Sign up

Signing up to Virgin Bingo takes a matter of seconds as you only need to include very basic details in your member profile (although you will need to add to this information when you make your first deposit). What's more, to get you started Virgin bingo give you £1 of credit for free. 10p of this is available straight away in your bingo account and the remaining 90p is credited after you activate your account by clicking on a link in the confirmation email they send you.

Design

Virgin have created a really slick looking website which stays true to the Virgin brand with its red and white-based theme. Overall the site looks a lot more grown up than the louder styles favoured by many other bingo brands as there is a lot less going on in terms of flashing images and such. Also, as it's part of the Virgin gaming family which includes poker and casino websites, it has more of a unisex vibe which again makes it stand out from the masses of online bingo sites designed only with ladies in mind.

Usability

The Virgin website is really straight forward to use even for an online bingo novice. All the information you need to get started is available down the side bar of the main site and, once you're logged in, you simply click on the relevant link on the home page to be taken through to the bingo room of your choice.

Depositing, withdrawing and buying tickets is simple, as is choosing your chat room (you have three options in the main 90 ball hall). What's more, you're also able to customise the site a little and are given the chance to use either automatic or manual dabbing depending on your preference and to change the colour and shape of your dab.

As an added bonus, every deposit you make with Virgin Bingo gives you right to make a wish in their 'Wishing Well', so if you've always dreamed of swimming with dolphins, climbing Mount Everest or jumping out of an airplane it's worth sharing this with them. There is a draw every month where one lucky winner sees their dream become a reality so, as it costs nothing to enter (you simply need to send your wish to the 'wishing well' email address provided), make sure you take advantage of this every time you credit your account.

Games

Virgin Bingo have 3 bingo rooms, a 75-ball room open from 4pm until midnight, a 25p 90 ball room open from 12am to 12pm and an all day, every day 90 ball 10p room, giving you plenty of choice when you want to play. To make things even more entertaining they also run exciting promotions with something different going on every day of the week, this varies from penny bingo with guaranteed jackpots to buy-one-get-one-free specials and massive giveaways.

To keep you occupied between games Virgin Bingo also offer a selection of 'mini games' that can be played at the same time as you're playing bingo, although the window they open up in is quite large, making it difficult to chat or watch your numbers simultaneously. However, despite this, their selection of slots, skill based video poker, 'pull tabs' (a scratchcard based game) and 3 hand blackjack is more than enough to keep you busy for hours.

What's more, to get you started, Virgin Bingo will match your first deposit by 100% up to £125 and second deposit by 50% up to a maximum of £65 so you get more than double the bingo for free.

Jackpots

Virgin Bingo put really generous jackpots up for grabs throughout the week and run regular promotions for amounts up to £250K. They have a 'Giant Jackpot' up for grabs every Friday (and when they say giant they do really mean giant!) and also give you the chance to win their 'Snowball' progressive jackpot in games throughout the week.

In addition, Virgin Bingo are also big on giveaways with different themed prizes available to players each month, these can be anything from spa breaks and holidays to home makeover treats so it pays to keep an eye out.

To top it off, Virgin's loyalty scheme isn't bog standard by any means and is definitely worth a mention. It's based on V*points which you accumulate as you play on the site and these can not only be redeemed for bingo tickets but also for Virgin Flight Club Miles, Virgin Experience Days, cash in your hand and much more.

You will need to activate your V*points account before you can start to collect them but as soon as you log in for the first time you are prompted to do this by a flashing link in the side bar. It pays to activate your V*points account sooner rather than later so that you earn as many loyalty points as possible.

Chat

Virgin Bingo have 5 buzzing chat rooms, overseen by their really enthusiastic CMs who are always quick to entertain the masses with jokes, quips and side splittingly funny stories. To spice things up even more, Virgin regularly invite 'celebrities' in to chat, so keep an eye on their updates and you could soon be playing bingo with one of the rich and famous!

At every opportunity throughout the week Virgin's CMs run chat games such as 'Bingo Battleships' and 'Speed Trivia' and these are not only great ice breakers if you're new to the site, but also give you the chance to win bonus bingo money in the form of 'chat points'.

A word of warning though, when you play chat games with Virgin Bingo you will only be eligible to claim the winnings if you are playing bingo in the same room as the chat session is taking place and have made a deposit in the last seven days. Further details about how chat points work and how you can collect them and transfer them into bingo tickets is available in Virgin's dedicated chat guide.

Support

Virgin bingo offer live support 354 days a year (they take a break on Christmas) and you can contact them either online, by phone or via email. However, when you have a question their live help is the usually the best way to go as you get a reply almost instantly. Even if all of their operatives are busy when you submit your query you'll never have to wait too long and Virgin detail the number of people in the que in front of you and the average wait time (which tends to be a matter of seconds) on the live help page so that you know where you stand.

Security

Virgin protect your personal details and credit card information with the latest version of Thawte's 128 bit Security Certificate, encrypting all the information you enter so that it cannot be accessed by anyone else.