Commercial breaks on television these days are always filled with adverts for online bingo sites. Lots of these adverts focus on the issue of free bingo. But this promise of ‘free’ bingo isn’t always as free as it seems. An advert might claim that players receive “£20 of free bingo money”, but then have an asterisk implying that this free money is actually only free subject t certain terms and conditions.
These terms and conditions normally mean that players will receive £20 of free bingo money once you have made an initial deposit on the site in the advert. This kind of freebie is not completely free at all and is actually known as a ‘cash match bonus’ or simply a deposit bonus. As you need to spend money to actually get your hands on the ‘free’ cash, this totally goes against what we normally call “free“.
The word free usually means at no cost to you. So a free bingo offer that requires a player to make a deposit first surely does not really qualify as free at all. It would make more sense and be more accurate to use a similar wording to that used by shops when they claim customers can buy some and get some more free.
Despite the regular instances of not so free bingo games, there are actually some genuinely free bingo games available online. Some bingo sites advertise free bingo games and really mean it. At these real free bingo sites players can play bingo for free with no deposit required. Normally, the player would have to visit the site itself in order to clarify that this is actually what they would get. In a similar fashion, the not so free sites are only discovered once the player visits the site.
A true free bingo site will allow a player to register and play bingo without ever having to deposit any money. Some bingo sites offer limited free bingo for a short time before forcing players to deposit. These sites hope that by then the player will enjoy their playing so much they won’t mind depositing money into their account. So a financial transaction must still take place at some point. In contrast, a true free bingo site will never ask a player for any money at any time. A player can continue playing for as long as they wish for free without ever having to spend a penny.
You will also find free bingo sessions / games at pay to play bingo sites but these are usually restricted to players who have, at least once during their time as a member, made a deposit to the site. Although the games are free, money will have changed hands at least once in order to play further free bingo games as part of a bingo promotion.
But how do you know bingo site to choose with all this choice? Some players prefer not to part with any money to play whereas others are happy to spend in order to win some big prizes. True free bingo allows both kinds of player to enjoy playing bingo at the site.