Grace’s Bingo Review

God knows who Grace is, why she either set up a bingo site, or had a bingo site set up in her name, but one thing is for sure, she evidently carries the torch for online bingo. And presumably kind of likes pink. Well, at least a little, anyway. Grace’s Bingo, as you may have guessed, is a bingo website that has either been named after, or has decided to use, the name Grace, and a lot of pink colour around the edges andinthe background. Now, we have nothing against the colour pink, and thanks to a good friend the name Grace will always have really, really positive connotations, but nevertheless it’s hard to work out exactly why this overall design/theme decision has been made.

Who are we to criticise, though? It’s very easy to sit here from the sanctuary ofthe critic’s chair and cast judgement, make aspersions, and generally bitch and moan about things. Of course this is only one way of looking at things. Another might be the fact that after months, and months, and months of analysing theindividual nuances of bingo and casino websites, not to mention years, and years, and years of actually playing them, that we actually do have a pretty good idea of what it is we and other players are looking for. So, does Grace’s Bingo offer what we and other players really want from an online bingo experience?

All the Options

If there is one thing it does do, it’s at least get the basic, fundamental grammar of its title correct. Another recent recipient of our critical judgement came unstuck very quickly for forgetting the possessive element to its name (I mean, c’mon Fairys Bingo, get it together!), but thankfully Grace’s is very much belonging to her. As the homepage makes very clear.

Once past this bit, beneath the brand name you’ll find a row of menu options, including Home, Join Now, Promotions, Our Games, Winners, Community, and Help. Many ofthese are self-explanatory (although it’s worth noting that the help option offers a UK phone number and online contact form only, and other than that simply recommends you contact someone through the CMs inthe member area- not actually that great). As for the options that are not that explanatory, let’s look at each in turn.

Games is Pretty Obvious, Though

Yeah, OK, point taken. Games is a pretty obvious area when it comes to trying to figure out what might be hiding on the other side of your click. Sadly, though, it’s not what you may have hoped for. Hit the Games option on the menu row and immediately you’ll see 90 and 75-all bingo is defined. This means that there are only these two variants available, from all the possible types of bingo that could be included in what should be a full range bingo website. Not the best, really.

Below this there are Chat Games and Tourneys. Granted, everyone loves cash when they have it, even more so when they have won it. So the idea of having games that offer actual cash payments isn’t exactly offensive. But Chat Games isn’t really something particularly special, we have come across it before, and tourneys – as in tournaments – should really be considered a standard offering that goes without saying, or at least goes without pretending to be some exclusive part of this particular website.

Big Cash Games, again cash is good, but again Big Cash Games doesn’t really mean that much, because the definition of what constitutes big cash is pretty subjective. Overall, there could be £500 in prizes available to some andthey would think ‘hey, that’s pretty big cash’. Or there could be £10,000 to others, who say to themselves ‘that’s pocket change’. In this instance it means £2,000 is given very day, with a separate timetable for those games. Finally, there are Instant Win Games, but let’s break this up a bit.

Instant Win, Anyone?

We sure like the sound of an ‘instant win game’, but the problem is when you read the details of what this actually means, instant win is just slots, roulette, and classic instant games that can be played on the side of bingo. Quite why they have decided to call it something less common is beyond us, but it’s not filling us with excitement. Worse still, there’s no way of actually seeing what games are on offer other than a few tiny thumbnails inthe right hand side panel ofthe screen (same on every screen you might happen to be on).

The problem is, we really like knowing what we might be able to play long before signing up for any account. The same if we were to switch banks- it wouldn’t be acceptable for the new company to just say ‘Huge interest rates’ but make you sign up or sign in to find out what those interest rates may be. Would it?

The Saving Grace

Reassuringly, Grace’s Bingo, set up in 2010, is actually pretty forthcoming in terms of promotions, andthe specifics of those promotions. For example, nobody is left guessing as to what happens when you do sign up as a new member. You’ll get free cash, basically.

If that sounds a bit vague, allow us to divulge the details. On your first deposit you’ll receive an additional 200% up to the value of £100. Not bad, although it would be nice to have something lined up to reward you for the second and third deposit too.

Pretty, but Dated

Grace’s Bingo is quite simply far too dated for this day and age. The website is pretty basic in design, although it’s easy to navigate which is at least something. Theoffering in terms of games isn’t up to scratch in our opinion- you need more than two types of bingo (90 and 75-ball) to go at if you stand a chance of sticking around without getting too bored.

There may be some great slots on offer here, but frankly, we just don’t have enough information at first glance to be bothered to go through the process of signing up for a new account. And, more importantly, we shouldn’t have to – the player is the customer, andthe customer is not only right, but also the person who should have to make the least amount of effort in order to work our if they want to buy, or in this case buy into, a product.

Thankfully, the sign up bonus is decent, andthe guaranteed jackpot games are a real positive and something that should be given the appropriate credit. Other than those, though, we can’t for the life of us work out why you would open an account here, rather than with any other bingo website. Some ofthe alternatives ever have as-good-as full range casinos intheir workings, not to mention stuff like live sports betting. Put simply, then, this isn’t really all that at all.