Bingo nowadays is more commonly played online than at land-based bingo halls, and there are several reasons for this, as well as benefits for playing this much loved traditional game online rather than at a local bingo hall, so we will shed some light on some of these points.
Although bingo has been through a few transformations since its birth, nothing can compare to the huge explosion of bingo going online. All over the world bingo players for years have enjoyed going to their local bingo halls, be it for charity, or simply for the entertainment value it offers.
Meeting with fellow bingo buddies for a weekly Sunday bingo session can be a comforting little social expedition, however as modern times dictate, almost everything we accustom to do in the tangible world eventually arrives on the Internet, and bingo has been no exception to this. With already plenty of casino’s having gone online, offering popular casino games from poker to roulette, it was bingo’s turn! Bingo was launched onto the Internet around 1996 and was an instant hit.
And why wouldn’t it have been? Faithful bingo players had stood by their game through great depressions and economic recessions, finding stress-relief in this game they so loved; and now suddenly they had the chance to indulge in bingo from the comfort of their own home, no scheduled game sessions to meet and no travelling to the local bingo hall. Now bingo lovers could play bingo whenever they wanted, and what’s more, players quickly discovered that there were plenty of other additional benefits to playing bingo online.
It is reported that in the UK, where bingo is hugely popular, there was a surge of bingo players joining online bingo sites after a smoking ban was enforced, and thus bingo players no longer being able to smoke at their local bingo club! So, we have established that online bingo is more convenient to play than land-based bingo, while still being entertaining and rewarding; however is it also possible that this online bingo trend is actually more entertaining and rewarding? Well, we certainly think so, which brings us to discuss some of the significant differences online bingo offers that make it such an attractive gaming option.
Why Online Bingo is better!
Simply put, online bingo is extremely versatile. When you play a bingo game online, the concentration level required is a lot less demanding than when participating in bingo game at a land-based bingo hall. This is mainly because most online bingo sites have games that are fully automatic, using random number generators rather than balls being dispensed from a bingo cage, and online bingo games have an auto-daub feature that automatically marks off your winning bingo numbers on your cards for you, so you don’t really need to be on top of that yourself and you can also play multiple bingo cards simultaneously.
This also means that while you are in the middle of an online bingo game, you are pretty much free to engage in other activities, be that in your house or wherever you are playing from, and you can take part in a bit of online chatting with fellow bingo roomies thanks to the online chat room features most online bingo sites also offer.
This is where the online bingo community factors in
For those who may worry that by playing online bingo they might be missing out on the friendly interaction they can enjoy at a land-based bingo hall, they can rest assured that not only do online bingo sites offer these chat rooms for player interaction, but they actually rely greatly on them, and there is more to the online chat rooms than just giving the players the chance to meet each other and discuss bingo games.
Each chat room has a CM, also known as Chat Monitors, Chat Moderators or Chat Masters, depending on the online bingo site; they work for site and are in charge of maintaining order and cordiality throughout the discussions being held, and more importantly, they are the ones who host special side chat games that are played amongst players inside the chat room window during the online bingo game at hand.
These in-room chat games give the players extra fun time and the chance to win prizes in the form of chat comps, or bingo bucks which the players can in turn use to play more online bingo games! This, of course is a benefit that you will not get at a land-based bingo hall. And online bingo sites encourage and facilitate further the bingo player interaction by arranging weekly or monthly special contests and tournaments, giving members the chance to team up and play games against each other, inspiring a competitive, but at the same time, supportive spirit.
By issuing online bingo Newsletters and instating online bingo blogs and forums, online bingo sites also communicate with their players effectively and invite them to offer their opinions, comments and suggestions about the bingo games and the site in general, creating in the players a sense of their vitality and importance on how the online bingo site operates.
Also to mention about online bingo:
Although some online bingo sites offer download bingo, and some bingo players prefer this, most sites also offer flash and java based bingo games. This means that bingo members can easily and quickly access the games in their online bingo site of choice from any computer, anywhere and at any time. Online bingo sites run games and offer customer support assistance around the clock; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.
There are simply no limitations to how much bingo you can play when you are registered with an online bingo site. The bingo rooms found in online bingo sites are visually attractive, usually colorful and themed in a particular way, making each game experience unique and different from the next.
Another significant thing to point out about online bingo is that they also offer a vast variety of types of online bingo games, for example, 3 part bingo games, variable prize games and progressive jackpot games amongst others which are discussed in more depth in our Bingo Games section.
The prizes awarded for particular bingo games, thus, also varies, as well as the fact that players have the chance to play a huge amount of different online bingo patterns, over 300 unique bingo patterns in many sites, versus the standard “cover the entire bingo card” way of playing at land-based bingo, making for a more miscellaneous bingo experience.
And lastly…
Online bingo is more rewarding for bingo players and gives them more for their money’s worth thanks to the bonuses. Land-based bingo halls and casinos do sometimes run promotions, but they are not so easily accessible and they do not offer welcome bonuses. All online bingo sites offer promotional incentives to players.
Starting with welcome bonuses that are completely free and serve to give newcomers a taste, a try of the online bingo site and the games they have, to impressive deposit bonuses that are maintained throughout the lifetime of a player’s membership. Many online bingo sites also have special VIP programs that entitle bingo players to special bonuses, as well as birthday bonuses and referral bonuses.
You can read about these particular online bingo promotions in more detail in our Bingo Bonus page, but it serves to state here that it’s clear to see that this is one more example of why it is a good idea to find an online bingo site to join if you really want to experience the full potential online bingo can offer you!
