Paid Site Free Trials

Fortunately, for people who are interested in online bingo but are sceptical of putting up their own money initially, there exists the option to try free bingo. Free bingo generally comes in the form of a free trial on either a paid site or a site that is devoted entirely to free bingo games. Paid websites that provide a free trial period typically offer an allocation of account credits after a player has signed up for the site. They can then use the credits to buy in to a couple of games prior to putting up their own money.

Free Bingo Sites

Sites that are completely devoted to free bingo offer the same entertainment associated with playing online bingo, but without the potential to win money. However, people who tend to participate in these types of bingo sites are generally uninterested in the monetary aspect of the game. These players usually are attracted to the socialization and sense of community that are commonly associated with free bingo sites.

Bingo is the only game of chance that members of the armed forces are permitted to play and unlike other forms of gambling, the church does not frown it upon.  It fact it is used regularly as a fundraiser for worthy causes.

The first purpose-built bingo hall in the UK was Castle Bingo in the Welsh capital, Cardiff.  In Scotland, today, one in five of the population are regular players.

Unusual variations of the game of bingo include ‘buzzword bingo’, which is played in call-centres and workplaces, nationwide.  In this form of the game, players agree on ‘buzzwords’ used by their callers before the game starts.  They are then marked off as callers unwittingly say them.  Typically, the prizes in this game generally take the form of cups of tea or coffee.

One of the most unusual variations is ‘cowpat bingo’, which involves a field full of cows, divided into squares.  Players choose squares and at the end of a given time the field is examined and scored where cowpats have landed.  No pushing or shoving the cattle around is permitted in this game and losing players may well be handed a shovel.

Free bingo sites are nice for the occasional player as they offer prizes, just like membership sites.  The free bingo sites may not require registration that is also a plus to some players.  Membership sites, on the other hand, do require registration and a credit card to pay for services.  They use the registration information to pay out winnings earned in various games.

Membership bingo sites tend to offer many things that free sites do not.  There are typically more games to play, more variations, and often times links to other sites and features.  Memberships entitle people to receive special offers and bonuses, from matching deposits to special prizes on holidays and birthdays.  Because a membership site collects money from members as well as adverts, it can afford to pay out bigger prizes on a regular basis.  There are often guaranteed bonuses or prizes for members that make the game more exciting. There are often matching bonuses for initial deposits, as well as on-going programmes to entice players to spend more.

For those that are unsure what type of site to join, it may be wise to try a membership trial to see if the benefits are worth the cost.

Nowadays, gambling has truly become a worldwide passion with the growth of gambling on the internet, although it still has its fundamentalist critics.  Online betting is now a super-business, with not only existing familiar names like William Hill and Ladbrokes extending to the online world, but hundreds of new websites devoted to gambling opening up purely as online enterprises.

The principles of play remain the same, but have been remodelled or reproduced for the new electronic online format.  You can visit entire virtual casinos to play roulette by clicking your mouse on the appropriate buttons and icons, make winnings at bingo, and even scratch out the boxes on online scratchcards.  Everything from online bingo to spread betting on horses, financial betting and slots is available on the web.  All you need is a computer and a connection to the internet to start betting from the comfort of your own home and making potentially big winnings as well as having a good time. 

When playing bingo, you have to look between the person calling the numbers and your card or cards.  You have to take in the auditory clue; the call of the number and match it to a visual clue; the letters and numbers on your card and then make a decision.  If that decision is a ‘match’, then you have to mark off that exact number on your card.  The more cards you play, the higher the level of both concentration and eye-hand coordination is required, because you have a set amount of time before the next number is called.

You also have to keep an eye on your cards when you are getting close to completing a pattern.  Once you recognise that you have completed a pattern, whether the standard bingo one or a more complicated one, you need to bring it to the attention of the caller in order top claim your prize.  Also, in tests designed to measure mental speed, memory and the ability to take in and retain specific types of information, University of Southampton researchers found that people who played bingo on a regular basis were both faster and more accurate in all the areas studied.

So, playing bingo is more than just smart, it also keeps you smart.

It all started in 1997, when a management buy-in purchased 130 Gala Bingo Clubs from Bass Breweries. The management team at the company led the buy-in, having had the deal backed by PPM Ventures.

The Gala Group made its first move into the casino business in December 2000 when it purchased 26 Ladbrokes Casinos from the Hilton Group. They were now very well placed as the established leaders in the high volume, low stake area of the gaming market.

In February 2003, the private equity firms of Candover and Cinven acquired the group, purchasing it for the bargain price of £1.24 billion. In the August of 2005, Permira, a third investor, bought a piece of the company. It was now valued at almost £1.9 billion.

Gala became one of the top hundred companies in the UK when they purchased Coral Eurobet in the October of 2005. This deal fashioned Europe’s finest integrated bingo, gaming and betting company, giving them a very strong market position in the gaming industry.

The start of 2006 was very busy for the Group as in January they purchased the Country Clubs Bingo chain in Scotland. In February they acquired the Leo Casino in Liverpool.

Gala now owns approximately 162 bingo clubs, 29 casinos (one in Gibraltar), and almost 1,600 licensed betting offices. At the moment they have a licence to run 360 outlets in Italy and have opened about 80% of these.

Although there are still several independent bingo halls still in operation, a vast majority of the land based bingo market in the United Kingdom is controlled by two companies – Mecca Bingo and Gala Bingo. Between the two companies, they control almost a 50% share of the bingo marketplace.

The Gala Bingo chain is the largest in the United Kingdom, with 148 bingo halls distributed throughout the British Isles. These bingo halls account for a market leading 24% share of the UK’s land based venues, and the company currently have 5 million players registered as members. However, in turn with the current state of the bingo industry, only around 1.2m of these players are currently active. Each week, around 600,000 of these active members play bingo at one of Gala’s numerous bingo halls.

Although slightly smaller than rivals Gala Bingo, Mecca Bingo still control a solid share of the UK bingo market and currently have 103 halls throughout the country. These halls are regularly visited by almost one million active players, generating over £200m worth of revenue each year.

Along with bingo, these large chain bingo halls also commonly offer restaurants, fully licensed bars and gaming machine arcades to their members.

Bingo games are generally held in various venues, such as church halls or rugby clubs that are of a sufficient size to house the relatively large number of tables and chairs necessary to accommodate the players.  However, there are also specifically designed bingo clubs across the UK, which are operated by a number of companies, the largest being Gala Bingo (Gala Coral Group Ltd.) and Mecca Bingo Ltd. (part of The Rank Group Plc).

The game is always presided over by a caller, who is in charge of calling the numbers and validating the winning tickets.  Players must check their tickets every time a number is called.  If their tickets contain the number, they must mark or cross it with a special marker referred to as a ‘dabber’ or ‘dauber’.  When a player has marked all the numbers necessary to win a prize, he or she has to draw the caller’s attention, which is usually done by shouting ‘Bingo’ or ‘House’.  This step in the game is of the utmost importance as the final number that is called must be in the winning sequence and if the caller calls out another number the chances are the winner’s claim will not be validated. 

Oldest Bingo game – Bingo can be traced back to 1530 in Italy, where the game was originally called “Guioco del Lotto d’Italia”.

Oldest Modern Bingo game – The game, as it is currently played, started in 1928, when toy maker, Edwin S. Lowe discovered a carnival version being played at a Fair in Jacksonville, Georgia, USA.

Oldest online Bingo game – The first online bingo games appeared in 1996 in the US and were called Bingo Zone.

Largest Bingo game – The largest bingo game was held at Simon Bolivar Par, Bogotá, Columbia in 2006, at the Exito Supermarket chain. 70,080 bingo players joined up to created the largest recognised game of bingo, taking the record from one previously set in 2006, Los Angeles with 53,991 people.

Largest Online Bingo game – Bingo Night Live TV set the world record for the largest ever online participation in 2008, when 59,392 people logged on to play.

Fastest ever bingo win – Darryl Howe from Morton-on-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire scooped £18,000 with only 23 calls in 2010. The odds of winning a 90-ball game this quick are 93,400,706,414 to one.

Largest ever Bingo win – Soraya Lowell, Hamilton, Scotland won £1,167,795 in 2008.

Largest ever Online Bingo win – Anonymous woman playing Mecca Bingo won a massive £639,000 while playing online bingo in 2008.

The pattern known as “Blackout” (also sometimes referred to as “coverall”) requires, like “Full House”, every number on the entire card to have been covered. Unlike “Full House”, however, in “Blackout” there is a set limit on the number of calls that are allowed to be made before this is achieved. If no one can achieve this, the jackpot is rolled over into the next game. Another variation of “Blackout” is known as “Odd-Even”. This follows the same basic rule, with the twist that the caller will at first only read out either odd or even numbers for the first half of the game, and then only even or odd numbers for the second half. The pattern known as “Speedball” is exactly the same as “Blackout”, only played at speed with the caller barely pausing for breath between reading out each number.

The pattern known as “Picture Frame” requires every number on all four sides of the card to have been covered before “Bingo!” can be achieved. Variations of this include “Broken Picture”, which can miss out one of every two of the numbers along the edge of the card, and “Inside Frame”, in which a box frame smaller than the card itself must be covered.