There is something about Bingo that we just can’t resist! It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason that makes it an engrossing game all over the world. If you like 75 ball Bingo for its speed and huge variety of Bingo patterns, your friend may be fond of 90 ball Bingo because of its simplicity. If the Aussies play Housie, Bingo players in UK call it ‘housey’ while ‘tambola’ is how the Asians know Bingo.

However, we can’t deny that the 75 ball Bingo variation is more popular, basically because of the wide range of Bingo patterns that it offers to suit various tastes of Bingo players.

There is a vibrant range of static Bingo patterns ranging from simple postage stamps to complex picnic tables for fun-loving Bingo players. You can also try out those typical straight lines, corners and coveralls too, if you want to get a traditional Bingo treat.

Then there are those naughty dynamic Bingo patterns for our adventurous Bingo players. These players daringly accept the challenge of these non- static patterns that move from 90° to 180° and from 180° to 120°. It does sound crazy, but it is good to be crazy at times.

All you newbies out there …cheer up because Bingo has ‘wild’ patterns in store for you. In the 75 ball Bingo variation, wild patterns give you an easy option to create stipulated bingo patterns anywhere on the bingo card.

And if you are on the lookout for longer bingo games…go for 90 ball bingo. It is played with 90 numbers and so the game takes more time to complete compared to 75 ball bingo. However, this version of bingo is not liked much as it does not have many bingo patterns to offer. It is mostly the plain horizontal lines, corners and full house that are played.

You can take a walk to the close by Bingo halls in your locality and enjoy all these variations with your Bingo buddies along with complimentary drinks and snacks.

But hey are you feeling tired? Don’t have the energy to step out in the cold? Or don’t have an access to the land Bingo halls? Don’t you worry! High technology Internet software tools have all the solutions have brought bingo halls right into your living room. All you need is a desktop, an Internet connection, a comfortable couch and a glass of red wine in your hands. Plus, the never-ending bonus offers of online bingo to keep up the excitement.

In the end whatever Bingo games variation you choose to play, your ultimate goal should be to grab the maximum fun. So, make sure you pick up the Bingo game that you think suits your needs best and have a Bingo bash.

Bingo is a versatile game. It’s a game of 75, 80, or 90 balls, with thousands of winning patterns. Over the years, or I would rather say centuries, Bingo has undergone a significant change. Men, women, adults, youngsters – everybody loves to play Bingo which was once considered a “ladies-only” game.

As a result, Bingo winning patterns have undergone a major change. With the invention of online Bingo, thanks to computers and Internet, today there are hundreds of interesting Bingo patterns to choose from and play on. These patterns are interesting, a lot of fun to play with and not exactly easy to win. In fact, it is these changes in the Bingo patterns that have brought in an element of challenge in an otherwise simple and staid number-guessing game.

The most common Bingo patterns are called static Bingo patterns. These kinds of patterns are very popular in online Bingo as well as land-based Bingo. These patterns don’t move. For example, let us take the Letter C static pattern– it will stay where it is. A player has to get the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15, 16, 20, 21, and 25 to match the ‘C’ pattern. Here it would mean five squares under B, and two each for I, N, G and O.

Dynamic patterns, on the other hand, are very challenging and are generated on the software-driven electronic Bingo cards of online Bingo games. A dynamic pattern can change anytime in the duration of a Bingo game. Let us take a look at the same example of the Letter C pattern. If it is dynamic, the letter C may change its position by rotating clockwise or anti-clockwise. These patterns are hard to complete –obviously the numbers on the first and last row and first column –may not help you complete the pattern which may have rotated to another position. However, it is a lot of fun to chase the pattern. After all, fun and money is what Bingo is all about.

Another variant is the wild pattern. Using the same example ‘C’, the wild pattern is one in which the ‘C’ can be plotted and completed by a winner in any manner. In land-based Bingo games, the required number of squares in such games is specified, whereas in online bingo games, the patterns are displayed.

Also, the letter or alphabet Bingo is one of the simpler patterns of a Bingo game –be it static or dynamic. These days dynamic patterns can come in different shapes based on images of say, a cake, a ship, a heart-sign and so on.

Whether you play Bingo online or at a land-based Bingo hall, you can find different pattern games to try your luck on. To be part of the fresh excitement that is conquering the online Bingo world, go for the dynamic patterns only after you have some expertise with static ones.

Bingo will continue to improvise and innovate. Who knows what other changes we will witness in the future. Whatever the change may be, fun and rewards will continue to be part of online Bingo.

Did I hear you say that Bingo is a woman’s game? It is not women alone who play and like Bingo. We men love Bingo too!

There is no denying the fact that a large chunk of Bingo players include women. But how can we forget that the game of Bingo was actually invented by a man- Edwin S Lowe?

Well, I am a man too and I accept that I just love playing Bingo. I can give a number of reasons for why I love Bingo.

To start with, it is the most fun-way to earn money. I am one of those who likes to mix a little pleasure with business. So I playfully try my luck at Bingo, but am very business-like about the money I wager and win. Especially in these times, with the recession has claimed many victims. I have seen friends who have been layed-off behave quite irresponsibly, whiling away their time at Bingo halls, wasting money by wagering without a thought, drinking and gossiping. Now, if I were to lose my job (God Forbid!) I would treat Bingo as an alternative. Why not? If you play like a professional, it can be quite paying.

Even now, it gives me a refreshing break after the days drudgery. I play Bingo online and avoid the additional expenditure on snacks and drinks. One of my friends who frequents the Bingo hall down the road, joked that the Bingo dauber costs less than a golf kit! But hey, online Bingo players don’t need a dauber –there is an automatic dauber feature as well!

Online Bingo is really cool! Playing Bingo, earning rewards, reaping beefy bonus profits and chatting with online Bingo buddies without leaving the comfort of the living room is every lazy man’s dream! I think it is the Sunday morning equivalent of my dad’s newspaper reading sessions! Except that my wife does not complain or feel left out like my Mom used to feel when Dad read the newspaper for hours on end! Yesterday in fact, my wife peeped over my shoulder and commented on the game’s progress. She then got so involved that she sat down with me and played an online game herself with me looking on. Speak of Bingo Bonding!

It is not as if I never visit the Bingo hall though. In fact, I accompany by wife there. We get our time together, a weekly outing, some tidbits to nibble on as well as chit-chat with friends. After all one cannot go to the movies, concerts or vacations as frequently as one can Bingo!

Hate to tell you this…there is a dark side to Bingo as well. It is all very well for us to rejoice hearing stories of big wins and revelry linked to online Bingo or Bingo Hall games. Let us not gloss over the incidents that prove that Bingo players can behave quite irresponsibly at times.

Not this, Baby Shower Bingo!
Take for instance, the parents of a one-year-old infant. Today, they face imprisonment up to a year for abandoning their child –left locked up in the car with the windows closed –in order to play Bingo at a club in Calle Mancor, Palma in Spain.
Though they claimed that they were checking on the infant frequently, it transpires they were engrossed in the Bingo game for three hours. They did not surface even when the cops arrived and ascertained the vehicle registration and ownership details –an exercise that took a good half hour.

Nickels Room, Beware!
Recently two women aged all of 60 and 85 respectively turned a lazy Bingo game into a tug-of-war in Texas. They were old friends who played regularly at the Del Rio Senior Citizens Centre. One of them suspected that the other had not dropped her nickels in the pot and did a manual check, counting the money out loud. This angered the other who started an argument. The verbal duel soon turned violent and the duo grabbed each other’s hair and clawed their faces. The sister of one of the women also jumped in to lend her support, and all three were bruised. They were admonished for spoiling a fun-game and sent home to cool down. They have also been barred from from playing Bingo at the Centre for 90 days.

Bingo Battery
We have heard of utensils, hair brushes and perhaps flower vases being flung around by angry couples. However a couple in Illinois hurt each other with Bingo daubers! Here is how it happened: Ms Chyrl S Miller returned home after 10 pm one night after playing Bingo. She found the door locked. Though she opened one lock with the key she had, the other had to be unlocked only with the key her husband had.

With growing anger, she hammered on the door to wake up Mr Jerry J Pitts. When he finally came to the door and opened it, she could not control her rage and lashed out at him with her purse. The Bingo dauber fell out and both of them took turns to use it as weapon against each other.
The police moved the couple to the Sangamon County Jail for domestic violence, after finding both injured.

Cheques by Post!

Patricia Barnes had been handling Royal Mail special postal delivery in Norwich, England for 14 long years. She had developed a gambling addiction alongside. To fund her online Bingo craze and slot machine gaming sprees, she stole more than £75,000 in cash and cheques to pay for her addiction to slot machines and online bingo.
The thefts were carried out between April 2007 and June 2008 and were in breach of the highest degree of trust that the public places in postal services. Hence she was sentenced to one year imprisonment. Interestingly, the judge Philip Brooke-Smith, observed: “I accept this was done to support a gambling habit that’s made very easy indeed with the availability of the Internet.”

Online Bingo in America seems to have found a friend in Democrat Representative, Barney Frank.  As of now, there is a ban in the US on Internet Bingo. However, if Frank has his way it may soon be legal to run online Bingo operations in the US. Which in turn would mean online Bingo players in America too can breathe easy and be assured of secure and trustworthy services while they enjoy Bingo from the comfort of their homes.

The Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection & Enforcement Act introduced by Frank to the Congress seeks to stymie the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed of 2006. The UIGEA had banned banks and other financial institutions from making transactions linked to online gambling. However, the UIGEA has not been enforced effectively, due to lack of clarity on several aspects of the law.

With an eye on ensuring a well-debated national policy on the issue, Frank is also introducing another Bill called Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act of 2009. This is expected to delay by one full year, the implementation of the UIGEA and its supporting regulations which were to be in place by December 1, 2009.

Meanwhile, Frank’s main Bill seeks to regulate the online gambling industry by introducing licensing. Only those Bingo, Poker or for that matter online casino operators who can prove their credentials in terms of character, honesty, reputation and prior activities will be issued licenses, if this Bill becomes law.

The Bill provides for stringent pre-licensing checks and operators would have to take on the responsibility of combating money laundering, underage gambling as well as comply with both state and federal laws in the US apart from applicable Indian Tribe limitations.

Applications will have to be accompanied by detailed financial records and personal details of directors to facilitate credit and criminal history checks. The licence when granted would be valid for five years and will be renewed based on good conduct and efficiency –failing which, it would be terminated. Violations attract imprisonment of up to five years under the proposed Act.

Of course, if the regulators step in to ensure clean operations, will taxes be far behind? Representative Jim McDermott is bringing in The Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2009.

Under this, licensed operators have to pay a 2% fee based on turnover. They are also required to collect taxes from winnings before payouts are made –thus ensuring that individual and corporate taxes owed on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected.

Whether or not Scottish singing sensation, Susan Boyle has ever tried her hand at Bingo — or betting for that matter —punters are wagering millions of pounds on her. If they are right, she is likely to walk away with the £ 100,000 prize amount on the Britain’s Got Talent show aired by ITV. When Boyle mustered the courage to audition for the show, she took a gamble alright. We cannot claim she would have stood such a strong chance, say in a game of online Bingo!

The stakes are high now. Giving her competition is Welsh-wonder Jamie Pugh who has just surfaced with his terrific rendition of ‘Bring Him Home’, from the musical Les Misérables. For those of you are not in-the-know, Boyle’s superb singing of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the same musical, sparked off the Boylemania online –with more than 100 million views of her video on YouTube.

It reminds us of the Bingo mania that has swept across the world, especially the online Bingo world.

Some of it is true, some of it is hype. Just as it is with online Bingo. Speaking of Bingo, one of the most truthful accolades Susan Boyle got was from the local bingo caller at the community center where Boyle has volunteered. “We’re all tired of 23-year-old models trying to sing on TV. Susan is a 47-year-old spinster who, by God, can sing,” 64-year-old Michael Nicolson, says in The Washington Post.

Apparently, Susan Boyle has not been employed for long. A small-town lady, she visited church, took care of her Mom till she died and only had a cat, Pebbles for company. She was often spotted at the Bingo hall, minding the brownies and petty cash, or sat by the dartboard at the Happy Valley Hotel in Blackburn, waiting for her turn at karaoke.

There is a reason why ‘Simple Susie’ has become such a legend. Boyle, is the embodiment of the American Dream. Most Americans believe in the rags-to-riches story or the tale of ugly duckling which turned into a swan. Now, there is just one more thing that can make than happen. You know it is Bingo, don’t you ? A simple game, where all you have to do is buy some tickets with numbers on it and hope that you are the lucky one whose numbers are called. If you do daub those numbers off your ticket, you win money! Go on, take a bet…unless you can sing, and sing well! Like Boyle does.

Online Bingo, like most games, is played just for fun by many. No one wants to throw away hard earned money in difficult times like these. But let me tell you, in a game like Bingo, it is possible to at least break even, and sometimes even make money without risking anything at all. Here is how: If you are not familiar with the concept of online casino Bingo bonuses, it may surprise you to know that casinos as well as bingo halls offer sign-up bonuses to new players making their first deposit. While there are varieties of bonuses, the most popular is the No-Deposit bonus. And most sites offer this in the form of Bingo Bucks or BBs.

BBs is literally free money that a player can play with. You can use it to play several rounds of Bingo  games on the site. And if you indulge in chat games while playing the main game, kind chat monitors also award more BBs to winners of the most simple games ever found online! Of course chat BBs are nominal — between $1 and $2. On this site, to avail BBs in the chat games, a player must have made a deposit in the past 10 days and must have picked up at least two tickets for the ongoing main Bingo game.

There is a fallacy that Bingo bucks can be used only for playing. You will be surprised to know that, you can even withdraw the BBs. According to the withdrawal policy at 123bingoonline.com you can withdraw a maximum of $50 of the winnings from a free sign-up bonus, provided you make a deposit and satisfy wagering requirements, if any.

How does this work actually? Here is an example: Let us say you log onto 123bingoonline.com. You avail the free sign-up bonus and win $100 in the form of BBs. Our rules say, you can withdraw upto $50, provided you make a deposit. So you make a deposit of $20, and ask for $50 withdrawal. Your account is reset with $20+$50 =$70 cash; It is this money that you can withdraw or go on to play with and win and draw!

What if you win $100 from the free sign-up bonus and decide to deposit $20 clubbed with a 300% deposit bonus with a 3X wagering requirement on Bingo and/or a 15 X wagering requirement on casino games? Well, well, your account will be credited with $50 alright, and of course the $20. But it will also boast of a $60 bonus. Your account now has $80. As per the wagering requirement, you have to place bets worth three times your account (80 x3) $240 on Bingo games or worth $1200 on casino games, before you withdraw.

Let us say, you decide to play chat games while you are meeting your wagering requirements on Bingo. If you win the chat BBs as well, then you jolly well have to fulfill the wagering requirements –if any– on them as well, before you can proceed with withdrawal. Let us say you win 10 BBs worth $1 each. Then your wagering requirement would go up by 10×3 =$30, so you should wager upto $270.

There is more. Life gets a little complicated as you go along! Let’s say you get put off by this, as you have not understood the rules properly before playing. You decide to abandon Bingo and you play slots on our site. Just a $1 bet. But hey! That means you have to also fulfill the casino game wagering requirement of 15 x deposit+Bonus Bucks+Chat game BBs + Any other Goodwill Bonus.

So as you can see, there is a certain method to the bonus buck bonanza! It comes, but it certainly does not come cheap or easy! You have to stay in the game long enough to reap the benefits.

Do you know what number the term “ two fat ladies” refers to? Or, who is considered the father of Bingo? Give up? Well, the term “two fat ladies” refers to number 88, and Edwin S. Lowe is considered as the father of Bingo.

There is much more to Bingo than simply daubing the numbers on your cards. Bingo is surrounded by many interesting facts and terms. Wanna find out? Here we go:

What was Bingo called in the beginning?

Bingo was called Beano initially. In Beano, a special “marker” was used to mark numbers. Can you name that? You may be surprised, but beans were used by players to mark the numbers called in Beano! The players just placed the bean on a disc carrying the letter and number called out.

Ever wondered how Beano was renamed as Bingo? It all happened during a carnival when a player got too excited and yelled “Bingo!” instead of Beano. This eventually led to the renaming of the game as Bingo.

Since then Bingo has spread far and wide and is now quite popular around the world.

In Australia and the UK, Bingo is known by a different name. What do you think that name is?

If you say, Housie, you get full points. As a matter of fact, it is played with 90 balls and a different Bingo card called ticket is used to mark numbers.

Looking for more questions? Let’s talk about online Bingo. Do you know what Bingo Bucks (BBS) are? It is a special way Bingo websites thank you for playing Bingo with them. You can use Bingo Bucks to play Bingo games but you cannot withdraw them directly.

What do you think people refer to when they say Bingo chat games?

When you play Bingo online, you can join the chat room opened for a particular game. The person who controls the chat in a chat room, called a chat host, often comes up with short games based on numbers, events and themes to keep players engaged and excited.

The popularity of Bingo has led to the development of many similar bingo games. Can you name one game that closely resembles Bingo?

The game is called Keno. It is played in casinos, both offline and online.

Bingo has been around for many years . Can you guess how old this game really is ? More than 450 years! It is one of the oldest games out there. No wonder the old and elderly seem to have a natural affinity towards it!

Do you know who invented Bingo cards that are still used? That man was known as Carl Leffler. He invented about 6,000 different Bingo cards and promptly turned insane! Beware, too much of anything is dangerous. We don’t want players to meet with a similar fate. So play with restraint, don’t go overboard.

Which is why we will stop here and come back later with some more Bingo tidbits.

What happened last week in England turns out to be another attempt to lower the taxes enforced on land-based Bingo halls. Will it yield any better results South Shields MP David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and a Bingo enthusiast himself, played the role of a Bingo caller. The  Bingo show was a huge success and many think that it will shape public opinion against the high incidence of taxes on Bingo halls.

According to media reports, MP Miliband said, “…A number of important issues have been raised, and I will be taking these back to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.” He was responding to a presentation on the hefty taxes that Bingo halls have to pay. “However, I think I’ll be sticking to my day job,” he chuckled, “and leaving the calling to the experts.”

As of now, land-based Bingo halls pay 15% VAT and a gross 15% taxes on their total revenues. It’s a good thing that MP Miliband is not the only government official who is aware of this problem regarding double tax. Would-be Tory MP Karen Allen, Conservative parliamentary candidate for South Shield, also visited a Bingo club recently. She also agreed that the 30% tax on Bingo is not helping clubs to bloom.

We do understand the problems faced by the offline Bingo industry. With the government rejecting their pleas repeatedly, perhaps the solution lies online.

When I was younger, playing Bingo altered my attitude to life.

As a teenager, I was depressed over my break up with Jenny. Clearing her mails from my inbox, I found a promo that said, “You will discover online Bingo means much more than a game at XYZonline.com.”

“Big deal,” I muttered, but went ahead and registered. I needed some distraction after all.

I entered a chat room where a Trivia Bingo game was on. The chat host popped a question: Which Hollywood romantic has topped the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Passions list?

I typed in the answer –Casablanca —and went on to imagine myself and Jenny in the roles of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman! The $2 bonus I earned, did not register on my mind. But there was some pesky little thing, cheering me, I noticed. I continued playing mechanically. Until the next question came up, “Which event or day celebrates love?” I answered this too –St Valentine’s Day on February 14. Another $ 2 dropped into my account and I began to sit up and take notice. So did pesky Sarah –she was saying, “Way to Go Sweetheart”, but I ignored her.

Question number three was “Where do you ‘wear your heart’ if you are quick to show your feelings? “Sleeve” I said and earned another $ 2. But Sarah had other ideas: “Do you even have one?” she said. I apologized and thanked her for cheering me on, even as I joined the cheering band. My quota of three correct answers was up.

Know what? I returned to the chat rooms often after that. I don’t know if it was a coincidence. Sarah seemed to be following me …into the Alphabet Bingo game, the Block of Five. I tried Add ‘Em Up and there she was. Funny thing is she thought I was following her!

Well, perhaps it was not just the Bonus Bucks that I was looking out for. Jenny was a distant memory and I was alive again. Or maybe it was just that Valentine was round the corner!