Image by  Catherine V 

At some time in your life, someone older and wiser than you has probably told you that gambling and playing games of chance like bingo is a waste of money. Of course, while this may be true, it doesn’t mean that they’re not any fun!

Today, though, you can have the best of both worlds by playing bingo for free on a lot of different internet sites. Some bingo games like the ones you’ll find on Facebook are just for fun, and there isn’t a real prize at the end of the game, only a pile of virtual coins. These are amusing enough, and you can invite Facebook Friends to play along with you, but at the end of the day, they have limited appeal as any win of virtual money will leave you feeling pretty nonplussed.

However, many of the free bingo games that are run on the main bingo sites feature real cash prizes. It only takes 20 seconds sign up for free bingo and you could be joining the next scheduled game on the timetable. Most sites have free games taking place around the clock, mixed in amongst the regular games. On Costa Bingo, the best free game to play is the Costa Crazy free game on a Friday night, when there’s an amazing £10,000 jackpot to play for. The other free games aren’t bad either, with a £50 jackpot riding on each one.

So it is now possible to play bingo without spending any money, not that bingo was ever really an expensive pursuit. Even if you want to play some of the pay-for games, many of the bingo cards start out at just a few pence. You could play all evening and make it a really cheap night’s entertainment.

As well as the fun of playing itself, you also get to meet other people while you’re playing online bingo in the bingo chat rooms. The game takes care of itself once you’ve bought your cards for the games you want to play. The cards will be marked off automatically by the software once the game starts, so there’s no danger of missing out on a number call and losing the game because you weren’t paying attention. So while you’re not required to focus on the game, that leaves you free to chat in the chat rooms and see what other players are up to, and how they’re doing in the game.

Bingo chat is generally pretty light-hearted and most people are there to have a gossip rather than put the world to rights. Chat hosts make sure all content is inoffensive and that everyone feels involved. Every now and then, they’ll give you the chance of winning more prizes by running chat games for anyone who’s in the room to join in.

Playing bingo at home online can give you just as much entertainment as going down to the pub for the night, and as long as you set yourself a spending limit, it can be far cheaper too!