Bucky Bingo Review
Bucky Bingo, or Buckingham Bingo to give it it's posh name, arrived on the scene during 2008. It used to be 'hosted' by a 70s Dude character but after coming under new ownership that figure was retired. The Dude became a racing horse with star shaped sunglasses. However Bucky isn't a site that ever seems to settle down. After several years on the Virtue Fusion platform it's opted to jump ship and relaunched on Dragonfish during February 2020.
If you've previously visited Bucky then you probably wouldn't guess that they've had a software change. The site design is pretty much the same with pink, purple and black the main colours. The aforementioned horse mascot, complete with a pink mane, has managed to pass 888's stringent rules on cartoon characters. The site is designed to be responsive on mobile and no app is required to play the selection of bingo and slots that are on offer.
Bucky Bingo Welcome Bonus
New players visiting Bucky Bingo are welcomed with a 100% welcome bonus offer. Deposit and spend £10 for a £10 bingo bonus and a week of free bingo. Interestingly this offer is similar to the one that they offered on Virtue Fusion. Reload bonuses used to be offered by Bucky but these seem to have been dropped. Back in the early days Bucky did offer all new registrations a free gift (mousemat, fridge magnet etc) which was a nice touch.
If you played Bucky on the Virtue Fusion platform then you'll need to register as a new player again. This is good news because you can enjoy 3 days of no deposit bingo in The Daily Doozey room. From what we can tell this has now been fixed so there's now regular games throughout the day. Note that The Daily Doozey games are for bonus prizes so wagering terms and conditions will apply. Also all games are 75 ball so you don't get a flavour of Bucky's 90 ball games until you deposit.
Bucky Bingo Rooms
Bucky Bingo boasts a nice selection of rooms, although these are shared with other brands on the Dragonfish platform. These include High 5, Chatterbox, Bounce'T, Sunny 90s, Roller Coaster and 90's Extreme. Typically expect to pay 5p or 10p per ticket on most games. Occasionally there will be bargain 1p and 2p games plus some jackpot rooms require more expensive tickets. Look out too for daily jackpots such as The Daily Treat, £1500 Terrific Tuesday and £500 Wacky Wednesday.
Now that Bucky is on Dragonfish regular players will be able to participate in The Big £10K. Play at 10pm on the 10th of every month for the chance to win a share of £10,000. This is an Everyone's A Winner game too. Bucky also has a number of other free bingo rooms that include Freemium, Quids In and £1K Magical Mondays. Surprisingly there's no 52 ball room at Bucky. Dragonfish does have limited variation when it comes to games when compared to Virtue Fusion.
Bucky Bingo Promotions
For slot players there are the usual suspects to choose from too although Rainbow Riches does seem to take the spotlight. Other popular titles include Starburst, Shaman's Dream, Fluffy Favourites, Stampede and Firework Frenzy. Table game players aren't overlooked either as there are versions of Roulette and Blackjack to play at Bucky too. These are joined by Slingo titles and a number of progressive slots.
What used to make Bucky Bingo stand out from other brands was that they regularly ran their own competitions and promotions! Every month they offered prizes and also had TV Tuesday where you had the chance to bag a free television. Sadly, all this has stopped. Bucky are active on Facebook and did used to regularly run quizzes and offer prizes. Again this seems to have now ended which is a shame
Our Verdict
Bucky has been online since 2008 and claims that over "100,000 people trust us". We suspect that a number of those people will be looking elsewhere following their decision to leave Virtue Fusion. Dragonfish isn't a bad platform but in our view Virtue Fusion offers players better options. Virtue Fusion has a better selection of bingo variants, bigger jackpots and in our view a more accessible lobby. In fairness Bucky does look good on the Dragonfish platform.
In terms of positives there's now a no deposit welcome offer albeit the network's free room, The Daily Doozey. The welcome offer hasn't changed though but note that wagering terms will apply. The big issue for Bucky is that it lacks anything exclusive. The Buckingham room has now gone which is a shame. Moving to Dragonfish is a big risk for any brand. Bucky hopefully will follow in Chit Chat's footsteps and flourish rather than end up closing down like Bright Bingo.