There’s no question that bingo is one of the oldest and most popular gambling games in the world. Every player would like to know their odds of winning bingo, especially in the digital age, when data is king. Of course, you might enjoy visiting your grandpa or grandma and playing bingo alongside them, or you might even go to bingo halls regularly to play with friends.
But what interests us here is learning to understand online bingo odds so that you can give yourself the best chance of winning when you play on the internet.
There’s one basic rule you should always remember when asking the question: What are the odds of winning bingo? Every bingo card in a given game has the same chance of winning. This means that the fewer cards there are in a game, the better your odds of winning. But is there a magic recipe to increase your odds of winning a game of bingo? Read on to find out.
Understanding Bingo Odds
Calculating your chances of winning any given bingo match is not particularly complicated, especially when you consider the intricacies of most other forms of gambling. The key to any bingo strategy is understanding that the more bingo cards you personally hold, the better your odds of winning at bingo.
Let’s start with a hypothetical game involving 100 cards. If you buy all 100 cards at the start of the game, then you’ll win with 100% certainty. Of course, this would be an illogical thing to do; every bingo hall or website takes a cut, so you would lose money even by winning.
It’s better to imagine buying five of those 100 cards, which would mean you’d have a 5% chance of winning. Pretty simple, right?
To keep winning odds reasonable and equitable, many bingo sites place restrictions on the number of players in each game. Let’s picture an online bingo room with a limit of 10 players, each of whom can buy up to 10 cards. If you and each of the other nine players were to buy 10 cards, your chance of winning would be 10%.
If you buy fewer cards, your chances are smaller. But if you buy 10 and each of the other players decides to buy fewer cards than the limit allows them to, you’ll suddenly become the most likely to win.
When you’re playing an odds game like bingo, you need to be aware of all possible outcomes. In bingo, there are three major factors to consider: the number of players, the number of cards, and whether or not there’s a guaranteed jackpot at stake.
Guaranteed jackpot games can attract thousands of players to some of the best bingo sites to win. These games usually offer a greater financial reward; for example, it’s possible to win as much as 1,000 quid on a £1 ticket.
At events like these, you have to decide whether you want to invest more money by buying more tickets, or take a long shot by buying just one ticket among several thousand.
Ever since the game was invented, bingo odds of winning have been front and centre in players’ minds. Trying to pick the right numbers even before the game has started is nothing new. On the contrary, it’s as old as the game itself.
How Does Bingo Work?
Bingo was invented in Italy, and the game has come a long way since players would mark their cards with beans to keep track of which of their numbers had come. If you’re wondering “how many numbers in bingo?”, there are several variations to be aware of.
The most common variant is 90-ball bingo (15 numbers across three rows), but you can also play 80-ball bingo (a square with 16 numbers arranged), and 75-ball bingo (24 numbers in a square and empty field in the middle). These are the most basic types of bingo, and the only significant difference between them is the number of balls included.
Winning bingo varies slightly according to the type of game you’re playing. In 90-ball bingo, a full house is when every square on the bingo scorecard has been marked off your ticket.
“Two lines” is a situation when two rows – they can be horizontal, diagonal, or vertical – have been marked off your ticket. “One line”, unsurprisingly, denotes that one row of squares has been marked off your ticket.
In 80-ball bingo, you can win by having horizontal, vertical, or diagonal winning lines. In 75-ball bingo, you need to complete the required pattern in as few calls as possible.
Online Bingo
Digital technology has changed countless aspects of modern life, bingo among them. Online bingo sites constitute a rapidly growing industry; worldwide, there are now hundreds of sites that let you play this great game securely.
Of course, even though you don’t need to go to a physical bingo hall to play the game nowadays, the basic principles and the atmosphere remain largely the same online. No matter whether you’re playing bingo in a traditional hall or from the comfort of your own home, you can always enjoy the social aspect of the game.
The odds of winning bingo have also remained the same, which is a relief. But, of course, not all change is bad. One of our favourite things about online bingo is that most operators now also offer you the chance to play the game on your mobile phone or tablet. There’s never been a more convenient way to enjoy the thrill of the game.
To begin playing bingo online, you’ll need real money to buy playing cards. The best online bingo sites offer a secure way of doing this; you can pay using your debit card, or via eWallets like PayPal or Skrill.
The online bingo industry is heavily regulated in the UK and all online providers must adhere to the rules set by the UK Gambling Commission. All you need to do before you open your account is verify that the site you’ve chosen holds the appropriate gaming licence(s). If it does, you can rest assured that it’s a secure place to gamble.
So, which are the best bingo sites to win on? Well, the best way to identify these is to consider bonuses, security, and the number of players on each site. When you find a site that satisfies your personal criteria, it’s time to open your account and deposit some funds. All you need to do after that is to choose your bingo room and start playing.
To participate in a game, you’ll buy bingo cards. Money from bingo card sales goes into the pot from which winning players take their prizes. Typically, the more cards in the game, the greater the prize pool. You can only hope the cards you buy contain the winning combinations
Just like in real life, you’ll play in bingo rooms with real players. The rules for winning and the code of conduct are the same. If you win, money will be automatically transferred to your account. A small difference is that in the online bingo room you’ll have a chat host, while in a bingo hall there’s a live caller.
Ways to Win at Bingo
It’s natural for players to want to identify the most common bingo numbers called so they can improve their chances of winning. Certainly, it would be much easier to know how to win at bingo if we could tell you which numbers are most likely to be called out. Unfortunately, anything you might have heard about some numbers being more commonly called than others is purely mythical.
The laws of probability dictate that, over a long period of time and a large sample size, there will be no statistically significant variance in the frequency with which each number gets called, given that the game is fair. That means that it doesn’t matter what numbers you choose; your bingo odds will remain the same.
In reality, the way to give yourself the best chance of winning in a physical bingo hall is to make sure you pay attention to every call. If you miss one of your numbers being called, you might fail to get bingo, even if you have the winning card. Thankfully, in an online bingo game this process is automated, so you can take it easy.
To win, you’ll need to mark off all the numbers in a predetermined pattern. This could be a straight line, a diagonal pattern, or even your whole grid, depending on the rules of the individual game.
If you’re unsure as to how many cards you should buy, you can find a bingo odds calculator on the net. These calculators use the same mathematical processes we described earlier in this article to calculate odds.
However, these calculators cover a range of different varieties of bingo and their associated odds. These programs can calculate your odds in the decimal, fractional, or “American” format.
The common denominator is that, even when you scrupulously calculate bingo odds, you’ll come to realise that bingo is a game of chance; it’s impossible to accurately predict whether you’re going to win. After all, where would the fun be if you knew the outcome?
No matter which of bingo’s many variations you decide to play, two things remain the same:
- The fewer cards involved in the game, the greater the chance of any individual card winning.
- The more cards sold, the larger the overall prize pool will be.
A serious player needs to know what their bingo winning odds will be before they decide which games to play and how many cards to buy. In the next section, we’ve compiled a few more tips for you.