When thinking about bingo, we envision groups of old people laughing and chatting in front of a warm drink, but the game is more than a pastime for the elderly. It serves as a perfect excuse for social gatherings, fostering connections and exercising the mind.
How to Get Started Playing Online Bingo
Bingo, a widely popular game of chance in the UK, involves players purchasing tickets full of random numbers. A caller announces the numbers, and players mark them on their tickets. Prizes are awarded for completing one, two, or the entire ticket before others. The game’s roots trace back to 16th-century Italy becoming popular in Great Britain only during the 18th century.
Despite its common association with the elderly, Bingo attracts players of all ages due to its entertaining and social nature. Whether played online or offline, the pastime offers a fun way to spend time with friends. Beyond its social aspects, Bingo contributes positively to mental health and social skills.
Nowadays is possible to play this game from the comfort of your home thanks to many online bingo websites. You don’t know how to start? Let’s discover this game and how you can start playing it from your computer.
Where does bingo come from?
Originating in 16th century Italy as Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia, Bingo evolved from the Italian lottery and gained popularity in France as Le Lotto among the aristocracy. By the 18th century, it reached the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe.
The term “Bingo” in English slang – denoting a customs officer’s triumphant cry – became associated with the game during 1920s carnivals and fairs, attributed to Hugh J. Ward. Edwin S.
Lowe patented the first bingo card design in 1942. The 1960s marked a transformative era for bingo with the Betting and Gaming Act legalizing large cash prizes.
This led to a surge in bingo games hosted in dance halls and cinemas, drawing a considerable audience and solidifying bingo’s status as a popular social and recreational activity.
Differences between online and offline bingo
Online bingo is just like its real-life version but with a few twists. To better navigate the online world of this game, let’s since where the differences sit starting with one of the biggest advantages. First of all, you can’t miss numbers. That’s right, while playing online bingo is almost impossible to miss your number.
The player can choose to select the ‘auto marking’ option and just watch you card being filled up automatically when the number is called, or you can do it manually. Even with the manual option, the website is going to warn you if you missed a number, to make sure you win what you deserve.
Another novelty of online bingo is the Chat Rooms. Sometimes in bingo clubs chatting is not allowed and the game is played in silence. On the contrary, on these websites conversation is encouraged and the Chat Moderator is going to take care that everyone has the best experience possible.
The other factor is fairness. When humans are involved, we can never be sure the game is not biased if not tricked. Online bingo is usually really fair, this is because of the use of a Random Number Generator, a computer that acts as a caller.
Other fun games you can play online are inspired by bingo and merged with different kinds of games of chance, such as bingo slots and Pokeno, which mix casino table games and bingo.
How to play online?
To play the user needs to select the ticket price and the number of tickets. Some games are more flexible than others and will allow the player to select more than one card for any stake. In other cases, it will be possible to select just one ticket for the one-stake price.
Once you choose the ticket you can observe the card being filled up, or you can select the number called by yourself. The highest prize is Full House, when the whole card is marked, the other two are the First Lines, when just one is marked, and the Second Line, when two lines are fully marked.
Usually, the rules are clearly explained on the website, but the player can also address the Chat Room for any issue or question.
Jackpots are also available online. You can win one if you mark all the numbers on your card before all the other players after a certain number of calls. The jackpot prizes vary from game to game and the number of different games the website has plays a part in the availability of options.
Conclusion
Starting playing online bingo is easy and you can start from today. Playing online has the advantage of comfort and gives you a different experience than its offline version.
If you don’t have a bingo club in your area, you have accessibility problems, you want to check the game without commitment, or you simply prefer to play from your laptop. All these reasons are good to try one of the many high-quality websites and play online.