Bingo Strategy

Although bingo is classed as a game of chance, we’ve got a few pointers for you to increase your chances of winning when you play bingo online. There are two main types of bingo games, in this article we’ll discuss the 75 ball bingo variety and how you can better your chances of hitting those cool bingo jackpots.

In 75 ball bingo, you have a chance of 1 in 75 of getting a ball when the game of bingo online starts. Before we get ahead ourselves though, let’s take a look at how the game of 75 ball bingo is played.

When you play bingo online of the 75 ball variety, your bingo cards or tickets have a random selection of 25 numbers. During the bingo game the numbers will be called out one by one, until a line, full house or pattern is won during play. In online bingo this means that you have several chances to win the jackpot before someone else does. Each time a bingo number is drawn it’s posted on the screen and you can either manually check your bingo cards or use the handy auto-daub feature that most bingo online websites offer.

So if the first number to be called is I 8, you can make the following deductions. You already know that in 75 ball bingo there are 7 balls that end in the number 8. If 8 is on your bingo card, then there are 6 bingo balls left that will end in 8. This means your chance of getting another 8 is lower than for other numbers. Also, because 8 is an even number, your chances are further reduced as the number of remaining even bingo balls has declined.

Online bingo strategy is a way of looking at the probabilities that one number will appear over another. The online bingo hopper you see on the computer screen is run by a Random Number Generator, which means that there isn’t a fixed pattern for the next bingo numbers to be called. So if you are serious about improving your winning odds when you play bingo online, you need to look at the bingo cards you select.

The odds of drawing 25 winning online bingo numbers from 75 bingo balls before anyone else are not that high. However if you pay attention when you select your cards, you can increase your winning chances.

So if one of your online bingo card choices shows the numbers 1 to 5 on the first row, in terms of probability you would do well to leave this card alone, however it’s still possible that these could very well be the winning bingo numbers. You’ll find that the best online bingo players select bingo cards with an even scattering of even and odd, high and low numbers. Some even suggest that as more bingo balls are drawn the numbers left in the bingo hopper will be closer to 38, but this is an unproved bit of bingo gossip.

Choose your bingo online cards wisely and you could find that you’re hitting the online bingo jackpots a lot more frequently!

Wagers

Bingo is not like traditional online gambling. A video poker machine or slot machine has a certain amount you play per line. You also have the poker tables that require a couple of bets during the game. When you play bingo online wagers you have an entrance fee into the game. Once you get into the game you are required to spend a little more to get the bingo cards you will play. Let’s break this down a little further to help you understand how to chose your bingo wagers.

Under the 75 ball bingo section you might find 5p, 50p, and up to £1 in order to gain entrance into a bingo game. These are the bingo wagers you must pay and this is the area you have some control over how much you spend while you play bingo online.

You may already have worked out how much money you want to spend in a month on bingo wagers. This is often figured out based on your income and expenses that you have in your daily life. The bingo wagers are extraneous money you put towards hobbies. In a month you might have £100 left over after all expenses are paid. You decide of that £100 you want to spend £20 a month for online bingo, plus some of the winnings you may earn. For example you might decide to play 20% of any winnings you earn and keep the rest.

If you have £20 to spend and you know you want to play at least 2 games of bingo online each night, then you can’t spend £1 a game, you’d need to wager 50p or less on your bingo games. In fact the 5p game might be more to your liking because you can play more than 62 games of bingo online each month at this rate.

Of course you still have your online bingo cards to purchase. This is different from the money you spend to get in to the game of online bingo. Typically you have a range from £1 to £15, depending on the bingo website to buy 1 bingo card. We will say that a bingo site charges £6 for 6 bingo cards. The entrance fee was 5p and you just spent £6 pounds – you now have less than £14 in your bingo budget for the rest of the month – unless you hit the bingo jackpot!

The amount of money you want to spend will determine the online bingo wagers you make, but more than that you want to choose bingo wagers that will help you get the most out of your bingo budget each month. The lower priced games usually have smaller jackpots, but then again you might have a better chance of winning or at least playing more games of bingo online.

Playing it safe

Bingo sites are everywhere you look, especially in the UK where online bingo has become an increasingly popular pasttime. There are a dazzling array of new online bingo sites popping up all the time, and it can be an aching temptation to try them all out, especially when you consider some of the seemingly outstanding promotions and opening specials so many of them seem to be offering. But the Internet is a wide open and largely unregulated space – so if you’re looking to play bingo online but you haven’t played before, how can you make sure you’ll be safe online?

In this article we’ll be taking a look at a few common sense tactics you can use to protect yourself against unscrupulous websites and unwelcome attacks by hackers.

First of all, unless you’ve got a recommendation from someone you trust impeccably, you should always do some research on a new bingo website you’re thinking of trying out – don’t just blindly go signing up to every one you see. Try googling the website’s name and see what kind of online bingo reviews come up.

Even better, find a website that does online bingo reviews that you can trust – such as bingostreet.com – that has objective reviews of the top bingo online sites out there, and see what they have to say about the site you were looking at. It’s far better to be educated than sorry.

Even if you decide to check out a new bingo online site against better advice, there are a few IT tips and tricks you can use to protect yourself. Firstly, either buy or download a good piece of antivirus software. If you want to do this on the cheap, it’s worth checking out AVG Antivirus, which offers a free version for home users.

This is a good choice because it comes with a plugin for your browser called LinkSafe that checks any links on screen against a database of known scams. If you’re heading into danger, the plugin will let you know.

Another great common sense tip is to make sure that the online bingo website respects the privacy of your personal information by encrypting it during signup. There’s an easy way to see if this is being done – simply have a look at the address being displayed in your browser’s address bar – when you sign up to play online bingo and register your details.

Normally you should see something like: http://your_website_name_here. But if the connection is being properly encrypted, it should instead have an S after the http part, so you’d see something like: https://your_website_name_here.

If you don’t see the ‘s’ then the connection isn’t being encrypted, and your personal information could be exposed to hackers.

Remember, it’s much better to visit bingo online sites you know are safe and that have been recommended to you either by a friend or by an online bingo review site you trust.

Gala Bingo Value

Value for money bingo has hit Gala Bingo online in a big way this month, which means they are bringing their online bingo players more ways in which to experience the “Gala Buzz” with their value online bingo. “Gala Value” is the all new place to go when logged onto Gala Bingo online and it takes you through all their value bingo offers which currently include (Bargain Bingo, B.O.G.O.F Bingo, Free Bingo, High 5 Jackpots, Windicate, 1tg and 2tg winners)!

Bargain Gala Bingo as the name suggests brings you bargain bingo ticket prices and these range between 1p and 5p. If you thought that these bargain bingo games would be few and far between, then you would be wrong as Gala Bingo have literally packed their bingo clubs with bargain bingo for you to play on a daily basis, so for all you that love a bargain, whether that be shopping or when playing online bingo, here is their full daily bargain bingo schedule to read!

* 1p Games – Times, between 3pm and 4pm every day in the Sharon Bingo Club
* 2p Games – Times, between 3pm and 5pm every day in the Royal Bingo Club
* 3p Games – Times, between midday and 2pm every day in the City, Country & Seaside Bingo Clubs
* 5p Games – Times, between midday and 2pm every day in the City, Country & Seaside Bingo Clubs

Continuing with the value bingo theme, you will find lots of (B.O.G.O.F) bingo offers to be had at Gala Bingo across all of their 75 ball bingo, 80 ball bingo and 90 ball bingo clubs every day of the week. Buy one get one free bingo, doubles your chances of winning bingo without it costing you any more of your own cash, so these games can be worthwhile taking part in.

75 Ball BOGOF – 00:00 – 23:00 every day in the Area 75 & Interstate 75 Bingo Clubs
80 Ball BOGOF – 01:00 – 20:00 every day in the 1980 Bingo Club
90 Ball BOGOF – 5am to 6am, 11am to midday and 8pm to 9pm in the City, Island, Dreams, Society, Royal, Country, Station, Seaside & Castle Bingo Clubs

Every single Thursday it is (Free Online Bingo Day) at Gala Bingo and we are not talking small change free bingo either because Gala Bingo give away £10,000 worth of cash prizes every week in their fantastic free bingo offer! Free bingo games take place between midday and midnight at varying times every hour at Gala Bingo and you can win as much as £1,000 on quite a few of their linked free bingo games of an evening. As your bingo tickets will not cost you one penny of your own cash to purchase, these really are no lose online bingo games.

Bingo Brain

“Do you like bingo? I think it’s a stupid game,” said a friend of mine when I mentioned I was writing articles for UK Bingo Sites.
However, research has shown that playing bingo can increase your mental agility, which would suggest that the game is anything but stupid.

Bingo is hardly the most active of games, and whether you play online or at clubs, you are unlikely to develop a fit and toned body in the process (unless someone comes up with bingo-robics). However, a study of 112 people – in which half of the group was made to play bingo, whilst the other half remained idle – showed that the people who played bingo completed tests more accurately than those who did not. These findings would suggest that though bingo may not help you develop a fit body, it may help to build a fitter mind.
The superior performance of the bingo players was evident across the whole age range of 18 to 82. While younger players were slightly faster, older players were more accurate, though the difference between age groups was marginal.

What could be the cause of this? Well, as people who play bingo would know, the game has a social aspect, whether it’s chatting online, or to friends and opponents in a hall – the mental stimulation of conversation can keep you sharper. On top of this, mental agility is increased as players have to multitask as they scan their cards, listen to the caller, chat to friends and stay alert so that their opponents don’t beat them to the jackpot.

Perhaps the advantage of the ability to concentrate on many things at once is why the game is so popular with women, who have long argued that they have a superior ability to multitask, and tend to be more prolific communicators. In fact, some online studies indicate that close to 90% of online bingo players are female, and in their mid to late forties, but the average age of players is becoming younger over time. In these studies, it was found that more than a third of online bingo players play on a daily basis. If the results of the accuracy test are to be believed, then there are a lot of women steadily making themselves smarter out there.

Bingo For Kids

Bingo can be educational for your kids; well that’s what the big wigs at Australian family club, Cardiff Panthers, think. The club has been encouraging its member’s children to take part in bingo as a school holiday activity, suggesting that it is a great way to get kids learning about numbers!

The club is encouraging kids to get involved with one of their parents favourite pastimes and have fun! By hearing numbers called out, kids are encouraged to link the number sound to the written number and improve their response time. With numbers from 1-90, it has become a novel way to introduce children to big numbers!

Cardiff Panthers have sent out a batch of posters to local schools, encouraging parents to get their children into bingo to aid their learning. Learning through play is one of the key devices to get kids understanding basic numeracy, but would you be happy with you children learning about numbers through bingo?

One thing it steers clear from is having an outright winner, letting every child have a prize, a drink and a piece of cake. Sounds good to us at bingo news, a piece of cake would go down nicely with a game of bingo right about now

Bingo Trends

Trends come and go with most popular leisure time activities. Bingo is no exception. Without a doubt, there are many trends that are associated with the bingo industry.

What pastime wouldn’t be complete without its own line of fashion? Yes, you guess it, bingo players can purchases article of clothing and accessories to express their love for the game. Bingo shirts are extremely popular. T-shirts can be found with simple slogans such as “I Love Bingo”, “Happiness is Yelling Bingo!” or countless other unique and creative expressions. Players can also create their own shirts to express just what they want about the game of bingo.

Accessories are also available for the bingo enthusiast. A wide range of bingo earrings can be purchased. These earrings can dangle anything from a bingo card replica to bingo balls. Some even wear bingo balls with their lucky number written on them. Wouldn’t that be fun to deck yourself out for your next trip to the bingo hall?

Seat cushions are another accessory owned by some bingo players. The seats found in bingo halls are usually quite uncomfortable especially if you’re sitting them in for any length of time. Often these chairs are simple folding chairs without any sort of padding on the seat. These seat cushions toted to the bingo halls aren’t your ordinary seat cushions. In keeping with their favourites sport, these players purchase seat cushions emblazoned with a variety of bingo patterns. These patterns might include pound signs, bingo cards, and bingo balls.

Unique daubers are yet another accessory that the bingo enthusiast might want to purchase. Some players prefer something more than the standard round ink stamp to mark their cards. Players can have different daubers, which are available in a rainbow of colours and sizes. These daubers can come in unusual shapes such as animals, seasonal shapes and lucky symbols. Eccentric bingo players can even purchase daubers with lights that flash when they are used to daub the bingo card. Some daubers are constructed with two markers in order to make marking bingo cards more efficient. This would be beneficial for bingo players that enjoy playing multiple cards.

Online bingo became so big last year

Despite the numbers of players growing all the time, there are new ads for the biggest sites appearing on our TV screens all the time and with 230 sites in the UK competing for new players year round, the competition is fierce indeed. The ads themselves often talk about the sign up bonuses offered to new players as well as the features hosted by the site, which has lead to ever more competition in the sign up wars than ever.

No wonder Foxy is so popular

The team at Nielsen Media Research who released the figures have been assessing exactly how much the UK bingo sites spent on adverting last year. In the light of this it has been suggested that Foxy Bingo spent the most on TV campaigns, with a stupendous £2.25m spent last year. When we consider the huge campaign foxybingo.com recently released announcing that Foxy ‘was back’, we at the Hideout are already wondering how much their total for 2009 will be!

A huge turn around on Tombola ads

The second largest spender on the list was tombolabingo.co.uk. With its rebranding and relaunch campaign setting them back an enormous £1.75m last year, they will no doubt be disappointed that the ASA have decided it doesn’t wholly approve of their roller coaster/fair ground look after it’s already been on air for a year!

Despite the enormous cost, we love watching the latest ads on the telly for all of our Directory sites at the Hideout. Let us know which is your favourite online bingo ad on our forum and we’ll see which site has spent their money the most wisely according to our members.

Get the most from your site

This week we’ve been putting together a quick guide to help our members get the most from whichever site they choose to play on. After all it’s our job to make sure you are getting the most from your gaming experience so here are some of the hottest tips around if you’re looking to improve your game.

Spam, spam wonderful spam

Once you have signed up to your site of choice, make sure you turn off the spam filter off on your personal email. Many of the bigger email hosts automatically put gaming emails into the junk folder, without you having even seen them. If this is happening to your mail it can mean you are missing out on essential updates and newsletters from your site.

Keep on top of software updates

If your site offers an instant play option, once you are satisfied that you like the site, make sure you download software for better graphics and updates. Taking up the site’s offer of an enhanced experience will only improve your game, especially in terms of sites such as Bingo Liner UK and Bingo Cafe where the software allows you to create avatars which interact with other players in a 3d setting.

Make sure you are a high profile player

You should also work regularly on keeping your players profile up to date. Some sites occasionally offer bonus points towards a monthly tourney if you update pictures, but whether or not you’ll get anything back in terms of a win is irrelevant when you consider the amount of friends you can make.

Features of Online Bingo

Apart from the advantages for smokers as mentioned, there are several other benefits of playing bingo online. For example, whilst playing online bingo, players can make use of time-saving optional features that makes playing bingo much easier, such as by using the “auto-daub” feature. Auto-daub is a neat little feature that automatically marks off the numbers on the cards as they are called out by the virtual bingo room. Usually a players would have to do this themselves, which can be a bit of a hassle especially when playing multiple cards.

Most of the online bingo software companies out there also support other convenience gaming features, such as the “Best Card Sorting” and the “Best Card Highlighting” features, where a player’s cards are automatically sorted and highlighted according to which is the closest to achieving bingo. The great thing about these convenience features is that it enables players to free up their time, which would otherwise be spent on these time-consuming activities, so that they can spend time doing other things… such as enjoy an interactive chat with other players or browse the web.

For all types of online bingo players, there are an additional variety of games that can be played to accommodate their bingo desires. The majority of the top online bingo sites offer several bingo games. Many of the more inexpensive game rooms would be more suited to those players who do not wish to stake much money at all but still want to have part of the action. For these players, they can find games that cost just 10 cents (US) or 10 pence (UK). In the interest of fairness to all players, many bingo games restrict their players to only purchase the same amount of cards as this would level the playing field against those players typically referred to as the “high rollers”, namely those who purchase large numbers of cards for the same game to maximise their winning chances.

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