Bingo has been around for many years, longer than a lot of people actually realise, it is played throughout the UK and the United States in small halls, large venues where companies make vast amounts of money from the players and the memberships can reach into thousands. In the smaller halls it is normally played for prizes but in a large bingo hall large amounts of money can be won if the correct numbers are called.
Surprisingly the game can be dated back to the 1500's where it was based on a lottery game and quickly picked up it's nickname of Lotto. It started out in Italy where a state run lottery took place and numbers were pulled out of a bag, winners were determined if they could match the numbers in a straight line on their Lotto card. France became involved with this game in the 1700's.
Europe was soon captivated by this game, in the United States it was launched as an organised game in the 1930's, players would be supplied with their bingo cards and would even use dried beans to act as markers.
In the UK it is now one of the highest played games and people will have a hight out at bingo halls and also use these to socialise with their friends, there are even bingo games where all of the bingo halls are connected via a computerised system so that the whole country can at some times be playing the same bingo game and as you can imagine these do offer large monetary prizes.
To play this game you simply need bingo cards which in the traditional game will comprise of 15 numbers ranging from 1-90 at random that are spread over three rows, 5 numbers on each row. The bingo caller will either have 90 numbers in a bag or use a machine that will randomly pick out each number one at a time. If you have the corresponding number on your card then you can either cover the number over with a marker or use a dabber ( this is a felt pen that leaves a permanent mark over the number).
If you can match 5 numbers in a straight line before any of the other players then you can shout to prove that you have won. A checker will then check your card to make sure that you do have the correct numbers and if so you will win the prize or cash payout.
Some bingo halls will then carry on and play for two lines and this is followed by a full house, this means that all of your fifteen numbers have been drawn out and you have completed your card.
A large but very popular variation to this game is where the bingo card is where the word “bingo” is spelt at the top of the columns so when a number is shouted out it is preceded by the appropriate letter so say number one is shouted then it will be shouted as “B1”.
The latest innovation that has all bingo players gripped are the online bingo sites, there are many of these and most of them also offer chat rooms so that you can talk to other players while you are playing the game and they may also have other rooms where you can play fruit machines etc.
Bear in mind these sites will probably charge you to register and you will need to pay for each game that you play, the prize money is allocated to you but often you cannot draw this from the site until you have paid a minimum amount in, always check the site rules and regulations before you register.
With these sites you will normally get three playing cards for each game, the numbers are marked by the click of the mouse and a list of shouted numbers will appear at the top of the screen in the order that they were shouted.
It is very easy to spend more on these sites than you realise at the time so always set yourself a limit and when you reach this stop, don't make the mistake of thinking that if you keep playing you will always win any lost money back into your account.
Always make sure that you are alert while playing the game, if you miss a number it will be too late to shout “Bingo” on that winning number if another number has already been called.
With the traditional fifteen number cards when you play six cards you should have every number from 1-90 spread over the six cards, this can often help you play as you know that somewhere you need to mark a number with each number shouted.
Many players say that they have strategies for winning at Bingo and will have various superstitions which they claim helps them win, this just cannot be true as the numbers are shouted out at random, it is impossible to strengthen your odds of winning, the only way of doing this is by playing extra cards.
©2009-2010 How to Win a Lottery created by Jan Hvizdak, best viewed on Opera