If you’re not familiar with bingo at all – it is a very easy game to understand, requiring little or no skill. Its online cousin is often easier still! Despite its ease, bingo is a compelling game of chance with a great social aspect and should you choose to dip a toe in the water you’ll probably be hooked.

The game’s format is as follows. Players purchase a card consisting of three rows of random numbers (the amount of numbers on each cards can vary according to different forms of the game). Then, numbers are drawn from a machine at random and called out to the audience. If a number that is called corresponds to a number on your card, you cross it out. The winner of the game is the first player to cross out all the numbers on a card – a fact they announce with the famous shout of “house!” which brings the game to an  end.

Online bingo is exactly the same in principle with a few minor changes. Firstly, the numbers are not drawn from a machine and announced, but are generated at random by a software program. In addition, most online games have an auto cross-off feature that marks the numbers off for you automatically so you don’t even have to watch the game. Finally, the games are accompanied by an online chat room where the people involved in the game can chat to each other. This is the heart of the online bingo experience and where great, lasting friendships can be made.

Most bingo sites require you to register with them before you play to create a profile and username by which you will become recognised by other players. In most cases, they will also require you to leave your credit card details to make payments for cards. Many operators will actually give you a free budget to play with on joining – as much as £20s worth of free games can be had during some promotions.

Some games can have incredibly high jackpot prizes of many thousands of pounds. These are the so-called ‘progressive games’ in which there is no guarantee that any particular game will actually have a winner. In such a game, the amount in the jackpot increases with each game and it is here that the most serious players will try to win big money.

Although online bingo is a game of chance, you can slightly increase the odds of you winning by buying several cards at once in any single game. This gives you a greater spread of numbers and therefore a marginally higher chance of a win overall.