Bingo Cash: Is It Legit and Worth It?

Bingo Cash is an app made by Papaya Gaming that’s based on the classic game of bingo.

As of March 2024, the app has a 5-star rating in the Samsung Galaxy Store and thousands of reviews. It also has a rating of 4.6 in the iOS store and, again, thousands of reviews. It’s a legitimate app, and it definitely works—at least to some extent.

Does Bingo Cash pay real money?

Yes, Bingo Cash pays real money. If you win Bingo Cash tournaments, you can get real cash payments via PayPal. We were able to verify this by doing it ourselves.

However, although it’s possible to make a profit with Bingo Cash, it’s far from guaranteed. There’s a good chance that you’ll end up spending more than you win.

This is a problem with many apps that promise to pay you for playing games. They sound too good to be true, and in most cases, they are.

How much can you realistically earn?

You probably won’t be able to earn much on Bingo Cash.

We spent $5 on credits to play games, and we ended up with $5.70 in withdrawable cash after playing for about 2¾ hours.

On paper, that means we made $0.70 in profit. However, the app has a hidden $1 withdrawal fee, which meant that we actually lost $0.30 overall (i.e., when we withdrew our $5.70, we actually received just $4.70).

Do you have to pay to play Bingo Cash?

You don’t have to pay to play Bingo Cash—technically. However, the app tries to entice you to spend money.

To enter tournaments, you have to pay an entry fee. You can pay with credits you can earn on the app, but you can also use real money for most tournaments.

Tournaments with higher entry fees have higher prize pools, so there’s a strong incentive to fork over your own cash to play. You’ll have to be careful to avoid spending too much on Bingo Cash; playing it can easily escalate into gambling, and, just like in a casino, you’re unlikely to make more than you spend.

It’s worth noting that Papaya Gaming claims that this isn’t a gambling app and that the outcomes of the games depend on skill rather than luck or chance. We disagree, as bingo is primarily a luck-based game. The element of skill (marking down numbers and tapping the “Bingo” button more quickly than the other players) is relatively small.

Bingo Cash works much like traditional bingo. You have to search a bingo board—or multiple boards—for numbers as they’re called (which will appear near the top of the screen) and daub (i.e., mark) them.

Games are at least 1 minute and 30 seconds long. In practice, they may take a bit longer due to the bonus tasks you’ll often get to do. You can also earn “time bonuses” for finishing quickly.

If you’re one of the top players at the end of a Bingo Cash tournament, you’ll win part of the prize pool. Usually, you’ll need to rank in the top three, but some tournaments with large numbers of entrants may also have prizes for lower-ranking players.

How to play Bingo Cash

The aim is to daub five numbers on a bingo board in one of the following ways:

• Horizontal line
• Vertical line
• Diagonal line
• All four corners of the board (plus the center tile)

The center tile is already daubed at the start of the game, so you technically only have to daub four numbers if you make a line through the center of the board or daub the four corners. For other combinations, you need to daub all five numbers yourself.

Any of these combinations gives you a Bingo. You can then tap the “Bingo” button. You want to do this as many times as possible to score maximum points.

If you daub a number that hasn’t been called yet or tap the “Bingo” button without actually having a Bingo, you’ll lose points.

Bingo Cash “Boosters”

Bingo Cash games have something called a “Booster Meter.” As you daub numbers on your board, the Booster Meter will charge up.

Once the Booster Meter is full, you’ll get a “Booster.” Boosters increase your chances of getting a bingo and help you improve your score.

There are four types of Booster:

• Wild Daub: This allows you to daub any number on the board
• Pick a Ball: This allows you to daub one number from a more limited selection.
• Double Score: This doubles your score for the next 10 seconds.
• Bonus Time: This gives you an extra 10 seconds on the timer.

How to enter Bingo Cash games

Again, all Bingo Cash games have an entry fee. Depending on the tournament, you may be able to pay these fees with “Gems” (credits), cash, or a combination of the two. Here’s how this works:

• Gems: You can earn these credits in many different ways (e.g., by completing small tasks, as described below). You can use Gems to enter “Freeroll Tournaments,” although you’ll need a lot of them (all of the Freeroll tournaments we saw required more than a thousand Gems to enter).
• Cash: You can enter games that require cash by depositing money into your Bingo Cash account. Alternatively, you can use “Bonus Cash,” which—like Gems—you can earn by playing games and through other activities.

Bingo Cash has many different types of tournaments you can join to win money. As a rule, the larger the prize pool for a tournament is, the larger the entry fee is.

Tips for Bingo Cash

Bingo Cash is largely luck-based, so even the most skilled bingo players will frequently lose. Our main tip for staying ahead is to avoid opening your wallet; just stick to using credits you win in the app. Even with this strategy, you probably won’t be able to win much, but you’ll avoid risking any of your own cash.

Our experience

While using Bingo Cash, we saw a variety of tournaments with different prize pools and entry fees.

For games with cash prizes, we saw prize pools ranging from $1.50 to $49, and entry fees ranging from $0.40 to $14. There was also a very low-stakes game with a low entry fee of just 20 Gems and a commensurately small prize pool of $1.20 in Bonus Cash.

Here’s what happened in the games we played on the Bingo Cash app:

• Tutorial Game: This game launched immediately after we signed in to the Bingo Cash app. We came in first place and won 200 Gems from a 600-Gem prize pool (our hunch is that this result is fixed and all new Bingo Cash newbies will get the same result).
• Champ Starter: We entered this tournament once. It cost $0.40 to enter and had three players. The prize pool was $1.50, but we came last, so we won nothing.
• Gems Exchange: We entered this tournament once. It cost 20 Gems to enter and had two players competing for a prize pool of $1.20 in Bonus Cash. We came in first and won $0.70 in Bonus Cash.
• Gems Factory: We entered this tournament eight times. It had six players and a prize pool of 110 Gems. We came in first twice, winning 60 Gems. We also came in second three times, winning 40 Gems, and in third twice, winning 10 Gems. We came in last once, winning nothing.
• Rookie: We entered this six times. It had a prize pool of $5 and seven players. The normal entry fee was $1, but we paid a discounted price of $0.90 for our first two games. In these games, we came in first once, earning $2.90, and we came in third once, earning 0.70. In the other four games, we ranked in the bottom four and earned nothing.
• Diamonds Dash: This was a six-player game with a prize pool of $10 and an entry fee of $1 plus 600 Gems. In our first game, we came in third and earned $1.40. In our second game, we came in second and won $2.80.
• Everybody Wins: This was a two-player game with a $1.50 entry fee and a $2.70 prize pool. We played once and came in second place, winning $0.50.
• High Stakes: This had a $12 prize pool, six players, and a $3 entry fee. We played four times. In one game, we came in second and won $3.80. In another game, we came third and won $1.50. In the other two games, we came in fourth and fifth, winning nothing.
• Ultimate Rewards: This was another high-stakes game with a prize pool of $30, an entry fee of $5, and eight players. To our delight, we came in first and won $15.
• Undercover Zone: This was a limited-time-only game we played once. The entry fee was $6, and the prize pool was $21. We came in fifth and won nothing.
• Board Dash: This was a limited-time five-player game that we played just once. It had a $5.20 prize pool and a $1.50 entry fee. We came in fourth and won nothing.
• Double Dance: We played this six-player game once. It had a $10 prize pool and a $2.50 entry fee. We finished in last place and earned nothing.

Again, we started with $5 and ended up with $5.70 in withdrawable cash, which was subject to a $1 withdrawal fee. This means we lost $0.30 overall—a small loss, but still a loss.

Bingo games are the most obvious way to earn on the Bingo Cash app. However, there are also many other quick tasks you can complete to earn Gems and Bonus Cash, both of which you can use for entering games. (You can’t convert either of them directly to real cash.)

Collect Daily Rewards

You can pick up free “Daily Rewards” just for opening the Bingo Cash app, including Gems and Bonus Cash.

You can also sometimes get “Experience Points” (XP), a type of credit you can collect to achieve something called a “level up,” which also gives you Gems (and opportunities to earn yet more bonuses).

Our experience

We claimed Daily Rewards five times while using the Bingo Cash app. We usually received 30–50 Gems.

On one occasion, we got a 5% XP bonus—or so the app said. Oddly, our XP level went from 1% to just 4% when we received this bonus (an increase of 3%, not 5%).

Daily Gifts

Daily Gifts are slightly different from Daily Rewards. To get them, you have to go to the main menu, then click on “Gifts.”

Our experience

We managed to claim a Daily Gift three times. We got 30 Gems each time.

Watch videos

You can earn Gems on Bingo Cash by watching short videos.

Our experience

We watched videos several times to earn Gems. Each clip was around a minute long, and we earned 10 Gems for each one.

Level up

When you play in tournaments on Bingo Cash, you’ll get XP. The higher the entry fee, the more XP you’ll be awarded.

Your XP level is shown on an XP meter at the top left corner of the screen. Once the meter is completely full, you’ll level up. Each time you do, you’ll get Gems.

Note that as your XP level increases, it will take progressively more tournaments for the meter to fill up. This means your progress will be fast at first and then will slow down.

Our experience

We reached level 10 on Bingo Cash. Each time we leveled up, we got 20–30 Gems.

Complete special tasks and special offers

When you level up, Bingo Cash not only rewards you with Gems, it also gives you special challenges as a means to get even more rewards. These sometimes take the form of minigames.

Our experience

We completed several special tasks on Bingo Cash to earn extra rewards. One example was a “Find the Balloons” activity we were invited to complete. This gave us 10 Gems for completing a very easy task (which was exactly what it sounds like).

We also completed a “Level Up Blitz,” which we were invited to join after we reached level 4. This gave us extra bonuses for leveling up, but only if we completed the challenge within the next two days. We succeeded and received 40 Gems, 80 Gems, and $0.70 in Bonus Cash for reaching levels 5, 6, and 7, respectively.

Yet another offer (which we received when we reached level 6) promised us 10% cash back on every tournament we lost for the next hour. We got $0.40 in cash back for this offer.

Lastly, after using Bingo Cash for a couple of hours and reaching level 8, we saw the “Stars Tournament” icon shown in the screenshot below. Bingo Cash says that you’re entered into this competition automatically when you win a cash tournament (although we didn’t see the feature until after we’d won a couple of tournaments).

Bingo Cash says that the Stars Tournament places you on a leaderboard with other players and that you can get prizes for winning it. We didn’t receive any prizes, but this may have been because we didn’t win enough games.

This list of special offers and tasks isn’t exhaustive—we were invited to complete others—but it should give you an idea of the opportunities you might find to earn bonuses.

Find promo codes

The Bingo Cash social media pages sometimes feature promo codes you can enter in the app to get extra rewards.

Our experience

We checked Bingo Cash’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts on five different days, but we never found any promo codes.

However, the Bingo Cash Facebook page invited us to leave a comment to get a reward. After we did so, we received a 60-Gem bonus.

Use the Clubs feature

The Clubs feature on Bingo Cash (and on similar apps from Papaya Gaming) gives you a way to join forces with other players to earn extra rewards.

When you join a Club, you can gain Club Trophies by playing and winning Cash Tournaments. At the end of the week, if your Club earns enough points, you’ll get a “Club Chest” to be shared among eligible Club members (i.e., the members who got the best results).

You can also create your own Club, which is a good idea if you have friends who also play Bingo Cash.

Our experience

We reached level 10 on Bingo Cash, so we were able to access the Clubs feature. We selected a club to join and played a couple of games.

This netted us a few points to contribute to the “Club Total.” This is the score that enables the team to win Club Chests. Disappointingly, we weren’t eligible for a share of the winnings, as our scores were too low, so we didn’t get any tangible benefits from this feature.

Collect seasonal cards

Seasonal cards are special cards you can collect on Bingo Cash (and other Papaya Gaming apps). When you complete a set of cards, you’ll win Bonus Cash and Gems.

There are several ways to obtain seasonal cards:

• Win them in certain tournaments
• Get them as a reward for special challenges
• Swap them with your friends
• Purchase them directly in the Bingo Cash app
• Purchase them as part of special offers or promotions

You need to reach level 15 to unlock this feature on Bingo Cash.

Our experience

We didn’t reach level 15, so we didn’t unlock this feature.

Refer friends

You can refer people to Bingo Cash to earn $1 in Bonus Cash per person. However, you’ll only get Bonus Cash for the first two people you invite, so referrals aren’t a very efficient way to earn.

Our experience

We didn’t invite any friends to join Bingo Cash.

To start playing Bingo Cash, visit the Bingo Cash homepage and scan the QR code to install the app. Alternatively, you can use the buttons below to download it from the App Store (if you use an iOS device) or the Galaxy Store (if you use a Samsung Galaxy device).

Where to download Bingo Cash

App Store Galaxy Store

There’s also a download link for non-Samsung Android devices on the Bingo Cash website, although it’s a direct link and doesn’t go to the Google Play store. That’s because Google is quite restrictive about apps that verge on gambling (even ones that, like Bingo Cash, claim to be “skill-based”).

We didn’t test the generic Android version of Bingo Cash ourselves, and can’t vouch for it. In general, you should be cautious about directly downloading apps, since they might not have been subject to the quality control processes that you can expect from outfits like the Play Store.

How to make payments on Bingo Cash

We don’t recommend purchasing credits on Bingo Cash. However, if you want to do this, you can choose from several payment methods:

• PayPal
• Apple Pay
• Credit or debit cards

You can usually deposit money in denominations of $5, $15, $25, $35, $50, or $75. Bingo Cash may also give you special offers to encourage you to spend money on the app.

You can withdraw money from the Bingo Cash app via PayPal.

Note that your account balance (misleadingly) includes Bonus Cash, which isn’t really cash—it’s credit. You can use it to play games on the app, but you can’t withdraw it. This means that you might have significantly less cash available for withdrawal than the app claims.

What’s the minimum amount you can withdraw on Bingo Cash?

The minimum amount you can withdraw on Bingo Cash is $5.

How long do Bingo Cash withdrawals take?

Bingo Cash gives contradictory information about how long withdrawals take.

One help page says that withdrawals are usually processed within 2 business days but may take up to 5 business days, depending on your bank or payment processor. However, another help page says that withdrawals are processed within 14 days.

It’s probably best to be prepared for a longer wait and not count on Bingo Cash for money you need urgently.

Are there fees for withdrawals from Bingo Cash?

Yes, Bingo Cash charges a $1 fee for withdrawals. This means you’ll get a pretty poor deal (and may end up in the red) if you withdraw a small amount of money, as we did.

Is there anything else I need to know about Bingo Cash withdrawals?

One annoying feature of Bingo Cash (and many similar apps from Papaya Gaming) is that you’ll forfeit all of your Bonus Cash when you withdraw money from the app.

To avoid this, you can try to use up your Bonus Cash by playing more games. However, Bingo Cash will automatically take money from your withdrawable cash balance when you enter tournaments. The app uses Bonus Cash for only 20% of the entry fee and withdrawable cash for the other 80%.

This disincentivizes withdrawals, and it’s a major downside of the app.

You have to be over 18 years of age to play Bingo Cash. Because it involves real money, it’s also unavailable in certain US states.

The screenshot below shows a Bingo Cash help page that lists all of the states (and other countries) where Bingo Cash is available.

If you want to get paid to play games, here are several alternatives to Bingo Cash:

• Blackout Bingo: Our tester found that Blackout Bingo was remarkably similar to Bingo Cash, although some of the features and the interface are a little different. You can download it from the Samsung Galaxy Store or from the iOS store.
• Mistplay: This is a gaming app that you can use to earn PayPal gift cards for playing all kinds of games. It’s only available for Android devices, so it’s a great alternative for would-be Bingo Cash players who use non-Samsung devices.
• InboxDollars: This is a rewards site where you can get paid (via PayPal, prepaid cards, and gift cards) to play games and complete other tasks, such as taking surveys, scanning receipts, and signing up for offers. You can read all about this in our InboxDollars Review.
• Swagbucks: This is another rewards site like InboxDollars that pays you for playing games and completing other tasks. Again, you can read about this in our Swagbucks Review.

Notably, the last two sites feature bingo games of their own, which you can use to earn bonuses. This isn’t a core feature of either site, but if you’ve decided that Bingo Cash isn’t for you, it might still scratch your bingo itch.