How they rank

Gala Bingo

Any Bingo player worth their cards has heard of Gala. This real world Bingo giant owns and operates 166 clubs in the UK, drawing a quarter million people weekly. When you couple that little number with another we found, 30 million in weekly prizes, you realize that this is the real deal all the way around. Just by sheer numbers it is easy to see that as far as Bingo goes, Gala gets it done. Now they are branching out and extending their kingdom into the online realm. If anyone can go for the brass ring, Gala should make it in one.

Now Gala is not a completely fresh face in online halls. Prior to the early months of 2006 there was a busy and bustling Gala site up and running in partnership with St. Minver. Gala took their time, learned the business, and then severed their partnership to strike out on their own. This is a bold move that could prove either very lucrative, or simply too much to handle. Will Gala live up to their name? We are dying to find out.

We always love the sense of security that comes with playing with a company like Gala. They have a stellar reputation that lets us worry about nothing except Bingo. We have no problem leaving all the worrying to them.

The site is awesome to look at. It has wonderful color choices and graphics, and it is quite possibly one of the best looking sites we have ever come across. But the beauty here is more than skin deep. We have to point out the blissfully simple navigation menu that had us playing in no time.

And we really mean no time. Since we already had the Flash software loaded on our computer, and as common as this program is chances are that you do as well, all we had to do was click on the flashing sign begging us to, "Play Online Now!" A huge upgrade offered at the new site is that it is now open to Mac users. The Flash program is open to a very broad spectrum of systems which really opens the site up to everyone. Way to go Gala!

If you want to get any kind of real feel for the games on this site, you will have to join. Guests can browse around and check things out, but the chat will be disabled removing a big part of the picture. The registration process is quick and painless, so go ahead and see it through. Here is where we ran into a snag. When Gala was partnered with St. Minver all new players received a $1 bonus in their accounts. This "try before you buy," system was great because it gave you up to ten free games before you signed in the first cent of your own cash. This is not a huge amount of money, and we think that Gala is making a real mistake in taking away this incentive.

We do miss our welcome bonus, there are just no two ways about that, but we still think that this is a top quality site. The never ending Bingo fun offered here is really top shelf. Your game will load seamlessly, with chat features integrated right into the console. It was very nice to note that you have complete control over the look of your game, right down to the size of the window. Personally we took great joy in silencing the nail bitingly annoying music played between games. If you find yourself looking for a little intermission entertainment, then be sure to look into the great selection of instant win and casino style games offered to Gala players. They can be a great way to cleanse the palette between courses. For those of you who know chat to be your thing, Gala holds the keys to the absolute busiest chat rooms we have run into. This is where the CM's hold their court, and we found them to be just delightful.

When we did our review of Gala Bingo promotions in general proved to be a sore spot. You already know how we feel about the lack of a welcome bonus, but there are simply no cash promotions to be had. The site shows fleeting promises of a non-cash side of things coming soon, but we want more. Maybe Gala thinks that their Bingo is enough to keep players coming back again and again, we think we still want more.

All that aside, the Bingo is all we could hope for. Gala does a nice job of carrying over their real world quality into an online setting. For players who have found joy at a Gala hall in the past we think that this might be a great place for you to try now.

Click here to play at Gala Bingo now