How to play online bingo
Online bingo is played exactly the same way as traditional bingo, except that it can be played from home and is accessible 24/7 from your desktop with internet connection. If you’ve ever played bingo in a hall, you will learn online bingo in no time. Although each online bingo hall has its own rules, payouts and game variations, the basic guidelines remain pretty much the same.
Generally, online bingo is played on 5×5 grid card with numbers written over it. The five letters B, I, N, G and O are written across the top of the card corresponding to five columns. In all, there are 24 numbers on a card within 1 to 75. Each column contains 5 random numbers, except the N column which contains 4 numbers and one free square right in the center of the card.
The B column contains numbers between 1-15, column I between 16-30, column N between 31-45, column G between 46- 60, and column O between 61- 75. With internet bingo one can play over hundreds of cards at a time. Nowadays, there are many online bingo sites that offer literally thousands of unique bingo cards to choose from. For example, VirtualBingo has a series of more than 6000 unduplicated bingo cards.
When the game starts, numbers like B-10, G- 57 etc. are drawn out at random form an automated number generator, until any one player completes the requisite pattern and yells bingo. Some of the most basic winning pattern in bingo is a line with five numbers either in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal fashion. However, in online bingo there are many more pattern possibilities, particularly with 75 ball bingo.
Bingo culture in the United Kingdom
The bingo culture in UK is entirely different from that in US or Canada. In UK, they mostly play 90 ball bingo, which is played on tickets instead of cards. A 90 ball bingo ticket consists of 3 horizontal rows and 9 vertical columns and is usually available in strips. Each ticket contains 15 random numbers, while a strip of ticket includes all numbers between 1 and 90. Every row has 5 random numbers and 4 blank spaces. The first column carry numbers between 1and 10, the second column between 100 and 20 and so on until the last column that contain numbers between 81 and 90. While the most seasoned bingo players would play with the entire strip, inexperienced players or children may prefer sticking to only one ticket at a time.

Online bingo is a serious business in the large towns with millions of people flocking to virtual bingo halls everyday. Before the advent of internet, bingo was much more of a social affair, where people in the neighborhood would congregate on weekends to talk and spend some good time together.
Online Bingo V/S Traditional Bingo
If you’re playing bingo in a traditional bingo hall, you must fully concentrate on the numbers being called. As the numbers are announced quickly by the caller, chances are you might miss a number or two and hence ruin your odds of winning. Thus, listen carefully to the numbers being called and mark them correctly on your card. The game continues, until a player/s completes the pattern first and yells bingo! In an event where there is more than one winner, the prize money is distributed equally among all the winners.
Cyber bingo, on the other hand, works on a completely automated pattern. On entering the site, the software will automatically pick up cards for you. Most online bingo halls allow you to play up to 4 to 6 bingo cards at a time, while others allow you to play up to 50 cards in one go, which is far beyond the handling capacity of an average individual, but thanks to the auto dab feature that does everything, right from dabbing the numbers to claiming bingo, for you!
All online bingo halls have a flash board, where players can see the numbers that have been drawn so far. Besides, you can also see the winning game pattern at certain sites.
Another notable feature of online bingo is the chat room functionality, where players get an opportunity to communicate with fellow players and foster new bonds even whilst the game is on, unlike traditional bingo where players can talk only during breaks. Plus, in online bingo one can win really huge jackpots as compared to traditional bingo.