Mon, Apr 23, 6:33pm by William Brown
Last Updated Sat, Feb 8, 4:24am
Online bingo has become one of the most popular real money and interactive community-involved gaming experiences on the Net, and is now a massive industry. Australians have more options than ever before to partake in this exciting game of chance no longer reserved for elderly ladies with hearing aids in nursing homes.
Bingo is packaged in a couple of different formats when played on the Internet, and here’s how the styles differ:
Live community bingo games: Traditionally played in halls and clubs around Australia, community-based bingo now been transformed in to a far more convenient online gaming experience, powered by the latest and most advanced technology and software (like Microgaming).
Bingo enthusiasts can partake in live multi-player scheduled games which are hosted by trusted and dedicated online bingo sites, such as TrueBlueBingo.com. As opposed to a caller at a pub or bingo centre, the online version is run by tested and fair random number generators (RNGs), and players battle against other members who have chosen to play in the same bingo room. Live chat with others while in-game, select from a wide range of games and ticket prices – all with different pot sizes and many offering progressive jackpots – and take advantage of great rewards and promotions such as no-deposit bonuses, weekly and monthly cash prizes, refer-a-friend promos, and more.
Single player, computer simulated bingo games: There are also games designed for single-player mode, hosted by online casinos, where RNGs are used, but such games aren’t aligned with any type of community base. Games like Ballistic Bingo, Electro Bingo, Pharaoh Bingo, Samba Bingo and Super Bonus Bingo are titles available at sites like RoyalVegasCasino.com and AllSlotsCasino.com, and are thoroughly entertaining single player titles based on bingo with unique rules and pay-tables.
Combining both formats: What’s great is that sites like True Blue Bingo offer in-house single-player bingo games like the ones mentioned above, and you can even play these games while involved in a community game of bingo. Other casino titles – popular traditional and progressive jackpot slots like Mega Moolah, Avalon II, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park and the Dark Knight Rises, scratchcards, table games like blackjack and roulette, video poker and more – are also offered at True Blue Bingo.
Traditional Australian bingo is played in its 90-ball format, however Australian online bingo halls have the ability to offer both 90-ball and 75-ball bingo, so players can experience both styles of play.
The bingo game schedule: Once we’ve registered an online account, we can choose the bingo room we wish to play in, and go ahead and purchase our housie tickets. Always keep an eye on the bingo games schedule to check when the games you wish to partake in are commencing. All types of games including those with progressive jackpots are available around the clock, so if you’re a night owl and enjoy late night bingo, you’ll find plenty of rooms to choose from in the early hours of the morning.
When playing online, the numbers on the bingo cards are randomly selected for you. All online bingo rooms will impose a maximum number of bingo cards you can buy per game in order to keep things fair, but the maximum amount is very high – so unlike many traditional land-based venues hosting housie, which impose strict restrictions, online bingo rooms often allow their members to buy up to 250 tickets per game (maximum can vary), with a game played on average every four minutes. Our recommended bingo sites such as True Blue Bingo allow players to purchase multiple bingo cards for scheduled games across multiple bingo rooms.
All players participating in the particular game you are playing have also purchased tickets, and the money collected from ticket sales enters the overall jackpot prize pool to be won (the bingo room will take a small cut of this pot as a hosting fee). Once time runs out to buy any more cards, the game begins and an automated bingo caller calls out randomly selected balls (ball numbers determined by RNGs). Player cards are automatically marked off when one of their numbers are hit.
How Do You Win Bingo?
In 75-ball bingo games, cards show numbers ranging from 1 through to 75 set out on a 5 x 5 grid, with a ‘free’ space in the middle. There are pre-determined card patterns for each and every 75-ball bingo game you play in an online room. The free space in the middle of the card acts as a number which has already been filled.
The pattern is shown on your bingo cards and if you successfully fill that pattern first, you will win part of the overall prize pool, according to the set prize distribution amount. Fill your entire card (full house) and win even more.
Some examples of 75-ball bingo patterns, such as Broken Frame, Bullseye, Butterfly, Candles and Cake, are shown in the adjacent image.
In 90-ball bingo games, cards show numbers ranging from 1-90, and each player’s tickets are set out in a rectangular pattern with numbers split across three lines, and five numbers appearing on each line (as shown in the blue adjacent image).
The prize pool is split three ways: a percentage of the pool is awarded for the first player to fill any one line; the first player to complete any two lines; and the first competitor to complete all three lines (a full house).
If players fill their cards at the same time (happens more often than you might imagine), the prize is split evenly. Consolations prizes are also awarded in both formats of the game.
New players at bingo websites will be granted welcome bonuses upon sign up. At TrueBlueBingo.com, players receive a free $5 no-deposit bingo bonus and a 200% first deposit bonus up to $100AUD. Regular and loyal players benefit from a 25% recurring bonus on every deposit between $20 and $100.
In terms of legalities and government regulations, playing real money online bingo in Australia is 100% legal. You’ll have no issues funding your accounts with Australian currency and withdrawing your winnings so long as you stick with the recommended housie websites suggested here. While it is illegal for Internet gaming operators to offer real money interactive gambling to Australian residents (Interactive Gambling Act, 2001), in practice, this law only applies to Australian operators; offshore organisations have never been targeted for offering their services to the Aussie public – and the offshore companies whom are trusted and reputable make playing online bingo fair and secure for our citizens.
We can also play free games at True Blue Bingo – the site offers players scheduled housie games that don’t cost you a cent to play or get tickets. Read more about free bingo games here.
Our endorsed Aussie bingo rooms all accept the most popular forms of payment and work flawlessly with Australian banks such as:
Deposit and withdrawal options are displayed below (all payments are available in AUD, USD, GBP, CAD & EUR):
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Our recommended bingo rooms use the same Secure Sockets Layer technology utilised by all major financial institutions, ensuring transactions are kept private and secure.
Websites which accommodate Australian bingo players such as True Blue Bingo are renowned for their friendly chat rooms and building strong communities of Internet housie members. Each game you partake in gives you the opportunity to chat with fellow players, while there are also dedicated chat games (in which you are required to make an initial deposit to participate in) which offer the chance to win bingo bonus credits (known as BBz at True Blue Bingo) for guessing words, ‘shouting’ out something specific before anyone else, picking lucky numbers, and other quirky and fun antics.
The Australian bingo websites we endorse offer games with progressive jackpots up for grabs. These online bingo jackpot games hold jackpots which grow as more players join the game, and continue to increase in size until won by someone.
Check True Blue Bingo’s ‘advanced buy’ feature which displays all games for the next seven days, so you can make an informed decision to which tickets you wish to buy – note the game type (free, PJP, buy 1 get 1 free), ticket pricing, time, date and more. Other unique in-game jackpots include Special Bingo Jackpots (SJPs – mega and mini), where colours and numbers of balls called come in to play – find out more about these jackpots at True Blue Bingo.
While housie is a game of chance, that doesn’t mean you can’t better your odds of winning when playing with real money. The following strategies should be considered for your next Web-based bingo game.
Playing Multiple Bingo Cards
The simple technique of playing as many cards as you can works well offline, but most centres and clubs impose tight restrictions on the total number of cards one individual can purchase per game. Online, restrictions are far looser and at True Blue Bingo, players can often buy 250+ cards per game. Mathematically, the more cards you play, the better your chances are of hitting bingo first.
The Tippett Bingo Theory
The Tippett theory is a complex analysis of randomness invented by British statistician L. H. C. Tippett, in his book Random Sampling Numbers. The theory states: “As a random sample is increased in size, it gives a result that comes closer and closer to the population value.”
In plain English, this means the more bingo numbers called, the more likely the new numbers called are going to be close to the median number (45 in 90-ball and 37/38 in 75 ball-bingo). So, when playing a longer length game, choose cards with numbers closer to the median number. Few housie players are familiar with this strategy.
An easy way to know whether a game will be longer or shorter in length is to check the pattern used in 75-ball bingo games – complex patterns will take longer to complete, while simple patterns will often be filled in a short amount of time. 90-ball bingo is harder to determine if the game shall be long or short.
Though it can take many different forms depending on when you play, bingo is undoubtedly one of the world’s most popular social gambling games. Often played at fundraisers or for charity purposes, bingo is also be a serious gambling enterprise, with many casinos offering games with life-changing top prizes. Today, online bingo is just as popular as the live game, allowing players to enjoy the same social interaction and the thrill of winning jackpots from the comfort of their own homes.
While several forms of bingo are played around the world and on the Internet, most bingo play falls into one of two categories. 90-ball bingo (also known as “housie”) is most common in the United Kingdom, and Australia, as well as many other countries. In this game, players have tickets that feature three rows of nine spaces each, though not every space will have a number. Players will have to completely fill one or more rows in order to win. In the United States, 75-ball bingo is the most popular format used. This game features cards which contain five columns of numbers with five rows each, with a straight line being the most common winning pattern.
In a game of bingo, a caller announces numbers as they are randomly drawn. As numbers are drawn, players mark them off on their tickets or cards, keeping track of which numbers have been called. The first player to completely fill in a prescribed pattern – for instance, filling in a full row in 90-ball bingo – is the winner. There may also be multiple winners: for instance, the first player to fill one row may win, as may the first player to fill two rows and the first player to fill their entire ticket.
When a player has successfully filled out the winning pattern, they are traditionally asked to shout something to announce that fact. Common phrases include ‘bingo’ and ‘line’. What is important is not what’s shouted, but rather the effort to attract an official who can verify the win. If playing online, most casinos will automatically mark of the numbers for you and then at the end of the round, you will be paid out automatically if you win.
Online bingo has proven to be extremely popular; there are dozens of different real money bingo sites which accept Australian players and our AUD. We recommend True Blue Bingo, which offers both 75-ball and 90-ball bingo, as well as slight variations of the game, including bingo with progressive jackpots. You can read our review of True Blue Bingo here.
Online bingo works under the same rules as traditional land-based bingo games. However, there are several features that make online bingo somewhat more convenient and easier to play than the version you’d play in a casino or church charity game. For instance, many Internet bingo sites offer options such as “auto-daub,” a feature that will automatically mark called numbers rather than require players to do so manually. Similarly, players with multiple cards can take advantage of card sorting features that allow quick access to the cards closest to winning.
Online bingo also allows players to highly customize how much each game is played for and how many cards they buy for each game. Players can often choose to play in games where the number of total cards or cards per player are limited, preventing big spenders from dominating the games. Chat features allow players to interact socially with others in the same game.
See also: How to Play Bingo on the Internet
Yes, online bingo is completely legal for Australians to take part in. The IGA has no laws prohibiting players from playing at real money sites, most likely to be located offshore as the IGA does make it illegal to operate an online casino within our borders.
Unlike in some countries, Australians have numerous methods available for making online bingo deposits. For starters, most online gambling sites will be happy to accept deposits made using a credit or debit card, with cards carrying Visa or MasterCard branding being the most likely to be accepted.
If you’d rather not use a credit card to make an online bingo deposit, there are other options that are also fast and safe to use. One method growing in popularity is the use of online banking payment systems that use your own bank’s online interface to help you make a deposit. In Australia, the leader in this area is POLi Payments, which can be used by Australians who hold accounts with a number of the largest banks in the country.
While those might be the fastest options available, others can also be used. Many players like opening an account at an e-wallet site such as Neteller or Skrill (formerly Moneybookers), as these can be used to manage several online gambling accounts and process both deposits and withdrawals. Bank wires and prepaid methods are also commonly used to fund bingo accounts.
While playing bingo for real money is the only way to win cash prizes at most Internet bingo sites, free play options are usually offered as well. Free play games can be used by those who mostly like to play bingo for the social experience, or for checking out a bingo site’s software being determining whether or not to play for real money. Almost all real money bingo sites have a free play option, and many social games on sites like Facebook also have free bingo.
Related: Bingo Deposit and Withdrawal Methods and Bingo Tips.
Bingo sites are a big part of the mobile gambling movement, and many online bingo sites can now be accessed from your Apple iPhones and iPads, Android, Windows and other smartphone and tablet devices, with features and graphics specifically designed for our hand held platforms.
5×5 Grid Card – The chief bingo card in the United States.
75 Ball Game – The American style of play.
90 Ball Game – The Australian style of playing housie or bingo. (See our page about bingo games.)
9×3 Grid Card – The common layout for an Australian bingo card, as opposed to the 5×5 grid used in the United States.
Admission – The amount of money it takes to enter a bingo hall.
Admission Packet – The number of bingo cards needed to enter the hall. This is usually between three and six cards.
Ball Lifter – A mechanism used to draw the bingo ball.
Bingo Card – A card with a 5×5 pattern of numbers. This includes the 24 numbers, along with 1 free space in the middle.
Bingo Market – Either an ink dauber or a crayon used to mark the number on a card.
Blackout – Game variation where the winner must black out every number on their card.
Blower – The force-air devices which mixes the balls together, so when the announcer pulls out a ball, it’s random.
Breakopen – A multi-play card with perforated tabs. This method hides the numbers on the card until the card is bought.
Buy-In – The admission or the price of the admission packet.
Caller – The person who announces which number was selected. The caller also displays the number on the board.
Cash-In Prize – A game of bingo where cash is the prize.
Chat Room – The pop-up monitor for typing and reading messages to the other players in an online bingo game.
Consolation Prize – On some games, if no one has won in a certain number of balls, no one wins. In this case, these are alternate prizes instead of the big jackpot.
Coverall – The same as blackout.
Dauber – An ink filled bottle with a foam tip. The dauber is used by players to mark cards. All a person must do is touch the square with the dauber.
Early Bird Game – The first game of the night. Alternately, this is a game before the regularly scheduled games of the night.
Face – The bingo card with 24 numbers on a grid and the free space in the middle of the card.
Flyers – Strips of six housie tickets at a time, usually bought by those who only want to play a few games.
Full House – Also known as a housie, this is the biggest prize winning combination.
Gameboard – This big electronic board shows the pattern needed to win and keeps people as informed as possible.
Hard Card – A card printed on hard cardboard and containing shutters. When a number on your card hits, you close the shutter.
Housie – The Australian term for bingo. This game has 90 balls and is quite different than the standard 75-ball American game.
Kelly’s Eye – The number 1, named after the one-eyed Australian gangster, Ned Kelly.
Main Stage Bingo – The main prize game of the session and also the main draw for the night.
Money Ball – A ball drawn at random before the game. If this is the number drawn when you win, your winnings double.
Moonlight Bingo – Sessions which start later in the evening, around 10pm.
Multiple Winners – Multiple winners can happen, when two people fill out their cards at the same time. When you have multiple winners, you split the prize. If you have a $400 prize and two people win, the prize is $200 apiece. If you have a $300 prize and 3 people win, each wins $100. This is a common, if unwanted, occurrence.
On – When a player has at least one card which is one number away from winning, they are “on”.
Progressive Jackpot – A jackpot which continues to grow until it’s won. The progressive builds by the day, week, and month. The progressive is popular in everything from pokies to the side bets in table games, like Let It Ride, three-card poker, and even blackjack.
Quickie – Numbers are called quickly, while the card must be filled to win.
Random Number Generator – A device used to create random outcomes in gaming machines in a live casino or online gambling casinos.
RNG – Another name for random number generator.
Session – All the games of bingo you play in one evening.
Tambola – Bingo or houzee in India.
