Online casinos are awesome places where you can play everything from the classic table and card games, as well as thousands of different types of casino slot games – and the perennial favourite, bingo.
While the game itself is relatively simple to play and understand, there are many different types and versions, some that are played in person in bingo halls, and others that are exclusively played online.
Before we look at the different types of bingo, let’s check out a bit of the history of this fun game of probability.
History of Bingo
The origins of the game we know as bingo is though to have been based on a lotter-style game from Italy that was first played in the 16th Century. This spread to France, then migrated to the UK and other parts of Europe by the 18th Century – although it wasn’t known as bingo then.
As these games became more popular, they became a feature at fairs and carnivals in the early part of the 20th Century, and it was in these public places that the name ‘Bingo’ was first used, attributed to the games master Hugh J Ward. It is said that he probably took the name from common slang.
The bingo card design that is used as a basis for all the bingo cards we use today was patented by Edwin S. Lowe in 1942.
Bingo really came into its own following the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act. This allowed large cash prizes to be offered to bingo winners, as opposed to the paltry sums that could be won at fairs and saw the launch of Mecca Bingo as a company. The Mecca group already operated many dancehalls and put large-scale bingo games into 80 of them in the 1960s.
While growth at the exponential rate that bingo had seen since the ‘60s had to end at some point, it has only been in the last couple of decades that bingo halls in the UK have started to decline – and that is more or less because of the online casino revolution.
How to Play Bingo
The bingo game consists of a set of numbers from 1 – however many. These might be drawn by hand as balls from a tombola machine, or through random number generation software.
Each player has a card with some numbers on it (the number of numbers depends on the type of bingo being played).
Numbers are drawn or called, and the players need to mark off the numbers that have come out as they are drawn. In bingo halls, this is usually done by daubing the numbers with a large marker, known as a ‘dabber’.
There are different ways to win, but usually the big jackpot goes to the first person who gets all the numbers on their card.
Winning Combinations
Depending on the type of bingo and local rules, the following are ways that players can win at bingo:
- Four corners – the top and bottom leftmost and rightmost numbers as shown on their card.
- Line – a horizontal line completed.
- Two Lines – any two horizontal lines completed.
- Full house – all the numbers marked off on the card.
- Patterns – marking off numbers to make a pattern.
- Letters – getting one number in each of the letter columns to make a specific word.
Types of Bingo
The most used type of bingo in the UK is the 90 Ball, and in the US, they tend to prefer 75 Ball. When you are playing online, you will often have the choice of which type of bingo to play, so the more you know about the differences, the easier you will find it to choose the best one for you.
90 Ball
The numbers 1-90 are in use in this game, and players usually have a bingo ticket that consists of 27 spaces, with nine columns and three rows.
These games tend to stick to the more traditional winning combinations – full house, line, and two lines.
80 Ball
80 Ball bingo was created with online play in mind and offers many more ways to win thanks to the online capabilities.
The numbers 1-80 are in use, and each card contains just 16 numbers in a 4×4 grid.
In an 80 Ball game, you can win through the traditional combinations, but each game will also have a specific pattern that you’ll need to match (usually letters, but occasionally shapes) to win a specific jackpot.
75 Ball
In 75 Ball, you have the numbers 1-75, and your card is a 5×5 square. The square has 24 numbers, with a blank space in the middle.
As well as the traditional horizontal lines, you can also make vertical and even diagonal lines to win and can win a specific sum if you make the word BINGO by having one number in each labelled column.
30 Ball
Known as ‘speed bingo,’ 30 Ball is fast and furious – but also fun. Less numbers in play means a smaller game card – only 3×3, and it also means that there is only one way to win; you need a full house.
This game is popular because you can play it so quickly and you don’t need to think about other winning combinations while you play.
