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Popular Pages |
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Popular Games |
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Beginners Guide |
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Bingo |
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Traditionally thought of as an
old person’s game, bingo has
grown in both popularity and
notoriety over the past few
years. It has become the
single most popular video
gambling game behind slot
machines, and much of that has
to do with the influx of
tribal casinos.
As
tribal casinos have expanded
across the United States, so
has bingo. It can only be
assumed that due to the
popularity of these casinos
and the fact that many of them
can only offer Class II
machines, that bingo would
take off. For Class II
machines are bingo machines,
and many states will allow
those but will not allow their
higher paying Class III
cousins.
According to
recent reports, players in the
UK have taken such a fancy to
the game that they are
spending well over £600
million (USD $1.2 billion) per
year on bingo tickets online.
The number one bingo site in
the UK is bringing in 19% of
the market, and the others
fall in line from there.
Estimates put the number of
online bingo players
increasing with 50,000 of the
original three million land
based bingo players now
playing online. They also
found that 90% of those online
bingo players were under the
age of 50, and 85% of them
were women.
Bingo can
actually be traced back to a
lottery game that originated
in Italy in 1530. Bingo has
matured considerably from the
first round of it, until we
have the video version of the
game that is offered in both
land based and online casinos.
The whole idea behind a bingo
game is that players are given
a card with random numbers
that fall between 1 and 75.
These numbers are linked to a
letter, and fall in line
accordingly:
B - lists
#’s 1 - 15
I - lists #’s 16
- 30
N - lists #’s 31 – 45,
and holds a free space in the
middle square of the row
G
- lists #’s 46 - 59
0 -
lists #’s 60 – 75
Numbered balls are then drawn
from a large ball and called
out if done live. If playing
online bingo you have several
options as to how you find out
if the numbers are the ones on
your cards. You can click on
them yourself, or you can use
a program called “auto-daub”
which marks your card for you
as the numbers are drawn. Some
online bingo programs also
offer “Best Card Sorting” or
“Best Card Highlighting” so
that if you are playing you
have the ability to see who is
closest to hitting bingo.
The idea is to get “BINGO”
before your opponents, thus
ensuring the prize for
yourself. There are a variety
of ways that you can win the
game, with the most
traditional being five in a
row either horizontally,
vertically, or diagonally – it
depends on the type of bingo
that you are playing.
There are two major types of
bingo played around the world.
There is the 75 ball bingo on
a 5x5 card with a free spot in
the middle of the card – which
is mostly popular in North
America. Then there is the 90
ball game which is so popular
in Europe, the UK, Australia,
and some of South America,
which is marked on a 9x3 card.
You have the ability to play
both on the internet.
The 75 ball bingo plays in
patterns from a simple line to
more complicated wins. You can
play where you have to fill
the whole card, or only part
of it, but the part that is
filled is usually in some sort
of shape. Popular patterns for
bingo are the “T” shape where
the top horizontal row and the
middle vertical row must be
filled; or the “C” shape where
both the top and bottom
horizontal and the far left
vertical columns must be
filled. They grow in
complexity from there.
The 90 ball bingo card is a
little different in that it
has three horizontal lines and
nine columns. Each line has
five numbers, so each card has
15 numbers. The first column
is 1-9, the second column is
10-19, the third column is
20-29 and continues until you
hit the final column which is
80-90. There are three ways to
win in the bingo game – you
can have one line filled, two
lines filled, or a Full House.
In a one line game you must
fill one horizontal line, the
two line game they have to
fill two horizontal lines of
their choice. Obviously, full
house means that they have to
fill the entire card.
TERMINOLOGY:
Breaking
the Bubble: The bubble is the
absolute minimum number of
balls that you need to get
bingo. If you are lucky enough
to get every number that is
called in your pattern, you
will have just won Bingo.
Cased/Waiting: When you
have all the numbers in the
pattern except for one, and
simply need that one called in
order for you to win.
False Alarm: Also known as
“bongo, “falsie,” or “social
error,” this is when someone
calls bingo but does not
actually have it. This can
happen for a variety of
reasons including mishearing
the caller or stamping the
wrong number in error. Usually
if someone calls a false alarm
they truly believe that they
have won bingo.
Forwards/Backwards: This is
all of the numbers beginning
or ending with whatever the
wild number is. Let’s say that
the first ball is 22 – every
number that begins or ends
with a 2 is a called number.
If there a number is called
that limits the number of
wins, like 19 (as there are no
numbers that start with 9),
another number may be pulled
as well. This is determined on
a hall by hall basis.
Jumping the Gun: This is when
someone calls bingo before
they actually have it. Usually
using calling a number before
it has been called.
Standard: All numbers ending
with the second digit of the
first number are considered
called numbers. Let’s say that
the number pulled is 15 – all
numbers ending in 5 are
considered called numbers –
including B5.
Wild
numbers: Wild numbers are
determined by the bingo hall,
and usually allow bingo
players to start with multiple
called numbers. It usually the
first ball drawn, but this can
vary on occasion.
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