Beginnings of Bingo
The origins of bingo can be traced as far back as the 16th century in Italy where there was a type of lottery game that reminds bingo historians of our favourite game. Moving onwards, similar games have been played in France and Germany in the past two centuries, but the standardized game that is known as bingo today was created in the US in the 1920s. Bingo was patented and received its own rule book soon after. The rest is history. Today, millions of people enjoy playing bingo in various venues and online bingo sites.
Bingo in the UK
The United Kingdom is a champion when it comes to online bingo. In 2004, there were only 20 online bingo sites. That number has grown to more than 350, which speaks for the popularity of the game. But despite its rapid success, there are still some popular misconceptions about bingo. One of those comes from Hollywood movies, where bingo is usually played in church halls and homes for the elderly. However, research shows that there is another side of the coin. People of all ages play bingo and the number of bingo players is millions across the world.
Online Bingo Rooms
Although online bingo may sound sort of impersonal, it actually is quite a social game. Anyone who has taken part in online bingo games knows that the rooms have a chat window where the players talk to each other. When BINGO occurs, the congrats keep coming in from people all over the UK and beyond which gives a nice social touch to playing bingo online.
When it comes to bingo rooms, online bingo sites provide more than one room. Bingo sites usually set up various rooms according to the size of the jackpot or the ongoing promotion or the price of the ticket. This makes it easy for those who are just getting into bingo to choose the room according to their playing preference.
Have you ever played bingo?
Even if you haven’t, you are probably aware that bingo is a game of chance and is played by you selecting a bunch of numbers across a number of tickets. The caller reads out the numbers that are drawn from a bowl. In online bingo, those numbers are displayed on your computer’s or mobile device’s screen. The players simply mark the numbers that they had previously had written down whenever they have a match.
With online bingo, everything is so much easier. The players buy their number of tickets with a click of a button, then look for a bingo room and wait for the game to start. The purchased tickets are displayed on your screen and when the numbers are called out, the software automatically marks the matching numbers across all your tickets.
Playing bingo is really spending fun time with the possibility of winning money. Although it can’t be said how much money can be won in a game of chance such as bingo, bingo sites have bingo rooms with various jackpots - ranging from £25 to £2500. But here is a fun fact - a mother of four from Hamilton, Scotland had won £1.2 million from the National Bingo jackpot in 2008!
As you can see, bingo can be a high stakes game, but more than anything else, it is an enjoyable activity that is attracting more and more players by the day.
Bingo Variations
There are many variations of the game that are popular among bingo players. While some of these games are based on the standard bingo, others are completely upside down and just as fun.
90-Ball Bingo is played on three-row, nine-column tickets that contain 15 randomly generated numbers. You can win a small prize when you mark all five numbers on a horizontal line. When you hit all the numbers you can go ahead and call BINGO.
75-Ball Bingo is different in that the ticket can have a horizontal, diagonal or vertical winning combination of numbers. If you daub all 25 numbers on the card, you win that BINGO round.
Death Bingo - Don't let the name weird you out! This quirky variation is actually quite clever. Instead of hoping to daub all the numbers on your ticket, the objective is not to. In other words, you win Death Bingo when you have the least numbers of those called out. Not sure if there are any bingo sites that provide this game at the moment, but it may become the next thing.
These are not the only bingo variations. There are quite a few out there, but online bingo sites specialize in the standard 90 ball and 75-ball games.
Concluding Remarks
Bingo is taking off in the UK and in many other countries because people are seeing beyond the stereotype. Now online bingo is becoming a cool pastime thanks to the game being adapted to mobile devices and tablets, which is allowing people to take the game on the go anywhere, anytime.
Many bingo sites take £10 deposits which can last you quite some time if play 5p or 10p tickets. If you want to play for a prize that counts for something, you are welcome to join bingo rooms with larger jackpots of £100 pounds or more. Players find themselves surrounded with friendly people as there can be loads of fun banter thrown back and forth in the chatrooms. Online bingo is becoming a thing and if you haven’t played yet, feel free to try it now!