Bingo Bonus Quick Guide

Online bingo sites offer real-money bonuses to new players just for signing up and playing. It’s a competitive market so every bingo site tries to outdo the next site in attracting new players through the use of bonuses. Some bingo sites use smaller, instant cash bonuses to attract players while other sites use huge bonuses that usually have some sort of release requirement.  Luckily, here at Gambling101.org we have a great list of the most trusted bingo rooms online to help you out with your selection and bonus-hunting process.

Getting Started – Instant Bingo Bonuses

If you’re just getting started and don’t have a large bankroll, your best bet is to first hit the bingo sites that offer smaller, instant cash deposit bonuses. These usually range from anywhere between $10 and $50 – it’s not much money but it’s a good start. You can use that money to play a little bingo and hopefully build your bankroll. Eventually you’ll want to hit the bigger match bonuses as your bankroll grows.

Check out the Professor’s official Bingo Bonuses section.

Match Bonuses

It’s best to reserve the match bonuses until you’ve had time to grow your bingo bankroll. Bingo sites that offer match bonuses will match your deposit by a certain percentage up to a maximum amount. South Beach Bingo, for example, will match your first deposit 100% up to $750. So if you deposit $400, they’ll match you with an extra $400 in bonus money.

These are one-time bonuses only, reserved for your very first deposit at the bingo site so you want to save these bonuses until after you’ve built up enough of a bankroll to take full advantage of them.

The catch to match bonuses is that they have play-through requirements that you must hit before the bonus can be used. They’ll usually require you to wager something like 3 times the amount of the bonus before it’s released. At first that stipulation might make it sound like it defeats the purpose of using bonuses but remember; they said “wager” not “lose.” By the time you’ve wagered 3 times the bonus amount, you’ll have won some money, lost some money and hopefully be in the black after everything’s said and done.

The best way to go about hitting the match bonuses is to go after the ones with the smallest maximums first. So if you’ve built up a £100 bankroll, go hit the 888 Ladies Bingo Bonus first – it offers a 150% bonus up to £150. After that, you can move on to some of the bigger bonuses and grow your bankroll very quickly.

Using Your Bingo Bonus

There’s one last thing you’ll want to be aware of before getting started on your bingo bonus journey: most bingo sites don’t allow you to withdraw your bonus money as cash. They usually require that you use the bonus to purchase bingo cards at the site. This isn’t as bad as it sounds though, because you’re still free to withdraw any winnings you accumulate from those bingo cards.

So if you’re busy building a bankroll, these bonuses are just as useful as cash because bankrolls are meant to be gambled separately from your personal money. By the time you hit a couple of the big bonuses, you’ll hopefully have had more than a couple of big wins that can be withdrawn or used to grow your bankroll even more.