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Redbus bingo is a more recent offering from the Joy of Bingo family of bingo sites, having launched in April 2010. It offers 90 ball and 75 ball bingo, and a wide choice of instant side games as well. With regular promotions and deposit bonuses too it is well worth considering as a place to play. Read more below about Red Bus Bingo or click here to go direct to the site.
Contents
Red bus bingo has both 75 ball and 90 ball bingo games, in a variety of card (ticket) prices. There are lots of special games too. The bingo and games lobby (which you get to by clicking on the play now button on the main website once you are registered and logged in) has all the different rooms available via 'tabs'. The tabs take the form of speech bubbles from cartoon characters and are:
- Instant Games - instant games, i.e. side games and quick games like slots.
- Penny Plus - bingo rooms where the games (90 and 75 ball bingo) are 1-9p per ticket.
- 10p - bingo rooms where the games (90 and 75 ball bingo) are 10p a ticket.
- 20p+ - bingo rooms where the games (90 and 75 ball bingo) are 20p a ticket and upwards.
- Progressives - progressive jackpot instant games (slots).
- Specials - special games and promotions, one off big games etc.
- Free Zone - this is where the free bingo games are!
- Prebuys - regular guaranteed jackpot games both for playing them and prebuying the tickets.
For more details on Red bus free bingo see the free bingo section below, also for more information on side games (instant games or 'instants') see the side games section below - progressive jackpot instant games are also covered in that section as are chat games. The 'specials' tab is fairly self explanatory and once signed up you can check there now and again for special games and promotions.
Bingo jackpots are detailed in their own section - bingo jackpots below. There is also a separate overview article about Redbus' bingo jackpots that has even more details. Both progressive jackpots and regular guaranteed jackpots are covered.
The other tabs basically divide the various bingo game rooms on offer into how much their cards cost to buy. But under each of those tabs is a wide range of both 75 ball and 90 ball bingo game rooms to choose from. The rooms have names (London themed!) and you can also see what rooms aren't open yet but will be available under that tab later. The type of bingo (i.e. 90 ball or 75 ball) is shown in the bottom right of the room entry in a blue ball, and the chat host's name is shown too. You can also see the time to the next game that will run in that room with a countdown timer as it gets close.
The regular special games and guaranteed jackpot games appear under the appropriate card-cost tab too; see our Redbus bingo jackpot article for more on where to find those jackpot games which have various themes (again London based).
There are two 'sorts' of free bingo at Red bus and both play daily. First of all there is the £1,000 'FREE 1000' game. This plays daily at 9:15pm and has a jackpot prize of £1,000 in real funds. Tickets are free (to funded players, so you need an account that has been deposited in - but the bingo tickets are free), and you can get up to 6 tickets per game. The game plays eponymously in the FREE 1000 room under the 'Free Zone' tab. The prizes are in real funds.
The second type of free bingo available at Redbus is in the 'Free Ride' room under the 'Free Zone' tab. Games play between 8am and 1am daily (that is, all day to past midnight). Although you need an account (obviously or they don't know who you are!) to play this, you don't (at the moment) need a funded account. So this is a great way to try out the software and games on Redbus before committing any money. The prizes aren't huge and are in bonus funds, check out the room itself to see what is on offer. Bonus funds can't be cashed out, they have to be used to play bingo with.
For all free bingo games you can get between 1 and 6 tickets per game. If there is more than one winner the prize will be split, and also Redbus require free bingo winners to provide a photo of themselves and a testimonial (for marketing purposes) so do bear that in mind!
Redbus bingo has a good selection of bingo jackpot games, both guaranteed jackpots (including free to play ones - see the section above) and progressive jackpots. This is covered in more detail in our main overview article about Redbus' bingo jackpots so check there for more details, just a summary is given in this section and the subsections below.
Guaranteed jackpots
Guaranteed jackpot bingo games are categorized in with prebuys at Redbus bingo, as the jackpot game tickets can be pre-bought. There are themed games on different days of the week like the £30 Pics for a Penny game on Wednesday, the £150 Oxford St Shopping Spree game every other Thursday, the £200 West End days on the intervening Thursdays and so on. Check out our main jackpot article (link above) for more details or indeed check on the Redbus site itself.
Bigger guarantees are available less often but still regularly like the £2k Big Smoke game on the last Friday of every month. Also worth mentioning is the Big Ben Bonanza game with a minimum £500 jackpot prize every Friday, but a chance to win up to a million pounds. The games are 90 or 75 ball bingo so check them out for more details.
Guaranteed jackpots run daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly on Redbus and there are the free bingo games too (see previous section) so there is lots of choice if you like to play bingo with a guaranteed jackpot prize. Keep an eye out for specials too.
Progressive jackpots
The progressive bingo jackpots on Redbus are available on all bingo games, one for 90 ball and one for 75 ball. The 'Double Decker' is the 90 ball progressive jackpot and runs during all 90 ball games. Get a full house in 37 calls or less and win the big prize. The 'London Eye' is the 75 ball progressive jackpot and runs during all 75 ball games. You are looking for the special 'London Eye' pattern (16 slots to daub) in 45 calls or less.
The current amount of the progressive prize pools is displayed on the bingo lobby page. When the progressive is won it resets, to £100 in the case of the 90 ball Double Decker, and to £150 in the case of the 75 ball London Eye. Again for more details see our jackpot games article or click through to the Redbus site and look for 'London Eye' and 'Double Decker' entries under the bingo tab.
Side games, also known as instant games or instants, are often offered alongside bingo by online bingo rooms. Redbus bingo has a nice range of instant game types and choices within those types. You can play online slots, casino games, scratch cards and lots more. This section of the Redbus bingo overview covers the instant games and has a short introduction to some of them available on the site.
Slots
Slots is short for the phrase 'slot machines' which are called fruit machines in the UK, pokies in Australia and so on. The online version is almost always referred to as slots. On Redbus they are available as side or instant games in a variety of themes. The 'Bejeweled' game is a slot machine based on the bejeweled game, with coloured gems of different shapes that you have to line up. The similar sounding 'Jewel Journey' is also about jewels but you find them in the jungle.
'Paradise Reels' is a more conventional fruit machine type of slot with J, Q, K, A, 7, fruit etc. symbols. The game 'Sands of Fortune' is a simple symbolled Egyptian themed slot. 'X-Factor' slots is themed after the TV show, the 'Shamans Dream' slot game has somewhat mystical symbols and from the look of these perhaps almost a native American theme (but I am not really sure to be honest - it looks good though!). The 'Cleopatra' slot has more complex (than Sands of Fortune) Egyptian symbols and has multi line payouts and bonus rounds (for three Sphinxes).
Progressive jackpot slots
There are four progressive slot games where you can win jackpots up to an impressive £50,000. These are networked across all Joy of Bingo sites so the progressive can really 'progress' and gain money in the jackpot prize pool. Each progressive slot has three jackpots - mini, maxi and mega - so you have a greater chance of winning the smaller one but if you do get the big one it is a nice payout. The progressive instant slot games are as follows
Aztec Rising
The tagline for the 'Aztec Rising' progressive jackpot slot is 'Journey to the Mayan Riviera and you may discover some hidden treasure'. Activate the 'Prize Pick' feature by getting three calendar symbols, win jackpots by activating the 'Free Games' feature. The Aztec Rising Slots game itself has the usual JQKA plus Aztec themed symbols.
DoubleUp Ducks
This progressive jackpot game has five reels and 25 paylines with three different progressive jackpots like the other progressive jackpot slots on Redbus/Joy of Bingo. What you want to hit on this game are the Ducks between the crosshairs to get on the way to the big prizes. Triggering the 'Free Spins' feature can win you up to £50,000 in prize money. The symbols are cartoon animals, balloons, and various other symbols.
Piggy Payout
This five Reel 25 payline slot machine has three different progressive jackpots - the mini, maxi and mega like the others - and two scatter symbols to watch out for. The 'Double Win Multiplier' is also worth getting (as it doubles your win) and if you hit a few cows combined with a Windmill symbol you can win up to 10000 credits for continued play. The Piggy Payout progressive slot has cartoon animals symbols and the usual KQJA slot symbols.
Fluffy Favourites
Fluffy Favourites is a five reel 25 payline slot machine with three different progressive jackpots. A Mini, Maxi and Mega progressive jackpot, and it also has a 'Free Spins' feature that is activated by a Pink Elephant. The symbols are cuddly toys and all sorts of things.
Casino games
Redbus bingo has the 'usual' popular casino games as side games, plus a colourful one called Wheel of Light. Wheel of Light is similar to roulette but instead of a roulette wheel there are lit up areas and coloured segments that signify the bets, wins and play. It has regular roulette too - called 'Roulette Deluxe' - where you can bet on individual numbers, red or black, the dozens and so on.
There is also Blackjack - the American gambling version of pontoon or '21' - where you hit (get another card, 'twist' in pontoon parlance) or stand (stand pat or 'stick' in pontoon parlance) to try and get to 21 without going over (face cards count as 10, ace as 1 or 11) then your hand gets compared to the dealers (who has rules about when they can hit or stand e.g. 'dealer stands on 17 or more' but do check the rules for each individual game as they do vary). Going over 21 is 'bust' and you automatically lose.
Video poker is a game played with cards and the idea is to make poker hands. The strategy is much simpler than playing 'real' poker against human opponents, but there is still strategy involved. Read the rules carefully and check the ordering of values for the various poker hands.
Instant win games
In addition to the more regular slots and casino games there are a few instant win side games you can play on Rebus bingo - play them for a quick game in between rounds of bingo, or just play them for themselves if you like them! You have 'Arcade Horses' which is like the mechanical horse racing game you get at funfairs (or at least used to). Watch little cartoon horses in a randomized race, and place your bets and see if yours wins. There is 'Bee Happy' which is a bee and honey game, win your way to the top of the honey trail.
The 'HiLo' instant game is a familiar one where you guess whether the next number will be higher or lower. 'Quickfire Lotto' is a very fast instant lotto game, and 'Scratchcards' are online scratch cards - just buy one and reveal the symbols to see if you have won. The 'Special Multiplier' game is where you spin the pointer on a virtual board to see how and if your stake gets multiplied, and finally there is '6 Card Instant Bingo' which is a 6 card keno like game, but played with cards that are more like bingo cards.
Chat games, quizzes etc.
Chat games are games that are played in the chat window, lead by the CMs (Chat Moderators). The idea is that you can join in with quizzes, games in chat and so on as your bingo games are playing. The rules for the game should be announced at the beginning by the CMs. There are quite a few different chat games on Redbus bingo so do check them out as it is a great way to have social fun as you play your bingo games. There are prizes involved for winning in the chat games, often bonus points. See below for the regular chat games and quizzes, but also keep an eye out for special ones. Only funded Redbus bingo players can win bonus points, only one prize per alias per quiz (have to let others in with a chance!).
Telly hour chat game quizzes
If you enjoy watching soaps on the television, and also enjoy bingo and chat, then these games should be right up your street. Knowledge quiz chat games twice a week on Redbus bingo about Eastenders and Coronation Street. Prizes are jps (joy points, as in bonus points). The games play in the Eastenderz room which is 90 ball bingo.
Every Tuesday at 7:30pm for the Eastenders themed quiz, and every Thursday at 8:30pm for the Coronation Street one. Questions are based on the current episode showing so you have to watch the programme and answer the questions at the same time. Five questions per quiz and 2,000 bps/jps available per question. Don't forget you can exchange 1,000 jps for £1 worth of bingo tickets with the Joy points bonus scheme (or of course save them up and buy more or bigger tickets).
Beefeater chat game
The Beefeater chat game has a historical air to it. Join Angie every Thursday at 2:30pm in the Eastenderz room for her 'Ye Olde Beefeater Chat Game'. There are five chances to win 5,000bps every week, plus look out for the lucky Beefeater visiting the room as he will have an extra special prize.
Sunday night pub quiz
The Sunday Night Pub Quiz (or rather quizzes as there are two of them) takes place in the 'Coach & Horses' room every Sunday evening. Quizzes start at 8pm and 9pm, there are 5 questions in each quiz and 2,000bps as the prize per question. Remember that if you win one prize you can't win another in the same quiz.
Redbus bingo has some good special promotions - for instance the 'City Break' promotions they run now and again. In the past they have had as prizes trips to New York, Venice, Paris and more. The trips come with spending money, so keep an eye out for these if you fancy a chance at some travel! Free tickets into the City Break promos can often be won by playing other games too, as well as bought as usual.
You can check out the Redbus bingo promo page for a listing of all their promotions. Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly special promo games, often with guaranteed prizes (cash or otherwise). 75 ball and 90 ball bingo special games. Penny bingo, daily guaranteed jackpots and more. For more information about Red Bus bingo's jackpots games you can check out our Red Bus bingo jackpots article.
First Deposit Bonus
The first deposit bonus on Redbus is a variable one with a minimum of 200% up to a max of 2,000% - on a deposit of between £5 and £100. It takes the form of a scratchcard that shows up in the cashier up to 4 hours later - i.e. not instantly! When you scratch the scratchcard it reveals the level of bonus - I am guessing that the higher percentages are rarer but that is still at least a 200% bonus. The bonus is in 'bonus funds' not real cash so you can only play bingo with them, you can't cash them out. This only applies if you registered your account after the 15th of October 2010 - so if you have an old account that you never deposited into you won't get the bonus.
Deposit bonuses
Subsequent deposit bonuses (i.e. redeposit bonuses) are usually 50%, however bonus codes are often available regularly (weekly usually over a long weekend) for bigger bonuses. Sign up for the players email when you join and Redbus often email out these offers, also keep an eye on our Bingo News Blog as we try to bring you news of these weekend bonuses on the Wednesday or Thursday for the following weekend.
Crown Jewels
'Crown Jewels' is a promotion that runs every week on Redbus bingo. The top three bingo and instant game wagerers each week (during the period 00:01 on a Friday to 23:59 on the following Sunday) win a share of £300, plus they get a 100% bonus on their next deposit. The prize is shared out as follows, with the top wagerer being the 'King' and getting £75, the next the 'Queen' and getting £50 and the third biggest wagerer being the 'Jack' and getting £25.
Don't forget there is a King of bingo and and King of instants and so on, so there are two prizes per level one for bingo one for instants. Only funded Redbus bingo accounts are eligible and you can only win one prize per alias per week (so if you get King of bingo you can't also win an instants prize for instance). Prizes are in bingo funds (i.e. not real cash you can withdraw, but funds you can buy bingo tickets with). The 100% deposit bonus code (which each winner gets as well as the bingo funds prize) will be emailed out to the winners and will be valid for one week.
Team bingo
Team bingo at Redbus works like this - you are part of a team and the more bingo the team plays in total - that is the play of you and the rest of your team is added together - the more you move up the leaderboard. It is a team based race, and the prizes are (fairly large amounts of) Joy points. Joy points are the new name for bonus points and accumulate across all Joy of Bingo sites.
You don't get to choose your own team, but Redbus randomly places you into a new team every fortnight. This is a good system as it will stop all the big spenders teaming up and winning the lion's share of the Joy points every time! Also you get to meet new people on Redbus and hopefully make some friends you can chat to in the chat rooms as the games go on. The prizes are as follows:
- 1st - share of 65,000jps
- 2nd - share of 45,000jps
- 3rd - share of 26,000jps
- 4th - share of 20,000jps
- 5th to 10th - share of 6,000jps
Remember that 1,000 jps is worth £1 in bonus funds, so this is worth winning. You (and your team) have to just play bingo during the two weeks that each round runs for. The more your team wins the higher up the leaderboard you get. I will repeat that, it isn't how much you spend on bingo in that two weeks, it is the amount your team bingos (all 75 ball bingo wins count, and all Full House 90 ball bingo wins count). This is nice as it introduces a fair bit of luck to it and means that a team can't just spend their way to victory! If there is a tie at the end of the fortnight then the team that bingos the most on the 'Letter R' pattern will win the main prize. At the end of each two week competition the scores are reset to zero and the team reshuffled. The leaderboard is updated daily so keep an eye on it to see if your team is up there with a change of a prize.
You have to be signed up for Redbus team bingo before the start of the new competition - but you don't have to re-register each time as once you are in a team you will be automatically entered for the next competition as long as you are still playing on the site. If you don't wager for a month you will be removed from team bingo (as it isn't fair to your team mates if you aren't playing at all!) and will have to re-register when you start playing again.
You can opt out of team bingo if you check the terms and conditions of it on the Redbus site (it gives an email address). Only bingos between 8am and 11pm (UK time) count towards the total. If you win the jps get credited on the Monday following each fortnightly competition.
More details - and the signing up button - can be found under the Redbus bingo promo page in the 'Team bingo' section. Click on that entry for the details and the place to sign up.
Happy hour
Happy hour on Redbus bingo is between 6 and 7pm everyday in the I♥ RedBus room (that is I-heart if the symbol doesn't show up). You get the earn double bonus points (Joy points) in chat games during that hour. You get the bonus points credited by the chat host after the chat game.
Loyalty scheme - Joy Points (JPs, was BPs or 'bonus points')
The nomenclature of the bonus point loyalty system is a bit confusing. There used to be bonus points, and they worked only for the Joy of Bingo site they were earned on. Now they are common across all Joy of bingo sites (Wink, Posh, Tasty and Redbus) and so points collected on any site go to a common pool. This is great if you play on more than one site. The conversion rate is the same as the old bonus points, that is to say 1000 Joy Points get you £1 in bonus funds. Bonus funds, sometimes called bingo funds, is (are?) money that you can't cash out, but can spend on bingo tickets. Any subsequent winnings is of course real money that can be cashed out, subject to the 'unfunded account limit' (if your account is unfunded) outlined in the funding and support section below.
Joy points can be earned in different ways, primarily by spending money on bingo tickets of course, but also in chat games, referring friends and more. Keep an eye out for bonus point promotions. To redeem the points go into the 'My Account' section of your members page on Redbus bingo and click on the 'Manage Points' button. The points should be merged so remember to redeem them on the Joy of Bingo site that you want the bonus funds to be credited to.
Finally I should mention 'Pot credits' also known as 'Joy Pot points' - and in the past I am sure I have seen these referred to as Joy Points so this is confusing. Joy Pot points are a separate scheme for use in getting free tickets into the big Joy Pot game - this is a quarterly big game with a £100,000 prize pool spread over the year (so £25,000 per quarterly game). Every 500 Pot credits gets you a free card into the game (to buy the cards are £5 each). Pot credits are earned in different ways to the main bonus scheme of Joy points, so keep an eye out for those promotions too.
Check or subscribe (in an RSS reader) to our bingo news blog as we try to bring you news of upcoming promotions on the Joy of bingo sites, including ones that give you extra Joy points, or where you can earn Pot credits.
First up a warning that quite possibly no longer applies - Redbus used to have in its banking terms and conditions a term that stated that if you didn't log into your account for 90 days your funds would be forfeit to the company - that is, they would take them all. Now, Redbus was the only Joy of Bingo site that had this term, and that term is no longer in the T&C on the site, so it probably no longer applies. However, to be safe I suggest that if you don't play bingo for a while you at least log on now and again to stop this happening.
There are some other terms and conditions that still do apply however, I will outline them here but do check on the site for the up to date T&C to make sure. The minimum deposit is £5, but you have to deposit at least £10 to activate the regular redeposit bonuses. The minimum withdrawal is £20, and the maximum withdrawal limits are as follows:
- Daily Limit – £1,000
- Weekly Limit – £2,000
- Monthly Limit – £3,000
This does mean that if you win a big progressive jackpot you will have to take money out in smaller amounts month by month, so bear that in mind if you do win big! Also these limits can change with no notice apparently. If you just spend bonus funds and win, anything over £100 can't be withdrawn, so if you are playing just on bonus funds and start to win it is probably best to deposit a small amount (£10 or something) to stop that happening before you win over the £100 limit.
Having got that out of the way, Redbus has round the clock customer support by live chat, phone or email - check the site for details. Funding options include all the major ones for the UK such as Visa, Neteller, Maestro/Switch, Solo, Visa electron, Mastercard, wire transfer, paysafecard and UKash. You can cash out the same way except for Mastercard. Again these options can change so do check the information in the cashier on the Redbus site from your account before depositing to make sure you are using the best method for you. |
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