Bingo has a long, illustrious history, one that might surprise you -certainly, its origins are a world apart from crumbling bingo halls populated by old folk. For a start, it originated from 16th Century Italy, it wasn’t called Bingo and it spread fast, first across Europe and, in more recent years, the Americas.
It’s easy to see why it’s popular. Originally, played socially, Bingo (or Beano as it was formally known in the US) slowly ratches up the tension until it explodes in a winning exclamation!
But by the 1990s Bingo’s popularity was on the wane, the ban on smoking coupled with the rise of electronic games were already taking their toll. And then the world went online.
While our modern internet age condemned many a Bingo Hall to the dark, a plethora of bingo sites started to gain traction online. But this was Bingo turned up to eleven.
Not only were there more variants of the game, but technology even allowed for the social side of proceeding back into play. Bingo was back, but with so many new flavours of Bingo to choose from, where does the casual gamer begin?
That’s where we step in. Below, we’re going to take you through the most popular incarnations of Bingo, beginning with the basic formula for control.
75 Ball Bingo (traditional)
Old school Bingo Halls in the US will recognise the 75 Ball version as the real deal, in the UK, the typical version was 90 but the principal is the same. In the US, players are given cards of five columns, each with five squares, with every square containing a random number between 1 and 75 except the middle square.
Each column is labelled B.I.N.G.O and numbered according: for example, ‘B’ is 1-15, and ‘I’ is 16-30. ‘N’ is 31-45, and so on. Once each player has settled down with their card and readied their dauber (‘daub’, ‘dib’ or ‘dob’) a caller will draw a random ball from their bingo ball machine.
If a number on the card matches the corresponding call, all the player has to do is mark off the relevant number with the dauber. The first to fill the card and get a ‘full house’ calls out Bingo! And wins a prize…
Prizes used to be domestic appliances or some form of labour-saving must-have. But when Bingo left the stuffy halls of the past and went online everything changed.
75 Ball Bingo (online)
See above to win the old-fashioned way with a full house, but online, prizes can be won by getting horizontal and/or vertical lines too. And by prizes, we’re not talking about a dubious toaster, online prizes mean money, a lot of money.
In 2012, Englishman John Orchard won $7.7 million playing bingo online. His stake was a mere 34 cents…
90 Ball Bingo
90 Ball Bingo is more typical of the type of land-based Bingo played in the UK, and it’s popular online too. Though in online Bingo there are three ways to win.
A full house is the most obvious way of getting a prize, but before that, players can win with a horizontal line. Get two horizontal lines and another prize is up for grabs.
Of course, the more balls the longer the game. For many people that’s just the way they like it, especially when playing with others, but some folk like it faster.
80 Ball Bingo
80-ball Bingo is going to be quicker than the 90-ball version, but speed isn’t what attracts players to this variant of the game. First off, the winning pattern of the game changes each time, it’s not just about filling a square -for example, the pattern could be ‘x’ shaped.
But its main attraction is in the variety of ways you can win. Vertical and horizontal lines can see you winning a prize, even covering the four corners can be worth something!
30 Ball Bingo
Hold onto your hats, folks, this one is fast!
First off, you can only win with a full house, and secondly, you just get a simple 9-number 3×3 grid. This means that games are rarely longer than two minutes, you get your Bingo hit and carry on with your day.
But there is something else at play here too. Despite being an online creation, the 30 Ball variation of Bingo is actually quite traditional.
Not only does it epitomise the purity of the old-fashioned Bingo (very quickly) it also says a lot about the game itself. Bingo can be played fast or slow with a variation in the number of balls, but it’s still the same game that’s been around for hundreds of years.
Maybe this explains why in 2023 more brick-and-mortar Bingo Halls opened than closed.
Bingo is definitely here to stay.
