Visit: www.chitchatbingo.com
Site rating: 8 / 10
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As the last site I looked at was Castle Bingo, I was instantly struck by the similarities between them and Chit Chat. It soon became apparent why - Chit Chat is a part of the St Minver network. Like the other big Bingo network, Globalcom, all the site within the network are similar - but with their own implementations of the basic site template and layout. This is the case here.
So far in my experience, St Minver has proved itself one of the best Bingo providers I have come across. Everything is laid out easily, and uses the excellent and intuitive Parlay software for playing. All the terms and conditions are easy to follow and everything looks right. Like Castle Bingo, the styling of the site have a very modern Web 2.0 feel - and look very professional.
Been as this is a typical St Minver site, you get a free one pound to play with before you even have to deposit. Once you deposit you'll get a 100% cash match bonus up to £125 pounds. There are terms and conditions attached to this, in so far as you can't withdraw the bonus money, and need to play your own cash first to qualify the bonus.
It's also worth checking out their promotions page, currently they have an extra bonus for new cash players in the form of a free mug. Needless to say, I've sent my claim for mine.
As is common with St Minver and Parlay sites, everything is straight forward and intuitive. Funding your account is straight forward and checking the small print and FAQs really easy. Once you've funded your account you can jump straight into the Bingo. Chit Chat's implementation of the Parlay software carries the colour scheme over into the game window.
Buying tickets is a breeze - it's fairly straight forward and apparent how to do it. The Parlay software also makes it nice and easy to purchase a game ahead, or jump to the cashier options to buy future games. In game options are easy to get to from the outset - and the auto arrange is set as default which make life easy for beginners. If you want to turn it off and mark the cards your self, that's easy to do as well.
It's hard to fault the software, I've mentioned before Parlay's software has a real world Bingo feel to it. I'd really like them to get the calls to action sorted on the calling. It would be fairly simple to implement calls to action at the start of the games. Adding simple commands like "Eyes down, we're playing for the line / two lines / full house" would improve the software if you want to play it proper Bingo style. You get the pause after each win, but it would be good to get call to the next prize.
Well, as it's Chit Chat Bingo, you'd expect the chat to be busy, and with a large percentage of the game players in there, it wasn't a disappointment. Now, as it's a network site you're in there with people playing on different sites - so it's pretty busy. As it's also an opt-in chat room, you know that the people in there are there because they want to be.
The CMs are friendly and helpful, although given the activity in the room, it's must be tricky for them to keep on top of it. That said, they keep things moving along and are easy to approach should you need to. There's a range of chat room games going on, so you can take part if you want for extra bingo bonus pounds. It's always fun to join in.
The games are great value, depending on what time you're in their playing. Late evenings see lots of 10p a ticket games. There were around 115 players, and the money was typically the standard £10 line, £15 two lines and around £50 the full houses. There were a number of full house only games as well, and currently the super jackpot is up over £80,000 - some one will have to win it!
In the afternoon, there were around 80 players and the money was at the £5 line, £10 two lines and £30 full house level.
No problems on the general security side. You're padlocked in all the right places. You're asked for a security word when you deposit money and it's all done through standard debit and credit cards. They also don't mail your password out with your username sign-up message, unlike some other Bingo networks.
I'm on familiar territory here, having looked at a number of St Minver sites in recent months, this is another fine example of it. It's hard to find fault with their offerings - if I had to complain about anything it would be fairly low key things like differentiating itself from other network sites, or concentrating on more community focused features. These are minor gripes though.
Chit Chat succeeds in being a good experience on a number of levels. It's easy to get into, it's well laid out and designed. Importantly though - it's great Bingo and community fun. The chat is frenetic and engaging, as you'd hope given they're called Chit Chat! I'm happy to commend them as a fun place to play online. Overall rating - 8 / 10 (November 7th 2006)
Discuss this site review on the forum.
Visit: www.chitchatbingo.co.uk
The onlines I'd be happy for my nan to play at, and as a result, I'm happy to recommend them to you.
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