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Astro Bingo Co Uk - Playing Bingo Review

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Fun But Flawed Offering At AstroBingo.co.uk

Astro BingoVisit: www.astrobingo.co.uk

Site rating: 6 / 10

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First Impressions & Ease Of Sign up

Astro Bingo's site has a simple and effective layout. The homepage features the astrological symbols that give the site a slightly new age feel. The astrology plays a big part of the site's appeal. They offer free horoscopes to members along with one of the best sign-up packages on the web. It's easy to get around the site and finding the important Ts and Cs is easy to do.

There are a few typos around the site that raise a small eyebrow, but overall, the quality is high and before long, you're putting your details in ready to register. There's a big warning sign in red that warns against multiple sign ups which is a little off putting at the start. I guess they've had a lot of people trying to take advantage of their generous sign up offer and making erroneous claims, but it does seem a little severe on the sign up page. Other than that small minor point, first impressions are very positive.

Sign-Up Bonuses

As I've already mentioned, the Astro Bingo sign up bonus is one of the best out there. To start with you get a no deposit required bonus of £10. When you go on to make your first deposit, there's an extra match bonus of 105%, which is also above many of the quality bingo sites out there.

But the bonus fun doesn't end there. There are more opportunities to get your self some free money to play with. The easiest way is to take their fun general knowledge quiz about the site and what it offers. There are 28 multiple choice questions you can take, with 50p of bonus money available for each question. If you were willing to spend a bit of time reading around the site, you could quickly get all the answers and an additional £14 of free games. I rushed through and won £7, which was a nice extra bonus. It's nice touches like that, and an attention to their members that really makes Astro Bingo stand out that little bit more than the average Bingo site.

Ease Of Use

So far, things at Astro Bingo had been fairly straight forward and well implemented. However, it was not all plain sailing. Whilst everything worked well, the funding options were a little bit confusing to start with. You don't so much add money to your account as to buy a voucher which you can only spend at the account. I was also very disappointed to see a minimum withdrawal of £30, with lots of confusing terms attached.

Not everyone likes to take their winnings out, preferring to keep them in to fund further games. I always find this high withdrawal limit a bit of a turn off. A lot of the smaller sites do it, and there are financial reasons for them to do it. I feel it's not fair though. The minimum withdrawal should be the same as the minimum deposit. If you only play a small amount, it can penalize you for winning, forcing you to play your winnings rather than be able to withdraw them. Whilst this suits heavier players, it's not for anyone (self included).

As for the gaming software, I was initially happy to see them using the Parlay software. However, they offer a very pared down version of the software, with a layout a bit different to the norm. If it's your first experience of online Bingo, it's not too bad. But, if you're used to the standard Parlay feature set, finding things laid out different to the norm can be a tad confusing. It initially took a while to locate the mute button for the caller. I was also disappointed to find there was no way of purchasing tickets for the next game or the useful auto buy feature which comes with many other Parlay powered sites.

Around the rest of the site, things are easy enough to use and find. At times the layout looks a bit slapdash and out of keeping with their classy header graphics and branding, but I'd rather see good content poorly presented than not at all.

Community Spirit

Hats off to the community in the Bingo chat rooms. I was made to feel welcome straight away, by both the CMs and the other players. I quickly got the impression there are a lot of regular players at the site who enjoy a good chat, I quickly found myself spending a lot of time having a chat with the regulars and it was good fun. There's plenty of good chat games going on as well. The site offers one of the best community experiences I've had in a while.

Outside of the Bingo, there's a nice section with testimonials from the players, many featuring photographs. There's also a photo gallery that players can submit to as well as a profile page. All these extra little things point to a site that cares about providing a platform for their players to be a part of the site and the community. For my money, that's a big plus.

Prize Money

Given all the pluses the site has to offer, the levels of players and prize money was a touch disappointing. There were frequently around 20 - 30 players at peak evening times, with the prize money reflecting those levels of players. Houses were around the £15 mark regularly, but later into the evening they dropped off considerably.

There are two schools of players - those that enjoy the smaller prizes as it means they have a better chance of winning and those who like the big money games with lots of players. Personally, I'm the former, I enjoy having more chance, and I found it paid off at Astro Bingo as I had myself a couple of wins. I would have taken them out but given the low level, I was below the minimum withdrawal level, so I ended up having to carry on playing.

Security

Security at the site is good, the registration page is padlocked, and you're not initially emailed your password. It's a little confusing that you have both a player ID and a username as well. If you forget you're password, they do send you the details rather than the option to reset it. This means they are not encrypting your password details on their servers. It could be an issue if a hacker managed to gain access to their stuff. It is a small chance, but one that can be mitigated by storing the passwords as encrypted in their database. Otherwise, everything is tip top and as you'd expect.

Overall Feel At AstroBingo.com

I have to say I really like Astro Bingo. They have enough little extras to elevate them above their competition. There's a lot of emphasis on the community at the site, and it seems to be full of spirit. There are areas they could work on to improve their offering, such as getting a more featured version of Parlay running and looking at the minimum withdrawal level, but overall, Astro is quite a unique offering in a crowded market, and one I'm happy to recommend. Overall rating - 6/10 (October 1st 2007)

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Visit: www.astrobingo.com

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