A Beginner's Guide to Playing Bingo Online

The game of online bingo is almost identical to the bingo games people play around the country in bingo halls, church halls and holiday camps. The big difference is that you won’t need to go out in the rain in order to play… or catch the late night bus back. Instead, you can stay in the comfort of your own home with a glass or mug full of your favourite tipple. You can even do a spot of multi-tasking by taking care of the kids or watching some television at the same time!

For those who have no idea about bingo, let us try to summarise it as quickly as we can. Each player buys one or more bingo cards. Each card shows a grid of numbers. When the game of bingo starts, numbered balls (or in this case, virtual balls) are randomly selected and called out to the players. As each number is called, players check to see if they have it on their bingo card. If they do, they mark it, and the first person to mark all of their numbers on the card wins a prize. In many games, prizes are also awarded to the first player marking a line or two lines of numbers, or marking numbers in such as way that they form a set pattern.

More cards, More chance

Because numbers are drawn randomly, it stands to reason that the more bingo cards you have to play with, the better chance you will have of winning. All online bingo halls allow you to play with several cards simultaneously, but of course the more cards you play, the more it will cost. Cards are usually priced between 10p and £1 each, so we’re not talking absolute fortunes here by any means, and one great advantage of online bingo is that your cards can be marked automatically. This allows you to play many more cards online than your marker pen would ever be able to cope with in a regular bingo hall.

Online bingo is perfectly legal in the United Kingdom as long as the site has the appropriate licence.

See next page for:

• Signing up
• The online bingo experience
• Next Steps