How I choose my Bingo Site

Online Bingo is quickly becoming one of the online gaming industry's favorite games. In the past couple of years, the influx of the new online bingo sites has brought about a bit of a Bingo Site War. How are the online bingo sites going to keep their bingo players loyal to their site?

I have recently been doing some research of the online bingo industry. On the average, most online bingo sites are quite similar. Most have a download software program or use flash. Most offer a bingo chat room and bingo chat games. Most offer a matching deposit bonus with every monetary deposit. Most offer referral and birthday bonus bucks. Many offer loyalty programs now as well. What separates the bingo sites from one another? Why would a bingo player choose to play at one site and not another?

Download or flash? This is really up to the bingo player. Personally, I prefer flash based software because it doesn't take up space on my hard drive and I have found that there are a lot less technical issues with flash than with downloads. Download software seems to create a lag on my system where flash does not. I have also found that flash offers much better graphics than download.

Chat rooms and Chat games - Friendly and in control. That's all I ask. Don't allow others to bash other players and please, answer my questions when I ask them. Don't ignore me. Simple as that. About chat games - Ok, most sites play the same games over and over and over again. I don't recall when doing some research any online bingo site that doesn't offer Horse Races, Roulette and Keno or Lotto. If you own a bingo site, you will play these chat games. What I look for in an online bingo sites chat game line up is variety. I like to play different games. I don't want to sit in a chat room playing the same lucky number game for 6 hours. Variety is the key for me. I also feel that chat games are meant for chatters. I do tend to hear a lot of criticism for my thoughts on this but, if you are playing bingo and want to be included in the chat games, then I feel you should be IN CHAT to play them, except the big games such as horses, roulette and Lotto. I feel that chatters are taking time out of their lives to visit in the chat room while spending money on bingo, that they should be rewarded with the chat game bonus's. Chat participation is very important.

Now onto matching deposit bonus's. This is where I see the Bingo War really taking shape. Who can out do who when it comes to deposit bonus's. Just last year, the average deposit bonus structure was 100% matching for first time depositors and then 50% thereafter on all subsequent deposits. This WAS the norm. Less than a year later, some online bingo sites started to up their depositing bonus's for subsequent depositors. The matching deposit bonus's ranged from 50% - 150%. A little later on, I noticed some online bingo sites giving up to 300% matching deposit bonus. Not too long ago, I saw an online bingo site offering 500%%%%%. Ok, what else did I notice???? In the beginning, I saw an influx of players in the chat list. Yes, the lure was working. They were depositing on those special big deposit days, losing and not returning till the next deposit day. I watched it and I witnessed it and heck, I was one of them. I speak from experience. As the war started to take a grip, I started to also notice that the player counts began to dip a little bit and SO DID THE PRIZES. This was not a good thing. I could see the prizes dwindling. After 6 months of so of these huge, outrageous deposit bonuses, I came to the conclusion that anything over 200% matching deposit bonus is nothing but a waste. How can a company stay in business giving away 500% matching deposit bonuses? They can't. I have started to see the big deposit sites cutting back on a few things such as their minimum jackpots starting at $500.00 instead of the typical $1000.00 minimum. The chat games are also cutting back on the big bonuses. The 500% matching deposit bonus isn't being offered as much. It was a matter of time. In my opinion, as I stated earlier, anything above 200% is really too far out there. One would find way too much bonus bucks in their system instead of cash and the prizes would be much smaller. One online bingo site has truly done something really neat to help with the influx of bonus in their system. It's Bingo Gang!!! They now are trying a Super Sized prize in their Bingo Central room. Instead of just a Cash prize, they also give Bonus Bucks prize. Every game there are 2 parts to bingo prize, cash and bonus bucks. It really is working well and I have started to see quite a few "oldie" players finding their way home.

Loyalty programs - Every online bingo site should have a loyalty program. A loyal player should be given more than just a matching deposit bonus. Many online bingo sites have started to implement loyalty programs. Online casinos have been doing it since the onset but online bingo is just now beginning to realize the importance of the loyalty program. Reward your players for returning over and over and over again and they will continue to come back.