Gala Exclusive Jackpots
Gala has a special jackpot feature called Gala Exclusive Jackpots that is available in most of the bingo rooms that are exclusive to them. Basically it consists of five different fixed and progressive jackpots that can be triggered on any game in any room. It works in pretty much the same way as Premiere Bingo Jackpots over on rival site Mecca, but Gala's prize money is much bigger with less frequency of being won.
Each jackpot is guaranteed to pay out at different times:
- Hourly Jackpot: £20 fixed prize - won on average once per hour.
- Daily Jackpot: £100 fixed prize - won on average once a day.
- Weekly Jackpot: £250 fixed prize - won on average twice a week.
- Monthly Jackpot: Progressive from £25k - won on average once a month.
- Bingo Boss Jackpot: Progressive from £50k - won on average once every 6 months.
If you're in a room with these jackpots it will pop up on screen to tell you, plus you click on each one to see when it was last won, meaning you have a rough idea of when it could potentially pay out again. Look for the J icon and tap it to bring up this info.
How to find the bingo games
The simplest way to find all of the bingo games is to click on the main 'Play Bingo Now' button you can see on the homepage once you are logged in. All of the individual bingo rooms you see on the homepage have a play button that takes you directly to that room, but the first button opens up the bingo lobby instead where all rooms are shown.
All of the upcoming bingo rooms are also available on the bingo section of the Gala site, which you can select from the main menu.
Once you are in the lobby the layout may be familiar if you've played at any of the other Playtech sites. On desktop you have options down the left hand side to filter the rooms from Bingo Beats, 90 Ball, 40/50 Ball, 75/80 Ball, TV Specials and games. The TV Specials tab is also where you will find the session bingo room, Main Event.
Club Bingo (aka Session Bingo)
If you look on the main Gala Bingo navigation bar, you'll see 'Club' is one of the options. This has nothing to do with the land based Gala clubs, which have long since been sold off and rebranded to Buzz Bingo, but rather it refers to Gala's version of Session Bingo.
Session bingo is when you pay for a whole block of bingo games (in this case 75 minutes worth) for one price. It's a little confusing why they don't just call this page 'Session Bingo' but I guess they still have some people visiting the site who aren't aware the bingo clubs were sold off, so if they call the page 'Club' it can still rank for this in Google.
Unlike other sites with session bingo who usually have four per day, at Gala there is only one in the evening from 7.30pm - 8.50pm. However, they do try to at least mix it up every day, with different promotions depending on what day of the week it is:
- Everyone Wins Monday: An extra £60 prize pot per game that is shared by all losing players.
- Nifty Fiftys Tuesday: £50 prize for every 1L, 2L and FH.
- Double Up Wednesday: If you call full house on a double number (e.g. 11, 22) your prize is doubled.
- Ton Up Thursday: £100 FH prize guaranteed on every game.
- Big Money Friday: £1,000 FH prize on the final game of the session.
- High Five Saturday: £100 progressive jackpot won if you call FH on a number ending in 5.
- Double Ton Up Sunday: £200 FH prize guaranteed on every game.
T&Cs apply to all these events and are subject to change, so check the Club page on Gala for all the details.
These club bingo sessions take place in the Main Event bingo room, which you can find in the lobby. Tickets for will cost you £2 each, with a maximum of 12 tickets per player. Total cost if you max out is £12. The room also has the regular 5 Gala Bingo Jackpots (more info further in this review) that can be triggered on any game.
How to deposit at Gala Bingo
To make a deposit the best way is to click on the account icon in the top right and then select 'Deposit' from the list of options. There is a yellow 'deposit' button you could use, but this is designed mainly for redeposits and only gives you the option of the same payment method you recently used.
Once in the deposit screen you can choose from the following options:
- PayPal
- Debit Card
- Paysafecard
- Skrill
- Trustly
Select your preferred method, enter the amount you wish to deposit and hit the deposit button. The minimum deposit amount at Gala Bingo is £5, except for PayPal which has a £10 minimum.
If you have any issues there is a live help button on the deposit page so you can talk to an advisor.
How to make a withdrawal
If you want to take out any winnings, you get to the withdrawal screen by clicking on your account icon (top right) and then selecting 'Withdrawals'. You will be asked to choose which withdrawal method you wish to use, but typically the requirement these days is that you can only withdraw to the same method which you used to deposit.
Click on your chosen method and it will display how much withdrawable balance you have. Restricted balance will show anything that you may have received as bonus funds and still has wagering requirements attached.
Here the minimum withdrawal amount is £5 for all methods including PayPal. Typically bank transfers can take a few days to process, but any of the e-wallets suchh as PayPal, Skrill and Paysafecard are same day.
Free Bingo at Gala
Gala Bingo regularly has free bingo games connected to some kind of promotion, so our first advice is to check out their promotions page. Sometimes free tickets are given as rewards for bingo play but you may have to opt-in first.
Recently I spent some money on bingo tickets and a message popped up to say I had won free tickets to a game on Sunday at 2.30pm in the 'Gala Rewards' room. This room is not one I could see on the main lobby, so it must be hidden until you trigger the special promo. Visit the Gala Rewards page on the main nav to find out more.
There is also an 80 ball room called All Sorts that occasionally has 'Free or Superbooks' games in it. This means the tickets are free for that game, but you also have the option to buy tickets instead. If you buy tickets, you still have the same chance of winning as free players, but your prize money will be significantly bigger.
The best way to check when the next free or superbooks game is being played is to open the room and then press 'schedule' in the menu and scroll through until you find when it is on next.
Gala Live Events
Gala has recently introduced regular live-streamed events with celebrity guests such as Stephen Mulhern and the cast of Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
At first these games were a bit complicated, with players having to choose numbers in advance of the game and then tuning in via Facebook or YouTube. However, they're slowly improving the shows and now they can take place completely within the TV Specials room using the normal bingo software.
Does Gala Bingo have an app?
Yes. Gala does have a dedicated app for both Android and iOS available from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
I use the Android app and I have to say it isn't very reliable. It appears to crash with 'web page not available' every time I load it up, so I tend to just use the mobile web browser instead. It is far more reliable and there isn't really anything the app can do that you can't do just by using the browser.
