When Bingo finally made it to America, around the 1930s, it was known as “Beano”. The name came from the dried beans that were used as markers in the playing of the game. By the 1940s, Beano was renamed Bingo, and it was spreading all around the United States, Europe, and beyond. Bingo did not become extremely popular in the UK until the 1960s, but it is extremely popular there today.

Today, bingo is truly a worldwide game. There are hundreds of thousands of bingo halls all around the world, and an estimated 60 million bingo players. As technology advances, so does the game of bingo. Currently, more often bingo is played online than in all the bingo halls combined. It’s no surprise that internet gambling, including bingo, has caught on so well – it’s convenient, fun, and often more affordable than traditional bingo.

If you’re interested in bingo, you should try some online games at 888bingo. Owned by 888.com, 888bingo has been around for many years, and has hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. With a great selection of games, coupled with excellent customer service and support, 888bingo is truly one of the best places to play online bingo!

What happens when bingo sites go down?

Luckily not every rain cloud spells a category 4 storm. Sometimes it may just happen that a bingo site goes down while the site administrators are upgrading, fixing, redeveloping or otherwise tinkering with the site. Perhaps there are internal server errors, code errors, login errors, ISP problems, technical issues with hardware or any other number of possibilities. The most pressing concern however relates to two things: will the ‘Site is down’ issue affect your bingo game. And when will the site come back online. Luckily in the case of the latter, you’ll not be losing any money but you might be looking elsewhere for your bingo kicks. It’s a minor inconvenience.

If you’re gaming and there’s a power cut resulting in everything going black, then you should check the specific rules and regulations of the bingo room. These will typically be found in under wagering requirements or T&C. Remember

What are the benefits of playing at Cheeky Bingo?

First thing you’ll notice is that there are 6 free bingo rooms where you can play for free and win for real. The games on offer include the following:

• Slots and casino games – here you can enjoy slots, multi-line slots, super slots, table games and scratchcards.
• Better bingo games – this is particularly fascinating. There are options for 1 to go and 2 to go bingo games. That’s to say that you may well be 1 or 2 numbers shy of a winning bingo card every time. Annoying, isn’t it? But luckily you’re an instant winner with these exciting new games.
• 75-ball bingo and 90-ball bingo games – these rank among the very best of them. Your favourite games in the UK and European favourite (90 ball bingo) and the US and Canadian favourite 75-ball bingo.
• Chat games – these are a real cinch at CheekyBingo and there’s lots to enjoy here with Cheeky Bingo Chat hosts. Some of the popular chat games on offer include Be My Friend, You’re My Sweetie and Cheeky Grin. But remember that all is not free – you may need to register a real-money gaming account to enjoy these benefits.
• Pre-buy bingo games – at CheekyBingo are impressive. These games allow you to get in on the action before the games begin – effectively allowing you an early entry. There are great prizes on offer including TVs, laptops, electronic devices and much more. You could even win a whopping £50 in cash with the jackpots that are available every hour from as little as 1 penny a card.
• Progressive jackpot games – the jackpots from these games get pretty big, very fast.

Sign up bonuses and promotional offers at CheekyBingo

Cheeky – the mascot of Cheeky Bingo – is a big proponent of treating her loyal patrons to sizzling deposit bonuses. Note that all first time bingo players will receive a sizable 200% sign up bonus on deposits of more than 5 quid, with a max peaking at £100. And all regular players are going to be rewarded with a generous 50% bonus on all bingo deposits.  We found that Refer-a-Friend bonuses are rewarded with 5,000 bonus points (pretty generous) and Triple Your Money bonuses among others. There’s also the Cheeky Chest, the Cheeky Prize Pick, Cocktail Hour and Party Night – the list is substantial, as is the quality of the promotions on offer. As if that wasn’t enough there are also 1, 2, 3 cheeky points. 888fun.org is happy to give CheekyBingo a resounding stamp of approval.

Join the fun and enjoy fantastic bingo games with free entry into the National Lotto

There are two things that online players in the UK love – their bingo games and the lottery. And with Rollover Bingo there is a glut of both to be had. With Rollover Bingo you are awarded Lines for the Wednesday Lotto draw or the Saturday Lotto draw, depending on when you decide to enjoy your bingo/lotto gaming action. There are bingo jackpots with guaranteed cash prizes every day. With prize payouts up to £100 or more, it’s go time anytime at this top-tier bingo room. Bingo gaming variants include the following: 90 ball bingo (the UK favourite) with cards comprising 3 lines/5 unique numbers between 1 and 90 per line. Winners are crowned by completing one line of numbers. Next up is the option of completing 2 lines and finally the 3^rd winner is full house winner – the whole 9 yards. As per most bingo rooms, jackpots are shared if there are multiple winners. The US-style bingo game 75-ball bingo is comprised of 25 numbers from 1 thru 75 in a 5 x 5 grid.  But what I particularly enjoy about Rollover Bingo are the 1 to go and 2 to go games. These are pretty interesting: if you’ve got 1 number to go you still share part of the pot, likewise with 2 numbers to go.

And if you’re in the hunt for instant win games then a range of them are available in keno, blackjack, roulette and even roulette. With chat games and tournaments galore, this is certainly a premier gaming destination for UK bingo gamers. There are plenty points available for bingo players (lottery winnings = bingo points, chat room hosts gift plenty bingo points) such as the following:

Every time you play bingo and make the following purchases these are the bingo points you get:

A 10p card results in 1 BP per card
A 25p card results in 2 BPs per card
A 50p card results in 5 BPs per card
A £1 card results in 10 BPs per card

This is Rollover Bingo and it’s rollicking lotto-style gaming entertainment.

Other top-line UK bingo forums include the following

BingoPort is by far one of my preferred online bingo forums in the UK. It’s feature rich and sports a tremendous variety of online bingo topics, commentary and events. The sheer volume of content is dizzying. But it’s also top-tier and a quick review of this stellar site reveals it all. BingoPort reviews scores of online bingo rooms across the net. As a matter of fact the variety is astounding – everything from Gossip Bingo to Costa Bingo to Wink Bingo, Platinum Play Bingo, Bingo.com and many more are listed. I’d say there are at least 100+ bingo rooms listed, each with their own thoroughly compiled reviews. And when you’ve reviewed your preferred bingo rooms why not take a peek at TV Bingo Chat, Winners are Grinners and many more exciting bingo-themed subjects.

My third preference when it comes to UK bingo forums is without doubt also one of my best. It’s known simply as The Bingo Forum. And wonders never cease at this site. It’s rich with content and an active ‘player/writer’ base of contributors. Take a peek at the Life in General section of this popular bingo forum – you’ll see over 22,500 comments – that’s whopping! Clearly I’m not the only one who loves sharing thoughts at this popular online destination. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, why not post an entry to the ‘Nutter’s Office’ and see what the resident bingo forum guru has to say about all things trivial. It’s a real hoot-a-minute at The Bingo Forum.

These are a handful of the many top quality online bingo forums available to players. They provide a wealth of interesting and entertaining commentary, thought and analysis. And yes, there’s gossip galore, celebrity scoops and chit-chat to keep you laughing all the way into your bingo games.

• Speed Bingo – for players looking to amp up their bingo gaming potential in double-quick time. Try out a 3 X 3 bingo card and get in as many as 20-30 games per hour if you’re fast enough.
• 30 Ball Bingo – a hot player favourite, not dissimilar to Speed Bingo but with lots of juice to get you out of the starting blocks in no time at all.
• 80 Ball Bingo – the combination game, the inimitable bridge between the Americas and Europe. If the pace of 75 Ball Bingo is too fearsome and the volume of numbers in 90 Ball Bingo is a little loaded, then try out this exciting variant. It’s all new, all exciting and packs a wallop in its gaming dollop.

But where can you play tournaments with these top-line games?

The reason I’ve listed all these bingo gaming variants is to provide scope for what is essentially a very broad pool of games in bingo gaming. Remember that if you’re looking for bingo tournaments in the UK then these games are certainly worthy tournament contenders. I’ve enjoyed stellar bingo action at the following bingo rooms:

• One of my favourite bingo rooms online is Titan Bingo. They are currently offering players a whopping first deposit matching bonus of 500% up to £100. And that’s plenty.
  In addition there are fantastic promotions at Titan Bingo in the Money Mountain. And for UK bingo gamers the prize money is no less than £6,000. But that’s certainly not all because there is also the Bingo Cruise Contest. Here is where it gets interesting: imagine winning a fantastic cruise package to the value of some £12,000? Plus it comes with bonus spending money and all sorts of juicy extras. These are the giants of UK bingo – Titan Bingo is their name.
• Another first-rate bingo room can be found at Bingo Day. Players have endearingly termed this online bingo room one of the most satisfying online gaming venues. What I particularly love about BingoDay is that it’s a laugh-a-minute. Take their Splash for Cash promo for starters. These folks are giving away a mega £68,200 in prizes and cash. And if you’re really keen to get your game on then why not try out the Bingo Day’s ‘Bingo’s Got Talent’ promotion. The prizes on offer include 40” HDTVs and even promotional tickets to Britain’s Got Talent Live Tour. I’ve played here plenty of times and it’s feature-rich gaming with lots of community spirit to boot.

I have had the pleasure of playing in several UK bingo tournaments. There are 2 standard varieties to look out for: online UK bingo tournaments and bricks and mortar UK bingo tournaments. Both these variants provide a great deal of entertainment pleasure and whopping winners’ prizes. Okay enough talk, let’s put some grease on the bingo tournament machine. The top bingo tournaments in the UK are those that are accredited by the authorities (gambling certification and auditors) and of course they have to pay out big time. I’ve managed to scrounge together a sampling of the finest UK tourneys:

• Cheeky Bingo is a fabulous online bingo room offering this great promo – a £5,000 guaranteed game every single Friday. This game kicks off at 9pm and tickets can be pre-purchased. Note that you can play 75-ball bingo or even 90-ball bingo.
• 888 Ladies is a top-tier online bingo gaming operator and their spin on the bingo dial has just landed players right in the money. There is a super-sized £8,888 guaranteed in bingo tournament prize money up for grabs on Fridays. Players can pre-buy cards to get started in this sizzling event.
• PartyBingo offers many smaller bingo tournaments – but there’s still a whole lot to enjoy such as £50 bingo prizes and even £75 prizes.
• Crown Bingo is offering a full day of free bingo.  It’s called the Fantastic Free Bingo Sunday’s promotion. And there are two free bingo games between 12 and 24 on the hour, every hour, with big prizes to boot.
• The list is endless and some of the top sites I recommend for UK bingo players include William Hill Bingo, Caesars Bingo, Steamy Bingo and of course Mecca Bingo. Check out the prize money on offer at the latter bingo room.

What’s the scoop?

If you’re talking variety, then very little can compare to bingo. Besides 75 and 90 ball bingo, there is Speed Bingo usually played on 3X3 bingo cards, 30-ball bingo and even 80-ball bingo. These options are immensely popular with younger crowds who are not into conventional gaming. But the real beauty behind the game lies in its themed events, winning patterns and prizes. It is to these elements that bingo purists pay homage. Imagine a wedding-themed bingo game, or a Valentine’s Day bingo theme or even Baby Shower bingo? The options are endless and even corporates have taken to this game.

When it comes to winning patterns in bingo games – online bingo offers many exciting options – then the playing fields are wide open. Besides for the usual horizontals, diagonals and straight lines, there are winning patterns in the form of letters, numbers, shapes, symbols and even three-dimensional images! That’s right, bingo spares no expense in the inventiveness department and players are the ones amping up this game to the nth degree. I’ve seen 3D bingo cards in 3 levels where winning patterns are constructed in three physical layers. From an aerial perspective it’s clear that that pattern has been formed.

As you can imagine, there are fabulous prizes in both bingo halls and online bingo rooms. And let’s not even start with the sign-up bonuses that are on offer for players. These are all pervasive at leading online bingo rooms. Top-tier prizes include rock concert tickets, Caribbean Island Cruises, new cars, mega-paydays and much more. There are many superb bingo sites to choose from and most of the leading brands will reward you handsomely for signing up.

Many forms of bingo end the game when the first person to get a particular pattern from the drawn numbers. The winner is generally necessary to call out the term “Bingo” that signals the other players and caller of a possible “win”. All numbers are checked for correctness before the win is formally approved at that time the jackpot is safe and a new game is started. In this set of bingo, players participate against one another for the “jackpot”.

75 balls Variation: there is also 75 numbers that can be called in the game; therefore any tickets buying will use a collection of the 75 balls, generally the numbers 1-75.

Generally, the number grid consist of five columns or rows of 15 balls being called from right to left or bottom to top. The tickets used to play 75 ball variations have a sum of 25 numbers that should be crossed of in order to win.

90 balls Variation: this is different from the 75 balls variation, the 90 balls variation use tickets, which have nine columns and three rows. So in this variation, there are 27 numbers that player wants to get in order to bingo for house, two more from the 75 ball variation.

There are generally three chances to win in this variation; each win will get a different sum of money which depends on whether they deal with one, two or three horizontal lines, the prizes raises the more horizontal lines a players manages to get.

Similarities:

Though both the games are quite different, they still qualify at the game. Both games are using a randomized mechanism in order to call a particular number of balls, every versions use tickets as a method of allotting numbers to players and for players to tick off as they play.

The differences:

It has been stated that the most popular version is the 90 ball game and that completely it will replace the 75 ball version that will disappear.

However, so there is more luck to win in the 90 balls variations, players out to make money, rather than only for fun and entertainment, will often select this variety. The 90 balls also offer big prizes so more players are drawn to it than the 70 balls.