Online Bingo Guide
Bingo hit the internet just a few years ago, and its instant popularity took us by surprise. The seemingly simple game that we all played as children actually has a mass appeal among adults of all ages. The difference between the game you played as a kid and today's form of online bingo is that you can now win some serious cash.
It also doesn't hurt that bingo is a fairly simple game that you can pick up and play without pouring over pages of rules. When you combine the ease of getting started with the allure of winning real money, we shouldn't have been so surprised as to why bingo took off like it did.
Now that we're firmly on the bingo bandwagon, it's time to share with you what we've learned over the past few years. Welcome to the BookMob.ca online bingo guide.
Getting Started
Online bingo has the simplest learning curve of all gambling games. If you really wanted to, you could probably skip everything and jump right in. However, there are four important topics that it wouldn't hurt to read through before you start. As the saying goes, it's always better to be over-prepared than it is to be under-prepared.
1. Picking a Site
Choosing a site is the most important thing you need to get right with online bingo. There are dozens of places you could go to play bingo, but they arn't all created equal. Safety, promotions, and ease-of-withdrawals are the three most important factors to look at while choosing a site. Other factors include the types of bingo games offered, prize pools, and social features such as chat rooms and chat games.
You can read more about picking a bingo site here.
If you're not interested in reading more about the ins and outs of picking a site, here's a quick list of our top picks:
- Bet365 Bingo
- William Hill Bingo
2. Getting a Bonus
The first interaction you have with any new gambling site is the welcome bonus. The competitive nature of the industry had created an environment in which bingo sites constantly try to out-do one another with bonuses and promotions. As a new player, you can pretty much have your pick of welcome bonuses.
The thing to keep in mind with welcome bonuses is that they always come with terms and conditions. It's important to understand how these bonuses work in order to find the one that works best for you. You can read all about bingo site bonuses here.
3. Understanding Jackpots
Jackpots are where the money is in online bingo. Any time you win a game, the reward is some type of jackpot. The size of the jackpot depends on the number of players in the game, the cost of playing cards, and any promotions that happen to be running at the time.
The general rule is that the more expensive the game is, the bigger the jackpot. That's not a hard-and-fast rule though. Sometimes inexpensive games attract large numbers of people and the jackpot grows naturally. Other times, there might be a special promotion in play or there might be a progressive jackpot that has been growing over the past few weeks.
It's not totally necessary to understand how jackpots work, but it does help to know what you're getting into before you buy cards for any one game. If you would like to know more about the different types of prizes in online bingo, you can take a look at our bingo jackpots page.
4. Learn a Little Bingo Strategy
Bingo strategy comes last in our list because strategy doesn't play a large role in bingo. This is a gambling game that relies mostly on chance. You buy your card, mark off your spots as they are announced, and hope for the best.
However, there's a little strategy you can implement that helps in less direct ways. For example, bankroll management doesn't change your odds of winning, but it does make a huge difference in your long term success. Take a look at our bingo strategy page to read more about it.
Winning Money with Bingo
If we were going to write a list of frequently asked questions, the question of whether or not it's possible to actually win money with bingo would be at the top of the list. So if you're wondering, yes it's entirely possible to win real money with online bingo. People do it every day.
This is why it's so important to choose a legitimate site. It's one thing to win a game of online bingo, but none of that matters until you get paid and have the money sitting in your bank account. The most reputable bingo sites have been paying out winners for years now. Some of our top-rated sites are actually offshoots of other gambling websites that were established years before we even had online bingo.
Having said that, you should know right now that bingo isn't the game to play if you want to strike it rich. You'll see the occasional $50,000 jackpot if you play often, but most bingo prizes are worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. It's nice money for sure, but it's probably not going to pay for your future yacht.
The thing to remember with bingo is that it's an experience. If you want to win BIG money, you might want to look into poker instead. Bingo is something you play to have fun, chat with your friends, and to possibly win a little cash.
The Social Side of Bingo
Much of the appeal of bingo is related to the social side of the game. This has always been true of the game. My grandparents loved to play bingo, and even though they took home the occasional jackpot, they didn't play it to get rich. They played because it was a fun way to pass an evening and spend time with their friends.
Online bingo has a similar appeal except for a wider audience. If you look at the demographics, online bingo is played by adults of all ages. You'll run into retired housewives, young men, and everyone in between. Bingo sites understand this side of the game very well, and they make it a point to encourage the social side.
Most bingo sites include chat rooms that allow you to talk with the other people while you play. They also have chat moderators (CMs) whose job it is to welcome people to the game, encourage conversations, and even host chat games. Some sites even go so far as to include friends lists so you can keep up with the friends you've made online.
The money is nice, but the social aspect plays a big role in maintaining the popularity of bingo. If it was all about the money, people probably wouldn't stick around for long. Bingo is too simple on its own to stay interesting over the long haul. The social side of the game is what gives it long term staying power. That's also what makes bingo unique compared to all other gambling games.