Bingo Winner Review 2024: Is It Too Good To Be True?

Key takeaways

• Bingo Winner is a legitimate app, but multiple players have had issues withdrawing money or winning tournaments after a time.
• Before withdrawing cash, you must earn at least $30 and possibly deposit cash into the game.
• Players can enter high-reward tournaments, but the prize pools are divided between the top four or five winners, limiting how much you earn.

Is Bingo Winner legit?

Bingo Winner is a legit app that scores 4.7 out of 5 stars and has around 78,000 reviews in Apple’s App Store. The game was developed by JoyBox Studio Limited, which also offers solitaire games for the iPhone and iPad.

If you live in a state that allows cash tournaments, you can play games for cash winnings. You might see bigger winnings if you deposit money and enter higher-stakes tournaments.

While you can earn money playing Bingo Winner, you may need to play the game for a long time before you earn enough to meet the $30 minimum withdrawal requirement. Some players also report that they have difficulty withdrawing and receiving their cash.

What is Bingo Winner?

Game	Bingo Winner
Game developer	JoyBox Studio Limited
Compatible systems	iOS (iPhone and iPad only)
Minimum entry fee (for cash tournaments)	$0.10 (may vary based on promotions)
Minimum cash deposit	$5
Minimum withdrawal amount	$30
Withdrawal processing fee	Varies by withdrawal amount
Withdrawal methods	PayPal and bank card
States that prohibit cash tournaments	DE, LA, MD, MT, TN
Game modes	Tutorial Free-with-ad tournaments Gem-only tournaments Cash tournaments

Bingo Winner was fun to play and had bright cartoon graphics. It's similar to other bingo apps but moves slower than some I’ve tried, like Bingo Clash or Blackout Bingo.

To start playing, you go through a tutorial that introduces you to the board and the various features. Then, you can enter tournaments with other competitors. You can choose from small tournaments with just one or two other players or larger ones with up to 20 people.

Playing Bingo Winner is very straightforward. Players compete against each other to match five numbers in a row on their bingo cards.

The app offers power-ups – like Extra Time, the Magic Dauber, and the Magic Ball – to help you get more points. Unlike some other bingo apps, Bingo Winner lets you play only one card at a time, limiting your earnings.

You can enter tournaments with prize pools by paying an entry fee. You can join them by depositing your own money, using bonus cash, watching ads, or using the in-app currency called gems. When I played, Bingo Winner had cash prize pools ranging from $1.50 to $52, with entry fees ranging from $0.10 to $15.

If you live in one of the few states that doesn’t allow cash games, you can still play for fun and win gems to enter additional tournaments. If your state allows cash games, you’ll likely need to deposit money to enter higher-stakes tournaments faster. The app accepts deposits via PayPal, Visa, or Mastercard.

My gameplay experience with Bingo Winner

I played 29 Bingo Winner games over 4 days. If you’ve played other iPhone cash games, Bingo Winner is highly similar, down to the gems you can earn and the different ways to use bonus cash. The game is easy to learn, but it can get a little boring if you don’t have any power-ups to use during the intervals between the called numbers.

Like most bingo apps, you need to be able to multitask. When you hear your number called, you have roughly 5 seconds to daub the square and earn points. The faster you daub, the more points you’ll earn.

There are multiple ways to earn a bingo, including filling vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines or daubing each corner. You receive extra points if you complete all the squares, which is called a full house. You need to tap the BINGO button whenever you complete a pattern.

On the second day playing Bingo Winner, I won $17 in one game, which is more than I had with any other bingo app I’ve tried. However, I had also already spent $16 on entry fees that day. The inability to win seemed to follow me through the rest of my testing, which made the game frustrating.

How to use boosters in Bingo Winner

For every two to three squares you daub in Bingo Winner, you earn a power-up that helps you boost your points. There are four different ones:

• Magic Ball: This green star power-up allows you to select the next ball to daub from four choices.
• Magic Dauber: This purple crown icon lets you choose any square on the card.
• Triple Time: The orange x3 icon triples the points earned for a set time.
• Extra Time: The blue clock adds 10 seconds to the game clock.

You can hold only three power-ups at a time, so you must use them throughout the game to maximize your points. If you try to keep your power-ups, you won't be able to earn more, which can affect your score.

Although the power-ups are helpful, they also give you more to think about. I had to balance using them while listening to the called numbers, daubing the correct squares, and keeping track of my bingos.

Tips for scoring more points

In Bingo Winner, you earn points by daubing the called square quickly. The more lines of bingo you create on your card, the more potential you have to earn. However, you lose points if you accidentally daub the wrong square.

Each daub earns between 0 and 200 points depending on how quickly you find and touch the square. If you do it immediately, you may earn 180 to 200 points; if you wait until you hear the next number, you get fewer points.

If you get a bingo, you earn between 0 and 5,000 points. The app doesn’t clarify specific earnings for each type of bingo pattern.

I recommend doing the following to help you earn as much as possible:

• Use your power-ups strategically. The Extra Time power-up adds 10 seconds to the clock no matter where you are in the game, so use it whenever you can. Comparatively, waiting to use the Magic Dauber until you have just one more square before a bingo can help you clear the board faster.
• Use the boosters quickly. You can have only three power-ups at a time, so use them throughout the game to earn more.
• Avoid touching the wrong square. You earn the most points (up to 200) for touching the called number as quickly as possible. However, you lose 100 points if you daub the wrong square, so be precise.
• Turn up the volume. Each number is called out and appears on the screen. The voice call is faster than the number on the screen, so turn up the volume on your device. This also helps you keep your eyes on your card rather than bouncing around the screen, which can get disorienting.

How much money can you make?

I played Bingo Winner over 4 days and earned $50, including $17 in one tournament, which sounds impressive. However, I also spent $53.60 entering tournaments, though all but $5 of that was bonus cash. So, while I enjoyed playing Bingo Winner, it will not top my list of the best side hustles.

While most of my earnings in Bingo Winner came from entering tournaments, you can also earn cash through other methods, like checking in daily or referring friends to the game. Plus, you can win bonus cash and gems by opening the Lucky Box or spinning the wheel.

During my testing, I won only three gems each day for opening the Lucky Box, and each free spin of the wheel just earned me $0.01 in bonus cash. You have to watch ads if you want to spin the wheel more than once daily.

While you can use the bonus cash to enter tournaments, you can’t withdraw those funds. The only money you can withdraw is your winnings from tournaments.

Like many of the best bingo cash games, Bingo Winner has a range of entry fees and prize pools. Based on my experience, you can enter one tournament for $0.10 with a prize pool of $1.50. Another tournament costs $1 to enter, and the prize pool is $2. The largest prize pool is $52 and costs $15 to enter. Note that these can change based on current promotions.

However, the game splits the prize pool among the top winners. For example, the tournament where I won $17 for placing first actually had a prize pool worth $34 (and an entry fee of $6). I split the pool with the other winners. Second place won $8.50, third place won $5, and fourth place won $3.50.

How to withdraw your winnings

When you’re ready to withdraw your earnings, go to the Withdraw tab in the upper-right corner. From there, you’ll see how much bonus and withdrawable cash you have and enter the amount you want to withdraw.

The game will charge you an undisclosed fee based on the withdrawal amount. According to screenshots from Bingo Winner’s help center, the fee is $2 on a withdrawal of $20. While JoyBox Studio Limited’s terms of service say that you need only $2 to withdraw funds, the app actually won’t let you withdraw less than $30.

Bingo Winner states that the withdrawal process can take 1 to 3 days, but the terms of service say it can take up to 15 days. After Bingo Winner completes a review process, you’ll get your winnings via PayPal or your bank card. As part of the process, you might need to prove your identity.

You can make only one withdrawal at a time, so you have to wait for a prior withdrawal to complete before you can make another one.

I didn’t earn the $30 needed to withdraw, but from what I’ve seen in the help section and comments from other players in Apple’s App Store, you might have trouble getting your money from Bingo Winner.

What are other users saying?

Although it isn’t my favorite bingo game, I felt optimistic about Bingo Winner until I looked at user reviews. Bingo Winner has high ratings on Apple’s App Store, but looking closely at the comments from players made me suspicious.

While multiple 5-star reviews exist, many reviewers said it's tough to withdraw your winnings due to a slow withdrawal process or issues earning enough withdrawable cash to qualify.

The user lilnorth’s 1-star review said, “Your withdrawal will stay pending indefinitely, with the promise that it'll go through in just a couple more days, and if you believe that (like I did) you keep playing and keep winning, but you can't ‘cash out’ until your pending withdrawal clears.”

There were also reports of winning frequently when you first started playing and then having a hard time winning additional tournaments after a day or two, which I experienced. This made some users suspect the game was rigged.

The user Pepper Culpepper’s 4-star review mentioned the following: “Also, it lets you win a lot in the beginning until they get tired of having to pay out money. Then all of a sudden the game stops calling out any winning numbers on the board so it's impossible to get a high enough score to beat their bots.”

After my testing, I can see why the players are saying that the app lures you in with multiple early wins and then becomes much more challenging to earn money.

When I first started playing, I was excited about the earnings potential. However, when I returned to testing the next day, I suddenly couldn’t win anything except a gem game. My earnings dropped from $19 to $5.41, and my balance fell each time I played again.

Additionally, some of the 5-star reviews seemed unusual. They either sounded like ads for Bingo King, which appears to be a previous variation of Bingo Winner, or actually contained complaints about the game with unusual replies from the developer.

Alternatives to Bingo Winner

If Bingo Winner doesn’t sound like a winner for you, other bingo games are available in similar formats. Here are some of the games I’ve enjoyed most:

Bingo Cash

Bingo Cash is a colorful bingo game from Papaya Gaming, Ltd. It moves faster than Bingo Winner but still gives you time to daub and use boosters.

Like Bingo Winner, Bingo Cash uses gems as in-app currency and awards bonus cash that you can use to enter cash tournaments. You can deposit funds via PayPal, Apple Pay, or credit/debit card to help you enter cash tournaments faster. And like Bingo Winner, you can use bonus cash to enter tournaments but can’t withdraw it.

Bingo Cash showed me entry fees currently ranging from $1 to $5, and the prize pools were from $5 to $30.

One of the main differences between this game and Bingo Winner is the minimum withdrawal amount. Bingo Cash requires you to have earned at least $5 in winnings, compared to $30 for Bingo Winner. There is a $1 processing fee for all withdrawals, and the app refunds your original deposit method first and any additional balance via Apple Pay or PayPal.

Read our full Bingo Cash review.

Bingo Tour

Bingo Tour by Avia Games looks similar to Bingo Winner. Like Bingo Winner, it's a good fit for people looking to play just for fun or for beginners trying to get the hang of daubing, using boosters, and playing in tournaments.

When I checked the game, the lowest entry fee was $1 for a $5 prize, and the highest was $9 for a $55 prize pool.

Bingo Tour requires a $5 minimum withdrawal amount that goes back to your original payment method first. If there is an additional balance, Bingo Tour will send it to your PayPal or Venmo account. It may take up to 15 days to receive your winnings.

You’ll pay a $1 fee if you’re making a withdrawal below $10. There’s a 15% service fee for withdrawals of deposited cash, but they’ll waive it if you spend more than 50% of your deposits on game entry fees.

Read our full Bingo Tour review.

Blackout Bingo

Blackout Bingo from Big Run Studios is on the Skillz platform. It looks very different from the other bingo games. Each card has a travel theme and features cities like New York City, Mexico City, Dubai, and Paris.

Blackout Bingo uses Z coins instead of gems as in-app currency. You can use these to enter games or trade them for prizes like bonus cash, gift cards, or merchandise.

The game has a wide variety of prize pools. It showed me options ranging from a $0.60 entry fee for a $1 prize pool to a $120 entry fee for a $200 prize pool.

Withdrawals under $10 require a $1.50 processing fee, and it can take up to 6 weeks to receive your money. Blackout Bingo refunds your original payment method and then mails a paper check for any additional balance if you live in the U.S. If you live outside of the U.S., any remaining balance will go to your PayPal account.

Read our Blackout Bingo review.

FAQs

Bottom line

While Bingo Winner is a legitimate game in Apple’s App Store and can be fun to play, it has some issues. My testing experience, the high withdrawal threshold, and App Store reviews from other players make me think that Bingo Winner is fine if you want to play for fun. However, more reliable bingo games are available if you’re looking to play in cash tournaments.

Before you download an app, read reviews from other players to see if the app is a good way to make money and if the app pays out. Look for another game if the app you’re considering has multiple negative reviews or only a few downloads – or if you see anything suspicious in the app store, like misspellings, poor grammar, or badly sized graphics.