Online Bingo

Here in the world of online casinos we’re accustomed to focusing much of our attention on the many and varied online slots, and with good reason.

Slots are exciting, fast to play, boast huge payouts (in the case of progressive slots in particular) and, with the advent of flash animation and other software advances, bear little resemblance to the ‘one armed bandits’ of old.

However these games aren’t the whole story – table games like Roulette and Baccarat also make up a huge part of online gaming.

But there’s still more. With a lot of online casinos you will see an ‘other games’ section which, as its name suggests, hosts all those games which don’t neatly fit into the slots/table games/Poker labels.

A popular pursuit here is scratchcards, which are an online version of those cards you might buy at the kiosk, corner store or newsagents (depending on where you live of course).

But one further popular and somewhat burgeoning area might perhaps surprise a few of you – it’s Bingo!

We might associate Bingo (and this will particularly be the case with those of you who are from the UK) with lots of grey haired old ladies squandering their pensions, watched over by a burly Bingo caller with a well-rehearsed patter; but, as always, that’s something of a stereotype.

The online revolution has meant that you can play bingo online with ease and in comfort - no more gin and tonics and filling in little cards with a biro!

But what are the basic bingo rules? For those of you that don’t know, we’ll outline these briefly, before turning to advice on online bingo strategy, and making some suggestions about how to play bingo online.

An overview of the basic rules of Bingo

There are 2 main variants of Bingo, 90-ball and 75-ball. You might find other versions on offer, in which case check the rules closely, but these 2 are by far the most common.

90-Ball Bingo is a better bet for beginners. You’ll be presented with a ‘card’ onscreen, which can be purchased for a fixed fee and which contains a grid of 27 squares (in 3 rows and 9 columns).

15 numbers appear on the grid, with the rest blanked off (here the Bingo casino game differs from Keno, in that with the latter you can vary the amount of numbers you want to appear on your card, though with varying payouts for wins).

The idea is to get ‘lines’ of numbers, row-by-row - so if you get all 5 numbers in a row then you’ve got one line!

But how do you get a line? The game randomly ‘calls’ numbers, one at a time, from the 90 available, which are called out, and you mark off corresponding numbers which you have on your card as they come up.

Actually, it’s even simpler than that with the best bingo sites, as they will do all the hard work of marking your card for you, and the numbers ‘called’ will be clearly displayed on the screen.

At the same time, online bingo odds remain the same as in the physical game (plus there is the added advantage of no scope for defects in the bingo machine to cause any problems, or at least suspicions of problems, since the game is based on programming rather than mechanics).

Usually there are 3 prize winners for every card, with first prize as you would expect going to the player who gets 3 lines first, and 2nd and 3rd prizes for 2 and 1 lines respectively.

The sums won will depend on factors such as how many people are playing and the price of each card.

Incidentally, you always play live Bingo - in other words as numbers are called at the same time for all players linked up to the site, winners and losers get decided at the same time and quite swiftly, so it’s quite an exciting experience.

Speaking of which, if it’s excitement you want, the slightly more involved 75-ball variant might be the thing for you.

In this type, there will be, obviously, a fewer number of balls to choose from, but usually there is only 1 winner - and since this type tends to attract more players, the winnings can be higher.

Instead of lines, with the 75-ball version, you have to search for patterns, which can be letters, numbers, shapes and more, within a 25-square grid (one of the squares is blanked-out in fact).

Again, the computer will automate the marking-off of numbers, saving you time and eroding the likelihood of mistakes, so this type of Bingo can be really fast and exciting.

NB! In any variant of the game, you will need to ‘shout’ out ‘bingo’ (or ‘house’) once you have a winning card, so make sure you do that by clicking on an obvious link – the computer won’t do THAT for you, so it’s not time to go and make a cup of tea or do something else as you can with the ‘autoplay’ function on slots, or it could cost you deep in the pocket!

Ok, that’s about all the advice and pointers we can give you, other than to answer the question as to where to play live Bingo (of course all forms of the game are live and as-it-happens).

The best online Bingo sites fortunately correspond with the best online casinos, and Casino Daily News is the place to find these.

We only list casinos which have stellar ratings in spheres such as customer services, security, speed and ease of withdrawing winnings, and game selection – so make sure you either bookmark our page or sign-up to our email alert, and never be in the dark again about Bingo, or anything else casino-related!