Full Guide To Bingo: Which Types To Opt For & How To Increase Your Win Rate

Bingo (also called Lotto) is a game of chance using cards on which there is a grid of numbers. The banker will pick a winning chain of numbers or row randomly. Overall, Bingo is one of the most popular low-priced gambling games in the world. In this article, we are going to showcase the various types of Bingo and how to play it online.

1. What is Bingo?

General gameplay

There are a lot of Bingo variations, but they share the same core mechanic as below:

• Each player buys one or more cards divided into blank and numbered squares.
• A banker will call out randomly chosen numbers (usually up to 75 or 90).
• The first player to achieve a card (or a line) with all the called numbers will be the winner.

Legality

Bingo is most popular in the US, Britain and Ireland. The game is legal in most U.S. states that prohibit other forms of gambling. It is closely regulated in the United Kingdom and permitted in Ireland when the profits are for charity.

In other regions, Bingo has become pretty popular in Japan and has even been introduced at the casino in Monte-Carlo.

2. Which is better, offline or online Bingo?

Similar to many casino games today, Bingo can be played both Online and Offline, with not much difference between the two variants. Overall, Online Bingo tends to have much more types available comparing to a normal bingo hall.

If you want to play online, it is important to find a legitimate website to play. The three biggest criteria are high security, a big community of players, and provide payout on time. Players can check out Smart Bingo Guide for an updated list of reputable Bingo sites in 2021, along with a complete guide on how to play it online.

3. How many types of bingo games are there?

There are multiple variants of Bingo that you can play. Overall, the types are defined by the number of balls involved. Traditionally, the game is played with 75 balls. As time progress, there has been a number of variants... with even more popping up now as the game becomes online.

The number of balls in play determines your chance of winning. The fewer balls there are, the more likely you are to win. Below are the top types of bingo games you can find online and offline:

30 Ball Bingo

This is bingo on speed! You only play with 30 balls and 3x3 square bingo cards. This is great for people who just want to play a few quick games and have little time to do it. You could feasibly play and win more than once per hour.

This is a quick variant of bingo, with only 3x3 square bingo cards and just 30 balls. This is great for people who just want to play a quick game now and then. In this format, you could feasibly play and win more than once per hour.

90 Ball Bingo

This is the biggest variation of bingo, the opposite of the previously mentioned 30 balls. While 90 balls is not really popular in the States, it is the main format in the UK and elsewhere in the world. This format's bingo cards have 15 numbers divided into 3 rows of 5 and 90 balls.

There can be multiple winners in this format. The first person to have one row completed is the big winner. The second winner is the one with two rows completed...etc. If a player has all 15 numbers on their list scratched, they get the full house victory.

80 Ball Bingo

This is the most popular variant of online bingo. It uses 80 balls, with a bingo card of 16 squares, 4 columns and 4 rows. To win 80 balls bingo, you need to match your card to the winning pattern of that game. These patterns can be anything from row, column... etc.

75 Ball Bingo

This variant is popular in the US and Canada. In this variant, players use 5x5 bingo cards with 25 squares. There are actually 24 numbers with a free space in the middle of the cards.

Furthermore, the numbers and cards are also organized by letters B-I-N-G-O. For each letter, there is a group of 15 numbers assigned: B1-15, I16-30, N31-45, G46-60, O61-75. You can win this type of bingo by filling the numbers in a row or a column. For example, If the caller chooses "B-9," you would look for the "9" square under the "B" column.

4. What are the most popular Bingo patterns?

A bingo pattern is a shape or line that players have to complete on their cards in order to win. Besides the usual rows and columns, there are a lot of variants for the 75 and 80 balls bingo. This is probably the reason why these two variants are so popular... as there are just so many ways to win.

Below are some of the most popular patterns you'll see at bingo:

Four Corners

This variant requires you to get the four corner squares of the bingo card.

Outer Edge

Also called Frame. This pattern requires players to scratch the outer squares that form the border or frame of the Bingo card.

Multiple Rows/Columns

The traditional version of Bingo only requires you to get a single row or column. However, the banker can definitely increase that to 2 or more than 2. The game might even specifically states that you need to get certain rows or columns.

Full House

As mentioned above, the full house requires players to have all the squares on a board scratched. This is similar to the 90 ball bingo games played in the UK.

Letter Patterns

Players are asked to form a letter on their bingo cards. Popular letters are W, Z, E, L, and X.

5. How to increase your win rate in Bingo?

There is approximately a 50 percent chance that one card will require at most 41 calls to complete a Bingo, and approximately a 90 percent chance to complete a Bingo in at most 54 calls.

Overall, the more cards in play, the lower the odds of winning. The odds are calculated by taking the number of cards you’re playing divided by the total number of cards in play. So, if 100 cards are in play and you have 1 card, your chances of winning are 1 in 100. You can reduce that percentage by buying more than one card.

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