Mecca Bingo
When it comes to UK bingo, there are few sites that have a bigger name and better reputation than Mecca. Enterprising and charismatic Mecca owner Eric Morley (who also pioneered the Miss World beauty competition) first brought commercial bingo to the UK in the 1960s. Morley was also responsible for leading the developments that saw the game explode in popularity, making Mecca a major bingo presence on the high streets. Today, Mecca is part of the globally renowned Rank Group and operates nearly 120 clubs across the UK, boasting 3 million members.
It is strange that such a huge player in the bingo market would wait so long to get into the online bingo scene; Mecca did not open the virtual doors to its online bingo hall until 2005. We're confident in the reputation of Mecca as a brick-and-mortar business, but is it worth the pilgrimage to Mecca for some online bingo action?
Well right off you know that the reputation Mecca enjoys is impeccable. After all, an organization is going to build a brick-and-mortar empire and then demolish it with the wrecking ball of bad Internet credibility. Therefore, the key points to examine for the Mecca site are those which bring a quality bingo experience into living rooms of any Internet subscriber. Right away, you'll notice that the Mecca site is very cheery and colorful with a neat tabbed navigation to allow quick selection of the games are interested in.
Once we got to the dedicated bingo zone of Meccagames.com, we found that the layout was nice and simple. Many of the bingo style games on offer were immediately presented, with the table of contents headed by the Main event, multiplayer bingo. We did have a little bit of an annoying problem with Mecca at this point; there are two links on the left hand margin of the screen to go to different micro-sites. The "bingo world" link points your browser to an alternative page to the online bingo game, while the "Mecca bingo" link pointing to a separate site dedicated to details of Mecca's land-based clubs. We felt that these links were somewhat superfluous and could be confusing to a newcomer trying to navigate their way around the page.
If you do navigate your way to the sign up page, you'll find the registration process simple and straightforward. Mecca does provide several games with free play versions to let you trial them, but the flagship of the bingo hall, the 90 ball bingo game, is not among these options. The software that Mecca uses has been developed in-house and is non-download. This is great in a world of bingo halls often powered by the same engines; Mecca has its own unique appeal among the bunch. The site is also quite busy, which means good prize money and lively chat rooms. While the software is not quite as slick as some of Mecca's rivals, it still plays well, and delivers a first-class authentic bingo experience.
While the published content on the site clearly claims that Macs are supported on the Mecca site, during our Mac test we found we were unable to access the multiplayer bingo game on Mecca site. It wasn't for lack of trying, as we used four different modern browsers in our attempt to play. While this was frustrating, it did give us a chance to contact Mecca's e-mail support channel, which offered prom suggestions. The suggestions didn’t work, but it was nice to receive a quick answer. When the tips we received through email did not work, we placed a call to the telephone support (another friendly and efficient component of the support system), where the agent confirmed that Mecca's games were under further development in order to maximize compatibility with the widest range of browsers and computers.
As far as promotions go, Mecca is a little bit stingy in comparison to its rivals. There is a 10 pound welcome bonus you can claim once you've played over 10 pounds from your own account. Mecca is a little thin on the ground compared to some rivals when it comes to promotions but it does is have its main land-based competitor, Gala, beat hands down.
We experienced a couple of minor hangups on our pilgrimage to be Mecca site, but all in all we found that it was a great place for bingo adherents to hang out. It's definitely worth a position on your short list.
