Online bingo is the game of bingo (US|UK) played on the Internet. Online bingo is a multi billion dollar business.
Unlike balls used in regular bingo halls, online bingo sites use a random number generator. Online bingo halls usually offer online casino games as well as the bingo, but the actual bingo play works almost exactly like playing online poker or online casino games, with everything being virtual. One notable feature of online bingo is the chat functionality. Successful online bingo sites foster a sense of community and interaction between players.
Getting started
Some operators require players to download free software to play their games. Other operators use Java or Flash based games that allow you to play immediately online after registering a player account.
Depositing
Free games are available, but before playing for real money players are required to fund an account. Most sites accept a standard range of e-wallet funding options, such as Neteller, Firepay, Citadel and PrePaidATM.
Sites often provide a number of incentives to deposit, including matching bonuses where the site will reward depositing players by matching a percentage of their deposit.
How to play
Bingo is one of the easiest games to play and the online version is no different. Playing bingo online, players can make use of optional features which make playing the game easier, such as auto-daub. Auto-daub automatically marks off the numbers on cards as they are called, so players don’t have to. Most software providers support other gaming features as “Best Card Sorting” and “Best Card Highlighting” where players cards are sorted and highlighted by closest to bingo. Some of these features are designed to free players to enjoy the communal pleasantries of the chat features.
Chat & the CM
The Chat applet brings a different dimension to gaming. This is where all the players of a game can meet and chat during games of bingo. Whereas in land-based bingo where talking is strictly forbidden during a game, it is actively encouraged in online bingo. Chat functions as an effective retention tool, aimed especially at the predominantly female audience.
CM stands for “chat monitor”. The CM works for the bingo site as the host of a chat room and plays a role in welcoming players and creating a friendly and communal atmosphere in the room. This includes, but is not limited to, congratulating players when they win a game as well as playing chat games in-between bingo. Most sites have a chat protocol known as chat etiquette or chatiquette.
0 Ball versus 75 Ball
There are two types of bingo played around the world. North America plays 75-ball bingo on a 5×5 card with the centre square usually marked ‘free’. In the UK, parts of Europe, Australia and parts of South America they play a 90-ball game, marked on a 9×3 card. Both types of bingo are prominent online.
The desired pattern which players aim to achieve in 75 ball can vary dramatically, from a simple single line to more complicated themed patterns. The aim of the game, however, is always the same: to mark off the numbers to achieve the desired pattern. Speed Bingo is a variation played exactly the same, but numbers are simply called much quicker.
In 90-ball bingo, each card has three horizontal lines and nine columns. Each line contains five numbers, meaning each card has 15 numbers. The first column contains numbers from 1 -10, the second column contains numbers from 11-20, all the way through to the final column which contains numbers from 81-90.
A game of 90 ball bingo will normally be played in three stages: one line, two lines and Full House. In a “one line” game players need to mark a complete horizontal line across one card (i.e. 5 numbers marked). The aim of a ‘two lines’ game is to complete any two marked lines horizontally across one card (i.e. 10 numbers marked). Finally a “Full House” means all the numbers marked off on one card (all 15 numbers), as in a regular coverall game. The prize split differs for each stage of the game. The Full House is always the largest prize in any one game.
Bingo networks
There are a number of sites that will have the same promotions, similar graphics, the same bingo rooms and the same CMs. This occurs because they are part of a bingo “network”. In very simple terms, this means a number of different sites (or “front ends”) are playing with the same numbers for the same jackpot. Multiple sites act as doorways to a single game, leading to larger pools of players in chat and sizeable pots to win.
Online bingo in the UK
Bingo is now the most popular leisure activity in the UK for women between 20 and 25 years old. The UK market has seen an influx in big brand names launching bingo games on their already established websites. Huge brand names such as Yahoo!, Virgin, AOL UK and most recently MSN UK are all now associated with the UK online bingo market. Gala Bingo the biggest bingo operator in the UK is also now online, this is as well as other brand names such as:
The Sun, plus most other tabloid newspapers
Closer Magazine
Hit UK TV shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and I’m a Celebrity
LastMinute.com
Park Hampers
Butlins
Ladbrokes
Littlewoods
A number of products from one of the UK’s leading media companies, Emap plc. These include MagicFM, Top Sante, Yours and New Woman.
Keith Chegwin now has his own branded bingo game.
Former Atomic Kitten star and celebrity mum Kerry Katona signed a £500,000 deal to be the face of Bingos.co.uk.
Software providers
Notable bingo software providers include:
Parlay Entertainment
Playtech
ChartWell Technology
1Gaming
Leapfrog Gaming
PartyGaming
WorldBingoNetwork
Keno, in its modern form, is like a lottery or bingo in that it is a numbers game. Unlike bingo, the keno player picks the numbers for his or her ticket(s). Keno cards have 80 numbers; the keno player can pick as many (or as few) numbers as desired. This is done by circling or otherwise marking them with a pencil. Once the player has picked his or her numbers, he must bring his or her card back to the clerk at the keno booth. The clerk will then issue a receipt after recording the player’s numbers.
After picking numbers and recording them at the keno booth, the player will then watch either a “big board” in which winning keno numbers will light up or on a video monitor showing the selected numbers. As the winning numbers light up, the player usually marks them on his or her card with a bright-colored marker. The amount of numbers the player originally picked that match winning numbers of a particular drawing will determine if any money is won and, if so, how much. The winning ticket needs to be taken to the keno booth immediately if it is an individual game ticket, as drawings usually take place every five minutes. If the player tries to redeem a winning ticket when the next drawing starts, it is void and no money is paid out.
To avoid having a void ticket, a keno player can purchase a “multi-race” ticket with the same picked numbers on anywhere from 2 to 20 tickets. When the maximum number of games (matching the number of tickets) is finished, the player can then redeem any winnings and avoid the peril of a void ticket. Another option is the “stray and play” ticket, which is usually a number of games greater than 30. Unlike standard keno tickets, the “stray and play” doesn’t have to be redeemed immediately and is often good for up to a year after purchase.
Lottery versions of Keno are now used in many National Lotteries or state licensed Lotteries around the world. The games have different formulas depending on the wanted price structure and whether the game is slow (daily or weekly), or if it is a fast game with just minutes between the draws. The drawn numbers are typically published on TV for the slow games and on monitors at the point of sale for the fast games.
Keno is a bingo-like gambling game. Its history can be traced to a Chinese game called “The Game of the White Dove (白鴿票)” invented during the Han Dynasty (187 BC). The name “keno” descends from a form of bingo or Lotto popular in the USA in the 19th century. There are many references to “Keno” played in a bingo like format in the eastern states prior to the influx of Chinese during the gold rush. The name appears to have been transferred to the similar format Chinese lottery in the late 1800s.
History
The following account of the history of the game is an excerpt from Stewart Culin’s paper published in 1891. [1]
This game is an old establishment, and was first introduced by Chéung léung of the great Han Dynasty. When the city was hard pressed, and provisions were beginning to fail, they (the besieged) were anxious to increase the contributions, and to exhort the people to subscribe more for the army, but were unable to do so. Hence they established a game of chance (to guess characters), by which they hoped to tempt the people to hazard their property. In order to fix a method of losing or gaining at hazard, they chose 120 characters for the whole game and eight characters for one subdivision. If the people lost one (whole) subdivision they lost three lí of property; if they gained one division they were rewarded with ten taels. These regulations being once established, who would not sacrifice a little in order to gain much? The two games in the morning and evening were attended by men and women who tried their luck by guessing. They had only opened the game for about ten days, when they had accumulated more than 1000 pieces of silver; and after a few more decades their wealth was boundless. The money thus gained was considered a contribution to the army for the reduction of the empire….
At present the people practice the game as a profession. They borrow the characters from the Thousand Character Classic, of which eighty are chosen and arranged after a new plan, ten characters forming one division, which the people are permitted to purchase for more or less (for whatever they please.)
Three cash gaining ten taels makes the people covet the game without loathing. When they guess five characters they gain five lí; when six characters they gain five candareens; when seven characters they gain five mace; when eight characters they gain two taels and five mace; when nine characters they gain five taels; when ten characters they gain ten taels.
When this game was first established, the houses were often at a great distance, and communication being difficult and the people anxious soon to know the result respecting their gaining or losing, they employed letter doves to carry the news to the parties, whence the present designation: ‘The Game of the White Dove.’
In New Zealand, calling nicknames are not used as much as in the UK, but here are some of the more common ones. When calling, the caller will usually say both digits on their own first, and then the number itself, for example, “Three and two, thirty-two”. Some callers will use many of these slang terms, others just a few. However, “Kelly’s Eye”, “Legs Eleven” and “Top of the Shop” are often used, even if none of the others are. See section below for usage.
Number
Slang Expression
Kelly’s Eye / On its Own / At the Beginning / Start the Game
One Little Duck
Cup of Tea / One Little Flea / My little Fly
Knock at the Door
Man Alive
Lucky for Some
One Fat Lady / The Garden Gate
Doctor’s Orders
0
Tony’s Den (forename of current prime minister)
1
Chicken Legs / Legs Eleven
3
Unlucky for Some / Lucky for Some
6
Sweet Sixteen
1
Key of the Door
2
Two Little Ducks
3
Thee and Me
4
Two Dozen
0
Dirty Gertie
7
More Than Eleven
4
Droopy Drawers / All the fours
5
Halfway There
0
Bulls eye / Blind 50
1
Tweak of the Thumb
5
Snakes Alive / All the Fives
7
Heinz Varieties
9
Brighton Line
4
Red Raw
6
Clickety-Click
1
Bang on the Drum
6
and 6 – Was she worth it? / Trombones
9
One More Time
1
Stop and Run
6
Between the Sticks
8
Two Fat Ladies
0
Top of the Shop / Top of the House
There is at least one nickname for each bingo number called. See sources for more.
In New Zealand and Australia, housie is often used a fundraiser by churches, sports teams, and other groups, and raffles are sold before the game.
Bingo, as housie is known as in the UK (not to be confused with the similar US game Bingo), is an expanding and highly profitable business, with many companies competing for the customers’ money.
The two largest companies with bingo halls in the UK are:
Gala Bingo (Gala Group Ltd.)
Mecca Bingo Ltd. (part of The Rank Group plc)
As well as offering the familiar Housie/Bingo played by marking numbered books, most large clubs have their tables modified for the playing of Cash Housie or Mechanised Cash Bingo (using coin slots or, increasingly in the 21st century, an electronic credit system). This is highly profitable for the operator, with a typical “take” of fifty percent of the stake.
A typical housie/bingo ticket is shown to the right. It contains fifteen numbers, arranged in nine columns by three rows. Each row contains five numbers and four blank spaces. Each column contains either one, two, or very rarely three, numbers:
The first column contains numbers from 1 to 9,
The second column numbers from 10 to 19,
The third 20 to 29 and so on up until the last column, which contains numbers from 80 to 90 (the 90 being placed in this column as well).
The game is presided over by a caller, whose job it is to call out the numbers and validate winning tickets. He will announce the prize or prizes for each game before starting.The caller will then usually say “Eyes down” to indicate that he is about to start. He then begins to call numbers as they are randomly selected, either by an electronic Random Number Generator (RNG), by drawing counters from a bag or by using balls in a mechanical draw machine. Calling takes the format of simple repetition in the framework, “Both the fives, fifty five”, or “Two and three, twenty three.”
The different winning combinations are:
Line — covering a horizontal line of five numbers on the ticket.
Two Lines — Covering any two lines on the same ticket.
Full House — covering all fifteen numbers on the ticket.
In New Zealand in bonus (Super Housie) games, often three lines may be claimed – top, middle and bottom, usually with much larger prizes, are also played at various times throughout the session.
In the UK, however, it is most common for a line game to be followed directly by a two line game and a full house game, or just by a full house game.
In the UK’s National Bingo Game only a full house game is ever played.
In all cases, the last number called must be in the winning sequence.
When players first come to the venue (often a church hall, rugby club or other place with sufficient tables and chairs, including in the UK many specifically designed bingo clubs) they can buy a book of tickets. Players generally play between one and six books. In New Zealand a book usually contains fifty tickets which are played over the course of the night. In UK bingo clubs, playing is divided into sessions with different books, each with a designated number of pages. Players in the UK usually prefer to buy books of 6 tickets containing all possible numbers in different combinations.
As each number is called, players check to see if that number appears on their tickets. If it does, they will mark it with a special marker called a “dabber” or a “dauber”, shown here. When all the numbers required to win a prize have been marked off, the player calls out “Line” or “House” depending on the prize, and an official or member of staff will come and check the claim:
In the UK with the increasing computerization of bingo systems, an Auto-Validate system is often used in large clubs where a 1 to 8 digit security code is read out by a member of staff and checked against the entry for that ticket on the system. This saves the club from the time-consuming exercise of reading out every number on the ticket.
In smaller clubs, however, each number in the winning combination must be read out. The caller will check to see if each number has been called, and if it has, he will say something similar to “House correct – please pay out”.
There will often be an interval halfway through the game. In Australia and New Zealand Super Housie tickets are played and raffles (if there are any) are drawn. In UK bingo halls it is most common for Mechanised Cash Bingo to be played.
Housie is a gambling game played in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, where it is called Bingo. Players mark off numbers on a ticket as they are randomly called out, in order to achieve a winning combination.It is not to be confused with the similar American game Bingo, as the tickets and the calling are slightly different.
Business Aspect
In New Zealand and Australia, housie is often used a fundraiser by churches, sports teams, and other groups, and raffles are sold before the game.
Bingo, as housie is known as in the UK (not to be confused with the similar US game Bingo), is an expanding and highly profitable business, with many companies competing for the customers’ money.
The two largest companies with bingo halls in the UK are:
Gala Bingo (Gala Group Ltd.)
Mecca Bingo Ltd. (part of The Rank Group plc)
As well as offering the familiar Housie/Bingo played by marking numbered books, most large clubs have their tables modified for the playing of Cash Housie or Mechanised Cash Bingo (using coin slots or, increasingly in the 21st century, an electronic credit system). This is highly profitable for the operator, with a typical “take” of fifty percent of the stake.
Usage of Bingo nicknames in the UK
Since the introduction of the electronic Random Number Generator (RNG) in Bingo Halls in the UK, the usage of the nicknames above in mainstream Bingo has dramatically decreased. Bingo with an electronic RNG is much less time consuming and it has been discovered that replacing the nicknames with a simple repetition (in the pattern “All the fives, fifty five” or “Two and four, twenty four”), has allowed bingo halls to focus on the more lucrative business of Mechanised Cash Bingo (MCB), known in Gala Bingo Clubs as Party Bingo, and Mecca Bingo Clubs as Cashline.
It is perhaps nostalgic to note that the usage of these nicknames tends to be greater where the focus of playing bingo is upon fun rather than big business; this includes British holiday resort chains such as Haven, British Holidays and Pontins, and also church halls, social clubs etc.
Trivia
An average British game of bingo takes between four and four and a half minutes.
The average speed of a British bingo caller is 23 numbers per minute.
The average time to check a winning claim is 30 seconds.
There is a UK Caller of the Year Competition in which bingo callers compete for a cash prize and the chance to call the numbers in Las Vegas, as well as to become the bingo ‘ambassador’ for Britain.
The bingo industry employs over 20,000 people from callers, and change givers to cleaners and accountants.
There are 699 licensed and operating bingo clubs in Great Britain.
For the year 2000 the total estimated market was around 89 million admissions.
Over 3 million people regularly play bingo in licensed clubs.
Players are often members of more than one club.
Players often arrive 2 hours before the game starts, to enjoy a meal or chat with friends.
More than two in three people go to bingo for social, rather than financial reasons.
Many celebrities like to play bingo, including Denise van Outen, Elle MacPherson, Damon Hill, Mariah Carey, Bianca and Jade Jagger.
In 2004 more people attended bingo than football matches in both UK leagues.
The current Bingo Caller of The Year is Karl Seth, aged 33, from the Buckingham Bingo Club in Old Trafford, Manchester.
All bingo halls in the UK participating in the National Bingo Game must adhere to the somewhat more strict rules on calling numbers because of the overwhelmingly large prize money (sometimes up to GBP £500 thousand). This includes a double repetition of every single number, in the format, “Fifty five, both the fives, fifty five”.
Buzzword bingo is a game sometimes played in relaxed team meetings. The rules resemble those of bingo and housie, but instead of a matrix of numbers, each player’s card is a matrix of buzzwords. When a player hears one of his buzzwords spoken in the meeting, he crosses it off his card. The winner is the player who crosses a full line first and exclaims, “Bingo!”
One documented buzzword bingo occurred when Al Gore, the then Vice President of the United States known for his liberal use of buzzwords hyping technology, spoke at MIT’s 1996 graduation. The graduation class had distributed bingo cards containing buzzwords to the audience.[1]
A similar game is bullshit bingo, which is normally played for satirical or ironic purposes.
Flimsies are a type of bingo cards printed on thin sheets of paper. They are typically printed with three cards on a single sheet, but also come in other formats:
One card per sheet
Two cards per sheet
Four cards per sheet
Six cards per sheet
Nine cards per sheet
Flimsies costs $1-$2 per sheet and a win on a flimsy on a “special” game usually pays quite a bit more than a win on a “regular” game.
Bingo cards are used to play various bingo games, including U.S. style bingo and U.K. style Housie. Cards are usually made of cardboard or non-reusable paper, but more and more bingo halls are beginning to use computerized cards. Bingo cards are printed in various styles (see below) with randomized bingo numbers. As bingo numbers are called, players either check off the boxes with a pen or marker, or use a bingo daber/dauber to stamp the box.
U.S. Bingo Cards
A typical U.S. bingo card
U.S. bingo cards are 5×5 squares, with the columns labeled B-I-N-G-O and with spots contains numbers between 1 and 75. The center square typically is a free spot, and often has the word “free” printed on it.
U.K. Bingo, or Housie, cards are usually called tickets and differ greatly from U.S. Bingo cards. The cards contain three rows and nine columns. Each row contains five numbers and four blank spaces. Each column contains one, two or three numbers.
Bingo is a gambling card game named by analogy to the game bingo. Each player is dealt X cards and Y cards are dealt face down in common. The value of each hand is the sum of the values of each card, where the cards have blackjack values. The cards on the board are gradually revealed with opportunities to bet along the way. Bingo is usually played high-low with the pot being split between the players with the highest and lowest point totals. The exception would be if one player loses all his cards he takes the entire pot.
One example of play is “Sixty Six Bingo”. Each player gets six cards and there are six common cards. In this case there would be rounds of betting before any common cards are turned over, after the first two cards are turned over, after the third and fourth cards are turned over and after the fifth and sixth cards are turned over.
While similar to the game bingo, the card game should not be confused with bingo cards, which are used to play bingo or housie.
Bingo is a game of chance where randomly-selected numbers are drawn and players match those numbers to those appearing on 5×5 matrices which are printed or electronically represented and are known as “cards.” The first person to have a card where the drawn numbers form a specified pattern is the winner and calls out “Bingo!” to alert others to the win. Bingo is a game used for legalized gambling in some countries.
A very similar game called housie is played in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK (where it is called Bingo). This game differs only in ticket layout and calling.
Description of the game
Each bingo player is given a card marked with a grid containing a unique combination of numbers and, in some countries, blank spaces. The winning pattern to be formed on the card is announced. On each turn, a non-player known as the caller randomly selects a numbered ball from a container and announces the number to all the players. The ball is then set aside so that it cannot be chosen again. Each player searches his card for the called number, and if he finds it, marks it. The element of skill in the game is the ability to search one’s card for the called number in the short time before the next number is called.
The caller continues to select and announce numbers until the first player forms the agreed pattern (one line, two lines, full house) on their card and shouts out the name of the pattern or bingo. One of the most common patterns, called full card, blackout and cover-all simply consists of marking all the numbers on the card. Other common Canadian and American patterns are single line, two lines, centre cross, L, Y, inner square (4 × 4), roving square (3 × 3), and roving kite (a 3 × 3 diamond). On Canadian and American cards lines can be made horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Inner and roving squares and kites must be completely filled; roving squares and kites may be made anywhere on the card.
Bingo Cards
Canadian and American bingo cards are 5 × 5 grids of numbers only; dual daub, dual dab, or “double-action” cards have two numbers in each square. Each space in the grid contains a number, except for the centre square, which is considered filled. The highest number used is 75. The columns are headed with the letters of the word BINGO, and the letter is called with the number — for example, B-10, I-25, N-40, G-55, O-70. Numbers 1 to 15 are assigned to the B column, 16 to 30 to the I column, 31 to 45 to the N column, 46 to 60 to the G column, and 61 to 75 to the O column.
Each card has a unique serial number to permit quick verification by computer.
Culture
A typical bingo dauber, which is also used for housie tickets
Canadian and American games often have multiple bingos — for example, the players may first play for a single line, then after that is called continue playing for a full card, then for a consolation full card.
In Canadian and American Halls, players often play multiple cards for each game; thirty is not an unusual number. Because of the large numbers of cards played by each player, most Canadian and American halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called dabbers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however. The numbers already called and the patterns being played are also displayed on electric signs.
In American primary schools, bingo is used to teach students. The numbers are replaced with letters, pictures, words or symbols that represent important concepts.
History
Bingo can be traced back to a game called Lotto, played in Italy in 1530. The bingo name comes from a corruption of the name Beano, the name of a form of bingo played in the United States in the 1920s. Beano was so called because beans were used to cover the numbers. The name of the game was changed to “Bingo” when an excited player called out “bingo” instead of “beano.” The name stuck.
The business of bingo
In the US, the game is primarily staged by churches or charity organizations. Their legality and stakes vary by state regulation. In some states, bingo halls are rented out to sponsoring organizations, and such halls often run games almost every day. Church-run games, however, are normally weekly affairs held on the church premises. These games are usually played for modest stakes, although the final game of a session is frequently a coverall game that offers a larger jackpot prize for winning within a certain quantity of numbers called; a progressive jackpot may increase per session until it is won.
Commercial bingo games in the US are primarily offered by casinos (and then only in the state of Nevada), and by Native American bingo halls. In Nevada, bingo is usually offered only by casinos that cater to local gamblers, and not the famous tourist resorts. They will usually offer several two-hour sessions daily, with relatively modest stakes except for coverall jackpots. Station Casinos, a chain of locals-oriented casinos in Las Vegas, offers a special game each session that ties all of its properties together with a large progressive jackpot. Native American games are typically offered for only one or two sessions a day, and are often played for higher stakes than charity games in order to draw players from distant places. Some also offer a special progressive jackpot game that may tie together players from multiple bingo halls.
As well as bingo played “in house”, the larger commercial operators play some games linked by telephone across several, perhaps dozens, of their clubs. This increases the prize money, but greatly reduces the chance of winning due to the much greater number of players.
There are examples where Bingo halls are linked togeter in a network to provide alternative winning structures and higher to prizes. Loto Quebec in Canada have connected bingo halls in such a manner.
Bingo is also the basis for online games sold through licensed lotteries. Tickets are sold like for Lotto and the player get a receipt with his/her numbers, like a bingo card. The daily or weekly draw is normally broadcast on TV. These games offers higher prizes and it is typically more difficult to win. Examples are the game Extra provided by Norsk Tipping in Norway and Boxen provided by Dansk Tipstjeneste in Denmark.
The Bingo logic is frequently used on scratch card games. The numbers are pre-drawn for each card and hidden until the card is scratched. In lotteries with online networks the price is electronically confirmed to avoid fraud based on physical fixing.
Alternate variations
Two notable modern variations of bingo have achieved some kind of status in American culture:
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A typical U.S. bingo card
A typical bingo dauber, which is also used for housie tickets
