselves use, but it’s a point to bear in mind nonetheless. Many of the users playing on the Gala app agree with our sentiments, as the app has a 4.1 star review, compiled from over 961 comments left on the Android app store alone.
Gala Bingo Games and Software
If you’re going to play on your mobile, or perhaps from the comfort of your own home, it’s not good joining without knowing the games that Gala Bingo UK offers; without giving too much away, we suspect that a lot of you will be pleased by the number of activities. Granted, there’s other bingo websites out there that deliver more slot games, but as Gala Bingo is about bingo and not slot machines, we think having nearly 400 is enough. But which developers are behind these Gala Bingo slots? They come from IGT and WMS, two big names within the gambling sector, both online and in land based establishments. Unfortunately, these slots can’t be played unless you’re a member, however you can access more information about each of the titles without needing to sign-in.
Moving onto bingo, the main forte of Gala Bingo, there’s 16 rooms available at this moment in time, a number which may be subject to change as the website moves forwards. All of these rooms cater to 90, 75, 80, 45, and 50 ball bingo, the first three of the most common of the games seen, but the fact that other options are available is an enormous credit to the brand. In addition to the format of the game, you’ll find that each of the rooms delivers a different theme for users to immerse themselves in, some of which are based on popular TV shows such as Deal or No Deal.
Seeing as how there’s such a large volume of activities to interact with, Gala Bingo provides a schedule section for you to look over prior to visiting any of the rooms listed. This way you’re able to timetable the games you wish to play, should you have a passion for playing as many of the options as possible. The schedule not only mentions the prize amount and the type of bingo being played, e.g. 90 ball, but it also counts down to when the next game starts, thus giving you plenty of time to purchase tickets and join in.
Deposit and Withdrawals
Before we leave you to play through Gala Bingo for yourselves, we’d like to walk you through the ins and outs of banking with this particular brand. Given how positive Gala Bingo has proven to be so far, we’re happy to report that their banking options don’t let the side down, in fact, we’d argue that they help reinforce the notion that Gala is simply one of the best bingo sites to join.
One of the main reason we say this is because of how many payment options are allowed; true, the methods aren’t as diverse as some iGaming brands, but the fact that you can utilise PayPal, Visa, and/or Neteller is a credit to how forward thinking Gala Bingo is. Then, on top of this, you then have that the minimum deposit permitted is just £5, the only exception to this rule is PayPal, which asks for £10 instead.
In regards to the withdrawal side of the banking process, there’s a longer turnaround time of up to three working days for the money to reach your bank account. This may sound slow, but considering that some bingo brands can take up to seven business days, we find Gala Bingo to be incredibly speedy with their withdrawal policy. Both types of banking can be processed in GBP and EUR currency, with the beauty of no additional banking fees being applied by Gala when using their services.
The Community
In terms of community, Gala Bingo is incredibly active across all of their social media channels, with the only one lagging behind being that of Google+, a social media platform soon to be removed by Google anyway. Having been an online for well over 13 years, the fact that they still pull out all the stops in order to keep connected to their fans, has to be discussed; far too many seasoned brands lose steam the older they get. In fact, we sometimes find that this is the side of the label that lets their image down the most.
You can find Gala Bingo on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+. Each channel is linked via a widget at the bottom of Gala’s webpages, with a new window opening up so that you can post on social media without losing any progression of the games you’re playing. If you’re rather not mingle with fellow users, you can use the social media sites to connect with members of the Gala Bingo team, specifically for help with site issues, promotional queries, etc.
Pros and Cons
When it comes to our final thoughts regarding Gala Bingo, we find ourselves eager to get back onto their site and explore more of what they have to offer. Having been actively reviewing bingo websites for many years now, we’ve come to expect to leave satisfied but a little disappointed with the vast majority of brands, as there’s normally some niggling problems that hinder the entire experience. However, this isn’t the case with Gala Bingo. To say this is rare would be an understatement, not that we wish to condemn other bingo sites, as they do good work in their own, but rather we want to highlight how exceptional Gala is.
Pros
- Mobile and app friendly for mobile devices
- Hundreds of slot machines and over 16 bingo rooms
- A wide offering of bingo games, including more niche forms like 50 ball bingo
- Smooth, easy to navigate design
- Quick banking, particularly for withdrawals
Cons
- Long list of restricted countries unable to join
- The desktop website has problems uploading certain pages
- There’s only a handful of promotional materials
