Bingo Diaries Review

Bingo Diaries sounds like a low-key remake of 90s coming of age flick The Basketball Diaries starring a very youthful Leonardo Di Caprio. This isn’t the continuation of a saga or a reboot however: it’s just a bingo website with a light-hearted vibe and endearing theme. Its logo a grinning cartoon fountain pen, The Bingo Diaries scores highly for originality. It’s not the most obvious of themes for a bingo website admittedly, but it’s refreshing to see nonetheless.

A spinning wheel dominates the homepage. That’s yours to roll when you sign up. Give it a spin and discover the bonus that awaits; you could win free tickets or free spins of slots such as Shaman’s Dream or Fluffy Favourites. In a departure from most bingo sites, The Bingo Diaries’ homepage is filled with prizes that can be won as part of its seasonal giveaway. If you’re a fan of Yankee Candles and other cosy gifts, the competitions hosted at this bustling bingo site should appeal. It’s certainly much more than just another place to play 90-ball bingo.

About Bingo Diaries

Bingo Diaries is set up as a newsy kind of place, a social hub where gossip and drama are deemed as important as games and bonuses. There’s a dedicated news section where the site’s operators detail the latest news regarding TV series such as The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. It’s an unusual choice for a bingo site, but The Bingo Diaries isn’t the only example of merging bingo with other seemingly unrelated interests; as a case in point try My Stars Bingo, where there’s a horoscope category built in.

Jumpman Gaming Limited are the company behind The Bingo Diaries. The Alderney-registered company operate a number of bingo sites and have a good reputation within the industry. A secure hosting facility in Guernsey holds the site’s servers and all of the software has been developed in-house by Jumpman Gaming’s team. Whether your passion is bingo, slots or a little bit of both, there’s no shortage of games to savour at this high octane site, one where the energy is contagious.

Sign-Up Bonuses

Sign up at Bingo Diaries and the first bonus to look forward to will be decided by a spin of the wheel. You could be awarded 5 spins of the Fluffy Favourites slot. Then again, you could be awarded 500 spins. The only way to find out is by creating an account and pushing that button. Deposit £10 or more to claim this offer. Once you’re a fully fledged member of the site, there are special games and promos to watch out for every month, like the Balance Booster. This jackpot game, hosted on the 15th of each month, has £250 in cash to be won. Tickets cost just 10p.

Every day, there’s free 90-ball bingo to be enjoyed, complete with real cash prizes. Games are hosted between 12pm and 2pm. On Saturdays there’s All or Nothing, another jackpot game with a £50 cash prize and tickets priced at just 5p. Each week, a featured slot is selected, with free spins to be won, and seasonal promotions include gift giveaways that provide a refreshing change to the usual bingo bonuses that are dispensed at sites such as this.

Cashing Out

When it comes to making deposits and withdrawals, Bingo Diaries favours card payment and card only. There’s a wide range of credit and debit cards accepted admittedly – Visa Debit, Visa Credit, Visa Electron, Maestro, Mastercard & Solo – but that’s it. While most players will have access to a card of some sort, it’s a shame that there are no alternative payment options. If you prefer prepaid card, ewallet or a bank transfer service, you’ll need to take your custom elsewhere.

The minimum deposit amount is £5 and the minimum withdrawal is £30. Withdrawal requests take 48 hours to be processed. After this, it can apparently take 7-14 days for the money to show up on your card. This seems an inordinately long amount of time. In practice, it’s likely that funds will appear much sooner. Still, in the unlikely event of funds taking 14 days to clear, you could be forgiven for feeling a little frustrated. The Bingo Diaries has a lot of great features, but its banking options could use some work.

Bingo

There are two types of bingo to play at the site, the most popular pair to be found at bingo sites all across the web: 75-ball and 90-ball. These are hosted in a number of different rooms, all of which can be accessed via the site’s bingo lobby. The 90-ball version, the UK’s favourite, takes place on a 3x9 grid, cards for which are sold in singles or strips of 6. The aim is to complete a 1-line or 2-line strip or score full house.

75-ball bingo, the version that originated in the US, operates on a 5x5 grid, and involves predetermined patterns. Players can purchase tickets for bingo games that involve completing letters of the alphabet, love hearts, smiley faces and other patterns. Every day, The Bingo Diaries hosts bingo games that commence at regular intervals. Tickets usually cost just a few pence, save for the big jackpot games, whose higher cost of entry justifies the higher prize that’s up for grabs.

Slots

Away from the bingo lobby, there’s a reasonable number of video slots to be played. In total there are around 20 games to be played, a respectable number for what is essentially a bingo site. The pick of the bunch might just be Temple of Iris, whose 5 reels and 25 paylines are bursting with action, complete with such eye-catching symbols as majestic cats and gold serpents. Other slots of note are Sugar Train, Irish Luck and the Native American-themed Shaman’s Dream.

News

Since it’s such an integral part of the site’s design, it would be remiss not to mention the news page at The Bingo Diaries. It’s a perfectly reasonable concept – to discuss TV programmes that players might also be currently enjoying. It’s just a shame that it’s delivered so badly. The articles, most of which seem to obsess over The Vampire Diaries, are poorly written with no useful analysis and no substance whatsoever. The news section has the potential to be a fun add-on to the site, but as it stands it needs more work.

A Date in the Diary

Bingo Diaries is a capable bingo website that has a lot going for it – and a few things going against it. Thematically, it’s a somewhat random concept, but one that’s artfully executed nonetheless. The bingo games are good, the promotions aren’t bad and in terms of navigation the site is perfectly functional.

It loses points for its limited deposit methods, overly long withdrawal times and pointless news section however. It would be nice too if there were more slots, or simply a higher quality selection of slots and other games. Bingo Diaries isn’t a bad place to play 75-ball and 90-ball bingo at, but it has the potential to be so much better.