Everything You Need to Know About Bingo (And More!)

In this guest post we take a look at the origins and history of bingo, and examine just why it’s so popular with millions of people around the UK.

Although it has taken off as a wildly popular internet game, bingo actually dates back hundreds of years, with historical records mentioning examples of bingo-like games in Italy and France as far back as the 1500s. It existed in many variations, including tombola style number dip games which were used to teach children to count, and eventually became a popular pastime for the French aristocracy.

As the game gradually spread throughout Europe, it became a popular part of UK mainstream culture in the 20th Century. It also spread across the Atlantic, and became equally prevalent across the United States of America and Canada.

Since as early as the 1920s, large-scale bingo halls became a common sight in British towns and cities. During this period, games of bingo became as much of a social pastime as a mechanism of gambling. Although once a popular Friday night pastime, the number of dedicated bingo halls in the UK is now in decline, dropping from over 600 ten years ago, to under 400 being registered in January 2014. This has largely been attributed to the smoking ban, as well as changing taxes and the prevalence of easily available online gambling. Overall, it seem that the game is becoming far more popular year on year, however, as despite the fall in regular bingo hall users, the internet version attracts over 3 million UK users every year – that’s about 5% of the population playing bingo!

Each country also has its own quirky variations on the names given to each ball. Some of the most famous examples of bingo calls, normally those which normally reference the shape of the numbers, are used in most English speaking countries (88 being two fat ladies as the prime example!). Some are more specific to the country’s culture – and make reference to meaningful birthdays (21, key to the door being a prime UK example).

Some popular bingo calls:

• 
Legs 11
• Two little ducks, 22
• One fat lady, 8
• Half way house, 45 (used in the 90 ball version)
• The same both ways, 69

The earliest known example of an online bingo game was launched in 1996 – and since then, hundreds of examples have cropped up. Many of the largest betting companies have branched out into bingo, often offering multiple, innovative types of bingo game. The 75 ball and 90 ball versions are still some of the most common, although special jackpots and themed games, such as the Britain’s Got Talent and Deal or no Deal games offered on UK site Titan Bingo are increasingly popular.

The mechanism used to play each time of bingo is similar, although there are some distinctive differences. 

The 75 ball version, popular in the United States and also on international bingo websites, are played on a 5X5 card, made up of 24 numbered squares and a centre square marked ‘free’.

There are numerous different types of bingo played around the world – the most common in the UK is the 90 ball version, although a game with 75 balls is more popular in the US.

Numbers are drawn at random and announced by the caller (or displayed on the screen for an online version!), and the player crosses off each number that appears on their card as it is called. Each game has a specific target – sometimes it’s a simple case of crossing off a straight line of five numbers – other targets may be more complicated – making a star, a square or diamond shape, for example. The winning player is the first to achieve this shape, and call bingo!

Other card variations include a 9X3 card for the 90 ball game. The card has 15 numbers across the nine columns, and each column contains numbers within a certain range. The first column will only feature numbers between 1 and 9, the second between 10 and 19, and so on, until the last column, which features numbers 80-90.

This version of bingo has fewer variations – it’s harder to make a star or a diamond shape! Instead, players normally seek to fill a line, then two lines, then a ‘full house’ – filling the entire card.

Many online games have built in features that players can choose to use, such as auto-daub, which automatically checks off the numbers on the card as they are called out. For some players however, this defies the point of the game, and part of the challenge is spotting the numbers before the next one is called. This is particularly true in the speed bingo variation of the game – the same general rules apply, however, the pace of the game is much faster, and players must keep their wits about them at all times. You can find many different versions of online bingo, so why not give it a go and see which one suits you!

 

Disclosure: This guest post is brought to you in association with Titan Bingo. Please see my PR and disclosure page for more details.