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Crown Bingo Com - Playing Bingo Review

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That Real Bingo Feel At CrownBingo.Com

Crown Bingo ComVisit: www.crownbingo.com

Site rating: 8 / 10

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First Impressions & Ease Of Sign up

It's almost two years since I first looked at Crown Bingo, and since then a lot has changed at the site, so on their request, I've taken another look to re-evaluate their offering. Previously the site had scored a 7/10, so things were already pretty good, but there was room for improvement. I'm pleased to say a lot of those improvements have been made. Initially I thought the site looked quite generic, but there has been an overhaul of the design of the site making it look a lot crisper and professional.

Everything is easy to find from the homepage. There's a comprehensive frequently asked questions section, and the terms and conditions are all very straight forward. Signing up is also straight forward, but it happened in a pop-up window, which isn't ideal. Otherwise, little to fault Crown on, they've got guides and step by step information for new Bingo players as well as live help should you need it to get you going.

Sign-Up Bonuses

Crown Bingo have a small free taster bonus, all new players can claim a £1 to try the site. With games starting at 5p, that could be as much as 20 games. The big win is on your first deposit, which Crown will match up to £250. The bonus isn't automatically awarded when you first deposit though, you'll need to reply to the mail you received on sign up and the manually credit the bonus to your account.

Ease Of Use

Crown Bingo are running the Virtue Fusion software to power their games, but are a part of the small UK based Better Bingo Network rather than the larger Virtue Fusion Network. The Virtue Fusion software has come on in leaps and bounds in the last year, a lot of issues I had with it have been resolved and now bar one or two small additions is snapping at the heels of my favourite Parlay Software. Crown Bingo's implementation of it is fairly standard, but it succeeds in carrying the feel of the brand through to the game.

One new improvement that Crown Bingo has implemented is a new lobby for the site that's visually very appealing and gives a feel of the retail Bingo world. When I first reviewed the site they only had the one room. Now there are two rooms to choose from with a third one to be opened soon. The lobby is a small touch that makes quite a big atmospheric difference to the site, many other online Bingo sites could learn from this.

Also on a plus side to give that real Bingo feel, the calling voice is supplied by Karl Seth, the caller of the year 2005. Karl in his calling garb also features prominently on the site as well, adding to the atmosphere. If Karl's tones aren't for you, then they can be turned off via the options button in the game window. The options button also allows you to set a few other things for your game such as sound effects, dabber shape and other preferences.

The game window is well laid out and uncluttered. You get feedback on how much money your about to spend, and the chat window is easy to use (but could do with being a bit bigger.) For me, the one thing that Virtue Fusion is lacking over its competition is its lack of support for pre-buying tickets or buying tickets automatically. Having spoken to people at Virtue Fusion though, I believe they have plans on fixing this, so hopefully it won't be an issue much longer.

Adding funds to the account is very straight forward once you're in the game. However, it does cause more pop-up windows which isn't ideal. This is quite a common thing with online Bingo, due to the way external payment processors handle payments, the problem is more of an aesthetic one than an actual real issue. I'd also like to see a claim button available. I know it's not necessary, but it's a strong visual reassurance for new players of the online game that have come from a retail Bingo background.

Overall the site is easy and straight forward to use, and with a bit of work from Virtue Fusion, could be top notch. The games stop at each win which makes it easy to follow, and Virtue Fusion have also improved the card countdown and sorting options, making it easy to see when a win may be coming. Crown make a point of focusing on the Bingo, but if you like the odd side game as well, there's a small selection of slots and table games to play in the same window as the Bingo.

Financially the site does well also. The minimum deposit is the same as the minimum withdrawal amount at £10, although to withdraw at £10 you need to have staked the money first. This is fair enough as they have to save processing fees should you deposit and change your mind. However, with the low withdrawal limit, you know you can get your winnings out should you want to. One great plus for Crown is that they'll pay your prize money by BACS, so it can go straight into you bank account which is a lot easier than getting it on a credit card.

The games offer a range of value, with games costing between 2p and 50p a ticket. I would like to see the rooms separated out by price, rather than both having rotating prices but that's a small personal preference. I also feel the 50p games are a bit pricey for my liking, but they don't appear in the rota too often. The majority of the time the price to prize ratio is very good. At weekends they offer tickets as low as 2p and 3p each, which is another pointer of their concern with value for money.

Community Spirit

The site has grown its user base, so the chat rooms are pretty busy. The CMs are on hand to help, and are quick to react if you have a problem. One thing I like about Crown Bingo is the site has devoted a profiles section to the CMs that's way more in-depth than on any other site I've seen. This gives the CMs a really human feel, which once again adds to the community feel of the site.

It's a shame that these profiles haven't been opened up to the players to use and share with each other. I'd like to see more community related content on the site from the actual players. Whilst there is a blog at the site, it's not possible for members to comment on it which seems a bit harsh. It would be good to see a forum or some other way of interaction between members other than the chat rooms. Not many sites offer this extra interaction, but where they do I feel it's a real plus for the site.

Prize Money

Crown performs well with its range of prize money and the value of its games. Playing mid morning mid week I was pleased to see 5p and 10p a ticket games doing well and supplying a few prizes worth playing for for. In one room with the 5p game there were typically 60+ players and £4 for the line, £6 for the two lines and £20 for the full house - great value for money!

In the evenings with around 200 players in one of the rooms, the prize money was considerably more, with full house prizes routinely topping £150. There are also a number of big jackpots available at the site - the cash cow got up to £100,000 a few months ago and they've have also had 2 winners of about £15,000 since then.

Security

Good solid security throughout the site, and as the games and account are all in a padlocked pop-up. They email you you're username on sign-up, but not your password. Always a good thing as it means your password is encoded at their site, and should the sign-up email fall into the wrong hands, they don't get instant access to your account.

Overall Feel At CrownBingo.com

I'm glad I took the time to revisit the site, there have been a number of improvements at Crown Bingo that point to a real commitment to offering a solid Bingo experience. Where there are issues, they are generally down to the limitations of the platform, rather than problems with Crown Bingo.

In the future, I'd like to see Crown Bingo find more ways of strengthening the community interaction at the site, increasingly people expect things like profiles and forums where they can let their hair down away from the Bingo. Overall though, Crown Bingo is a top flight site that's gone that extra length to offer a great service that makes you feel welcome and secure. Thanks to their great value and fair and even terms and conditions, I'd be happy to recommend this site to my nan, or anyone else for that matter. Overall rating - 8/10 (March 3rd 2008)

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Visit: www.crownbingo.co.uk

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