Online bingo has been a big part of the online casino boom this millennium, gaining in popularity as the years go by.
Bingo has been a staple of the community in the United Kingdom after purpose-built halls were erected in 1961 following the Betting and Gaming Act 1960.
Every single year up until 2005 new halls was being built in the UK, with nearly 600 in total, until the rise in online gaming among other factors, including the smoking ban and high taxes, saw a steady decline in footfall.
It’s understood that the game itself originated in Italy back in the 16th century, with around 1530 often cited. The game came from the Italian lottery, Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia. Bingo left Italy for France where it was known as Le Lotto. It is after that that it is believed to have travelled to the United Kingdom, and then to other parts of Europe during the 18th century.
Today, the game is more accessible than ever thanks to the internet and advancements in technology. Bingo can be played from the comfort of your couch, bed, or even on the go with a mobile or tablet device and a WiFi connection.
If you are new to the game, or just want to increase your chance of winning in general, then here are our three top strategies for winning at online bingo in 2021:
1. Buy More Tickets
It is often overlooked yet it is one of the simplest ways to increase your chances of winning. This particular trick will increase your chances of winning by multiplying the number of chances you have to win.
For example, if there are 10 other people in the game and you buy a ticket to be the 11th entrant, your chances of winning are 1/11, or 9%.
To apply our tip, you increase your chance of winning by purchasing more tickets. To make this example quick and easy to understand, let’s say you buy 10 tickets in total. There are now 20 tickets in the game, of which you own 10. That means you have a 10 in 20 chance of winning or 50%. Ideally, you want as many different numbers as possible on these cards to cover all possibilities.
With most bingo games there’s not just one winner. Usually, there are prizes for the first 1-4 players to mark off a column and then a grand prize for the first person to get a full house, by marking off all the numbers on their ticket. Or in our case, tickets. And because we have 10 of the total 20, we have an 81% chance of walking away with a prize.
2. Play Against Fewer Players
This technique is difficult to pull off in bingo halls when you have little idea of how many players are going to turn up on any given night. However, it can work a treat with bingo online. Most casinos have multiple bingo rooms to choose from, and they often tell you the number of players currently in them before you enter.
If you’re playing for a progressive jackpot, sure the purse will only rise slowly with few players in the game, but this gives you a much greater chance of winning the prize than you would play in a crowded room. Better to win something than nothing, right?
From our experience, bingo games at online casinos tend to be less frequent in the morning and late at night, but it may depend on which operator you go with as its popularity continues to grow online.
3. Take Advantage of Promotions
Nowadays most only casinos offer a welcome bonus to their new players, often by way of free cash to use or free games to play. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of these generous offers. What’s stopping you from signing up to a handful of different providers?
That is not all, many casinos also offer their players loyalty bonuses. So, if you hang around for a while you may be given more free cash and free games to play. And the winnings are real of course!
Bingo is a particular favourite with online casinos as many offer a handful of free games on certain days of the week, such as Mondays and Saturdays to their players. So, if you chose to only play the game on these days then you could really make the most out of it.
It’s not just daily free games that are offered by many providers, but you’ll find that many will also offer free games on a weekly and monthly basis too – so being loyal does come with its benefits too.
How to Win at Bingo
Finally, for our readers new to bingo, who have read up to this point. Here is how you win at a game of bingo in the first place.
A typical ticket contains 27 spaces, arranged in a nine by three table. Each row then contains five numbers and four blank spaces. Each of the columns contains up to three numbers, which are arranged as follows, with occasional variation depending on the provider as well as where the game is played.
- The first column contains numbers from 1-9 or 10
- The second column from 10-19, or 11-20
- The numbers in the third column are 20-29 or 21-30 and so on, up until the final column, which contains numbers from 80 or 81-90.
You will notice that tickets are strips of six. This allows every number from 1-90 to appear across all six of the tickets. If a player purchases a full strip of six tickets it means they are guaranteed to mark off a number every time a new one is drawn.
That’s the traditional UK variant of the game, otherwise known as 90-ball bingo. Only casinos will likely offer you a variety of games, such as the popular US version, 75-ball bingo. The tickets and calls are slightly different. Other popular versions that you’ll find online are 80-ball and 50-ball bingo.