Online Bingo Games 

How & where to play bingo games for cash prizes online

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Enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, bingo offers cheap, long lasting entertainment with a strong social slant. You might remember playing bingo with your gran on small pieces of numbered cardboard. Today’s online bingo is a long way removed from that.

It’s state of the art gaming with a social aspect. Easy to play, but of course it’s pure luck if you win.

There are no secret winning strategies, if the numbers fall right then you win. It’s as simple as that.

Bingo Site of the Month – Mecca Bingo

Play fun games online at Mecca Bingo!

Be part of a community of online gamers that play slots, scratchcards, and casino games, as well as bingo of course.

Make friends and have fun …find out more on this Mecca Bingo online review.

Introduction

After a long history as a popular land-based game for millions of players, a game played the world over at multiple venues and in dozens of countries, bingo has exploded on the internet with literally hundreds of bingo rooms to choose from.

Playing online bingo games is an enjoyable way to spend time and a simple way to maybe win some extra money pretty fast, ensuring that bingo sites are becoming even more popular each year. The cash prizes on offer can be pretty big on occasions, with some potentially even attracting high-roller bingo players.

One of the main attractions is the high possibility of winning in any particular game. Surveys indicate that many players win at some point.

Even with this, the most popular reason to play bingo is for enjoyment, and actually winning money comes second for many players.If you’re excited by the option to play this simple game online, the first place to begin your search is on a site that lists the best bingo sites. There are hundreds of online bingo rooms where you can play bingo and enjoy a friendly chat, it’s not always easy to find the best among them so any help is valuable.

To help with some extra cash, there are always a range of promotions and offers available, with many sites offering free bingo games and enticing options for new or regular players – ranging from valuable bonuses given to new players to sign up through to massive jackpots equalling or surpassing those seen at land based venues.

With very straightforward and simple rules, this easy to play game based on pure luck has rapidly becoming a favourite way for millions of fans all over the world to try and win money for those little extra luxuries. You’ll be hard pressed to find a game that has a rule as simple as ‘ mark numbers on a card as they’re called out or announced, and win for different combinations that you cover.’

Many of us will either have experienced playing bingo on holiday, at a live venue, or at least as a youngster playing with our grandparents. It’s seen as a safe game, not normally associated with other forms of gambling.

But that doesn’t mean the normal dangers can be ignored. Be just as careful playing bingo as you would with any other form of gambling – only play with what you can afford to lose, take your time, and enjoy it as a form of entertainment rather than looking on it as a way of making money. That way if and when you do get a nice win it’ll be a pleasant surprise and an added bonus to an enjoyable pastime.

So what’s the good news about playing online?

As with many other forms of betting it’s something you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home while enjoying a friendly chat in the chat rooms. No travelling and no travel or entry costs. Online bingo rooms have lower costs than land based halls, allowing them to pass on valuable bonuses and promotions.

A Cheaper Way To Play

Online bingo room tickets tend to be much cheaper than offline. Bingo players can play more games online at a much cheaper price than if they were playing offline bingo. Some online bingo players decide to participate in multiple bingo games at once which is a luxury that offline bingo players can’t always do. Games can be played online for a very small buy-in amount, sometimes as little as 1p or 1c per game.

Many online bingo operators also offer the chance to buy scratchcard tickets at a very low cost per card.

Of course, the prizes on these types of games are not huge, but they are a way for a cash-strapped player to get some fun.

Higher Jackpot Amounts

Online bingo rooms tend to offer higher jackpot prizes for their players to win. Due to the fact that more bingo players are playing at a higher frequency at online bingo rooms the jackpot rises much faster than offline rooms. With more games running at a quicker pace it also means that the jackpot is also won much more frequently in online bingo than in offline bingo rooms. This boils down to the fact that by playing online, bingo players have the chance to win higher jackpots more frequently for a cheaper entry amount.

When looking at facts like these it becomes obvious that bingo players not playing online bingo are definitely missing a trick online.

There are many similarities between bingo played in bingo clubs or halls as opposed to online bingo. You can play for a line or a full house, and the rules are pretty much the same.

Like poker, bingo is easy to play online. You would not have to get the bus to bingo and if you drink a can purchased from the local supermarket it will work out much cheaper than the pint or glass of wine purchased from the bar at the bingo hall. It is also likely that online bingo will have the incentive of more financial reward than the prize funds at stake in the bingo halls.

A Few Interesting Facts about Bingo

Bingo originally came from Europe, first starting in Italy in around 1530. By the mid 18th century, the game had spread to France, and was played in a similar way to now – bingo cards were supplied with random numbers marked on them, and wooden chips with the numbers 0 to 90 on them were drawn from a bag. Each player had a bingo card with a unique set of numbers, and once all in any row were covered, they won the game.

The game spread to America, which led to the creation of bingo as we know it today.In 1929 a US businessman saw a similar game being played at a carnival. The players were using boards covered with numbers, and covering the numbers with beans. Hence the shout of ‘Beano’ when every number was covered. Edwin Lowe watched the game at the carnival, and noted the excitement of the crowd. Later he tried the game with some friends in New York.

One winner shouted ‘bingo’ by mistake, and the new name for the game was formed.

The game became a craze in the US depression era. Later the game was picked up by the church as a fundraising idea, and became very popular. By 1934, it’s estimated that there were 10,000 bingo games per week across America.

What started as a fun game is now a five-billion-dollar industry. Bingo games can be played for high stakes in Las Vegas casinos and at Native American reservations around the US, and bingo is an amazingly popular game in many countries right across the world.Bingo is especially attractive to the older player, although as it is increasing in popularity, many younger players are enjoying the game too. Currently it is believed that around 30% of bingo players are under 35, and there are 2.5 million regular female bingo players.

Interestingly, there are 1,474,200 unique bingo card variations possible. 

Bingo halls have been at the cornerstone of a community intent on having a Thursday night out at the Bingo.

Here they will perhaps grab a drink at the bar or chat with fellow bingo players and then settle down for a good night out. If they are lucky, they may even win some money too.

However can it be possible that even these bricks and mortar establishments find themselves on the brink in today’s ever-changing economy? It would seem apparently so; there was a strong response to a newspaper campaign which started in Europe and had gained some success in the States, where playing bingo simply by purchasing a daily copy of your favourite daily newspaper enabled readers to buy a paper and found a Bingo card inside.

The newspaper Bingo culture soon gathered its critics however. The way it operated was clever but manipulative. Inside your copy of any daily newspaper that happened to be running the campaign was a Bingo card. It would display a series of numbers that you would tick off each day that week when you purchased the newspaper. Cleverly you would be forced to buy a newspaper each day that week just to get all the numbers.

Inside the paper the early numbers all seemed to point most people towards becoming nearly a winner. The first day I would strike off at least four numbers and then four guaranteed the next day. This pattern would go on until one had just tow or three numbers to go when suddenly your numbers would not get called up. These methods forced patrons to purchase the next day’s paper and then the next days too, in the wilting hope those last two or three numbers would be printed.

Naturally of course the numbers rarely came up. It was agonising that you could get so close yet never seem to reach the point where your last numbers were going to get called. I once played the game myself and found several friends had also been in the same position. In brutal honesty the online Bingo culture may have suffered from this manipulation. It would need desperately to rid itself of match-fixing culture. How can punters be sure that when they play online they are seeing the real balls being tugged from the pot, rather than a computer generated one that knows everybody else is looking for a number 86 to win but decide to block that number being pulled?

Bingo halls and casinos do hold a sway of trust with the public. They can actually see with their own eyes the winner. She (or he) will shout “House!” and everyone will sigh with disappointed, but you can see that the winner happens to be Mrs. Greene from down the next estate who has won. This online bingo playing experience rarely extends to announcing a winner. The websites who run online bingo will put up a bust as a testimonial of a winner – Mr. P from Romford, just won £10,000.

It is also worthwhile looking at the other hurdles the online bongo has to overcome. Go into any bingo hall and you will a mixture of middle-aged women, some younger females and about ten percent of the punters are male. The average punter has a tendency to be rather suspicious of online gambling. They are wary of handing over credit card details and have not developed trust that is required from online merchants. This mistrust stems from the early days of when e-commerce was having some early teething problems within the industry.

E-commerce foretold horror stories of one elderly lady who lost all her money when her credit card details were encrypted online and stolen. Things have got better and improved security has significantly helped not to make any transaction done on the internet very much more secure. But like all online security it will take time to gain the confidence of a large section of the community, particularly the bingo-playing set.

It is worth noting the bingo culture in the North American countries of Canada and the US is very different from that in the UK. In the States bingo is played in churches and community halls and large amounts of revenue is raised for those establishments.

But is that all about to change?

We have seen the online gambling community change to online betting, as opposed to betting shops or casinos, whereas the bingo playing public is slower to migrate over. That said, the trend (towards online bingo) is still prevalent and although it may take longer it will still remain an ever-growing industry.

In the States it is only possible to find commercial bingo halls in the state of Nevada, home of course to the famous gambling city of Las Vegas.

Bingo halls in the UK tend to be far more of a social event than the US counterparts. In the US the tendency is to play to win whereas the UK folk will play and socialise but simply hope to win to add the cherry on the cake to a good night out on the town.

Where To Play

If you play online Bingo long enough, you might notice similarities among different Bingo sites. Those similarities occur because some Bingo halls are a part of a “network.” In other words, a number of different sites are playing with the same numbers for the same jackpot. These sites are likely to have same promotions, graphics, bingo rooms and chat monitors. This enables more players in a chat room which results in more sizable jackpots to win, and is often referred to as White Label Gaming.  

Of course, this is exactly how some jackpot games work in real bingo halls. It’s how the operators ensure they have enough players – and enough entry fees – to cover the jackpots they’ll need to pay out.

On the other hand, there are a few sites that prefer to not pool their players with others. Therefore, they do not participate in the network, but operate on a stand-alone network or utilize proprietary software.

Another interesting aspect of online Bingo is the different platforms people can use to play. Many utilize desktop applications, while others use their web browser. Two other platforms are mobile devices and, believe it or not, Facebook.

Gambling on mobile devices has grown exponentially in the last couple of years. In fact, one of the most popular online Bingo sites Mecca Bingo, states that mobile Bingo players account for approximately 6% of their interactive divisional revenues.

Mobile Bingo products were, at one point, extremely difficult to produce due to the integration of social and chat functions. However, as technology continues to trend towards “all things mobile,” more and more sites are able to integrate a mobile platform with increased social capabilities, which possibly explains why Facebook now offers online Bingo.

Bingo on Facebook differs from tradition or online games. Most games feature what are known as “power-ups.” These power ups give players an advantage on winning the game by using them. Players can also collect, buy, and share virtual items with friends, further strengthening the community element of Bingo. Some popular examples of Facebook Bingo games are BamBam Bingo, Bingo Blitz, and Bingo Island.

In order to participate in these games, players will usually have to use a Facebook application.

Facebook bingo is all well and good, but you’re not going to win any cash playing there. So let’s take a look at some of the places where you can play bingo for money. If you would like to join the growing online Bingo community, here are a few recommendations of places to go.

 

Bingo for Money

If community is important to you, Bingo for Money is the place to go. Not only do they have great game play, a $25 new player bonus, and one of the strongest virtual communities available, but they also believe in strengthening the physical community around them. Bingo for Money believes in social responsibility and has consequently started the “Spread the Love” program where they donate $0.03 from every card purchased to members’ favorite charities. If you would like join the fun and giving nature of Bingo for Money, you can register at their site bingoformoney.ag.

 

The Bingo Zone

The Bingo Zone is owned and operated by Gamesville. Gamesville is a popular software company that allows people to play games and download games for free. The Bingo Zone boasts “the world’s best, longest-running online Bingo game” with new games starting every few minutes around the clock. Registration is free and there are progressive cash prizes starting at $1.00. You can visit The Bingo Zone by going to their website http://www.bingozone.com/.

 

Bingo Mania

Bingo Mania is the number one online Bingo site since 1996. With a strong and continuously growing community and offering $8 million in monthly cash prizes, it is no wonder that Bingo Mania is where many people like to be. They usually offer generous signing bonuses. Their current special is a free $100 signing bonus to an initial deposit of $20. Bingo Mania is a fantastic site. To learn more about them, visit their website at bingomania.com.

 

Bingo Hall

Bingo Hall is a fun website that offers an initial free $25 welcome bonus. They also have monthly specials offering $5000 in cash and other bonuses. The best part is that many of their games are themed, increasing the “fun factor” of the games. Some popular themes are “candlelight delight”, “desperate housewives”, “crazy”, “fair and square”, and “nickels.” Not only do they offer fantastic Bingo game play, but they also offer a variety of casino games. To learn more about Bingo Hall, you can visit them at bingohall.ag.

 

Independent Bingo Sites

Just as with poker or casino sites online, there are a number of independent sites that have sprung up over recent years which are well worth visiting. These sites focus on bingo, bringing you up to date news, reviews, and promotions. Three of the best I’ve found are listed below:

Madaboutbingo.com

Ballsupbingo.co.uk

 

This video takes you through the steps you’ll see after you’ve registered and want to play your first bingo game online.

Summary

Simple to understand and simple to play, bingo games definitely have a place in any list of real money games. You’re unlikely to be winning fortunes – although there are some hefty jackpots available – but you can enjoy the chance of winning some cash for low stakes.

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