World’s largest bingo game was held in New York with 60,000 players.

An online bingo game averages only 4 minutes.

Bingo was first called “beano” in America because people used beans as markers.

96% of online bingo players will win at least once.

In Belgium, bingo came in 2nd place as the country’s favorite pasttime.

The first time bingo was used as a fundraiser was in a church in Pennsylvania.

In North Carolina, it’s against the law for a bingo game to last more than 5 hours.

There are more than a quarter million cash prizes won at online bingo sites every week.

The famous crooner, Bing Crosby, was nicknamed “Bingo” when he was a child.

A variation of bingo was played in movie theaters during the Great Depression.

Bingo is the game most often used as a fundraiser worldwide.

An American toy maker named Edwin Lowe first marketed the game with the name Bingo.

Are you one of the many people these days who are trying to go green in their daily life and stepping lighter on the planet? Whether you are trying to or not, you are actually living a bit greener just by playing online bingo. Let’s chat a bit about how online bingo benefits the environment, shall we?

First of all, you are reducing air pollution by not having to motor down to the bingo hall in the village. No burning of fossil fuels, no emissions into the atmosphere and no wear and tear on the car. Then of course, online bingo doesn’t cause any trees to be cut down in order to make paper cards – just think of all the planetary resources you are helping to protect by staying home?

Old fashioned bingo also required bingo daubers made of plastic casings and chemical inks. Plastics come from petroleum products just as the gasoline in your car does plus many exude gases for months after manufacture. The inks are full of non-biodegradeable chemicals and toxins. Using them also creates waste that just piles up in landfills.

So pat yourself on the back – you’re much greener than you thought! Now go save a tree and pick an online bingo site to play tonight. Isn’t going green fun?

One of the reasons online bingo is so popular is the prizes that you can win at the various sites. While we all enjoy winning cash, there are such a huge variety of other prizes available, too. Often the more valuable prizes will be part of a special promotion but most of the sites offer prizes other than money all the time, often for playing special chat room games.

One thing that seems to be popular lately is travel promotions. We’ve seen cruises being offered as grand prizes, air travel tickets and even full vacation packages. Wouldn’t a trip to Cancun or the Bahamas be an awesome prize to win? Can you imagine telling the cruise director or flight attendant how you got the trip?

Jewelry promotions are quite popular. One site that we’ve seen offers a monthly prize of a sapphire and diamond necklace! Not into jewelry? How about a 42″ flat screen television like was recently offered by one online bingo site? So far, the most unusual prize that we’ve found is a voucher for a haircut.

Of course, prizes that give free game play are always nice to win, too. You can often win free cards or free bonus money while playing bingo. Participating in the chat room games are a great way to win free cards or small prizes. Often your participation in the chat rooms will earn reward points or loyalty points from the site that can be later converted to free play or even bonus cash.

A huge part of the popularity of online bingo is the ability to chat with the other players. There’s nothing quite like playing a game while talking to people from the UK, Asia and Australia all at the same time. While chatting and making new friends is certainly part of the fun, let’s face it – the biggest reason we play is the hopes of winning a prize. Believe it or not, there a few things that can help you increase your odds of winning.

First of all, you should be doing a bit of research before choosing an online bingo site. See what others are saying about them to be sure they are legitimate companies. While the vast majority of online bingo sites are strictly on the up-and-up, the few bad apples really do sour the batch so make sure the site has a good reputation for paying.

The second thing to check for is if the company gives any kind of new player bonus, deposit matching or any type of customer loyalty program. Online bingo is a booming industry with new entries to the field just about every day. The companies recognize how fierce the competition for your attention (and cash) so they bend over backwards to lure you into their game room.

Once there, read the room reviews, if any are available. You want to find a room with a high rate of player satisfaction, as this makes it more likely that you will also have good experience in the room. If the room is fun to play in, you’ll be apt to play more often or for longer times and that, of course, increases your chances of a win. Keep in mind, though, the more people in a room, the lower your odds of winning so don’t go for the highly populated rooms when you’re looking to make a score.

If you haven’t tried online bingo yet, there is an easy way for you to test out a variety of sites and it won’t cost you a cent. Almost all online bingo sites offer new players a bonus for signing up and giving the site a try. This is totally free money, usually $5 or $10 dollars, which can get you started with online bingo. You will have to give some personal details, such as name and address, but you usually don’t have to make a deposit or even put in your credit card information yet.

You may wonder why the sites may do this as they seem to be losing money, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. With so many online bingo places opening up these days, the sites must offer an incentive to attract new customers. They know that if you like the atmosphere at their site, you are likely to stay on and deposit some cash to continue playing. They will do everything they can to convert you into a loyal player.

Although most bingo sites are fairly similar, there are differences in the extra games offered, prizes available and current promotions. There can also be a different composition of players so that while one site is friendly and cozy, another site may feel less friendly or sociable. By testing a bunch of sites, you’ll be able to see which sites you like the best.

If you take a poll of all the online bingo players, one of the things that makes online bingo so much fun is the ability to chat with other players from around the world. Of course, trying to chat while simultaneously keeping up with several bingo cards can be hard to do. That’s why most players have turned to chat speak while playing bingo.

Chat speak is kind of like text messaging in that it’s much easier to use commonly known acronyms to convey your message rather than typing in full sentences. The only problem is that if you’re new to chatting, it can be easy to get lost in the alphabet soup that you see flying across the screen.

If you’ve ever spent time in an online chat room, chances are you will recognize some of these. Some are easy to figure out, even if you don’t recognize them, but some are a lot harder to guess. We’re going to talk about the most common ones but there are many more and new ones are being created all the time. Don’t be afraid to ask – the other online bingo chatters are there to help.

1TG is peculiar to online bingo. It stand for “one to go”, meaning the person only needs one more number to hit. Variations can be any number but rarely will you see more than 3TG – it’s those last three that make it exciting. Common phrases that you may have seen elsewhere on the net would be BTW (by the way), NP (no problem), OMG (oh my god) and the ever present, LOL (laughing out loud).

You have ways to send good wishes to your fellow players with GL (good luck), GLA (good luck all) and GLE (good luck everyone). Then there are ways to congratulate them like GG (good game) and WTG (way to go). Of course, not everyone wins so you also need to know BLNT (better luck next time).

Oh, yes, can’t forget CYA (see ya) and CYAL8R (see ya later), can we?

According to a 2006 study conducted by OnlineBingo.co.uk, at that time 88% of online bingo players were women with the average age being around 47 years old. Interestingly enough, this same study found the male players to only average 37 years old. The study also showed that 38% played online bingo every day and 15% played 2 or 3 times per week.

This overwhelmingly female market base is the reason you sites designed to appeal mainly to women. The majority of sites are still using “girlie” colors like pinks and oranges, while graphics tend to be of feminine stereotypes like handbags or jewelry.

Parlay Entertainment recently completed a new study to see what the demographics look like now, almost three years later. It shows that while more men are playing online bingo today, it’s still an overwhelmingly female market. 85% of online bingo players are still women but the ages have changed a lot. Almost 60% of players are now below the age of 45.

Of course, given the reputation of bingo as a ladies game, there have been theories that the number of men is under-reported. It seems that it is pretty common for men to use a woman’s name to sign up to hide their gender. Come on, guys…stand up and be proud to play bingo!

Bingo is a game with a rich and vivid history. It has been used as entertainment, a form of gambling and as a successful fund raising tool. By learning the fundamentals of online bingo, players are able to increase their odds of successful strategizing to win and decrease the amount of stress of anxiety they may experience prior to the start of a game.

Online bingo is very similar to offline bingo, except that the format for displaying and crossing out numbers is different. Players of online Bingo do not have any physical Bingo cards in front of them, they have virtual cards on line. Also, callers do not call out the numbers, the numbers are announced by automated random number generator machines. When patterns are announced and players are able to achieve the desired patterns, they can yell out BINGO, but no one online will hear them. Online Bingo games have two formats for winning at Bingo – the casino may automatically recognize Bingo, or players may have to declare Bingo themselves in the online environment. This depends on where the player is playing and what rules have been set up in the online environment. Players are also encouraged to become familiar with Bingo game terminology, which was discussed at length a few blog entries back.

Even new players should not be intimidated by the game of Bingo. It is easy to learn, simple to pick up and a lot of fun to play. Additionally, there are many online forums and discussion boards where questions can be asked and answers posted. Good luck!

Yesterday, we started a discussion on the many benefits of Bingo as a form of mental exercise. We learned that brain function among Bingo players was improved when compared to those who did not play Bingo games. However, there are even more benefits found in such studies, which we will continue to explore today:

Bingo players were also found to have more focus when it comes to completing tasks. This made it easier for the Bingo players to complete tasks and objectives, especially when compared to those who did no play Bingo. While many of these studies utilized older individuals and players as the basis for the research, it is widely believed that the same results are possible when dealing with Bingo players of younger generations.

In order to keep a mind healthy, it is important to keep it active. Bingo may seem like simply a fun game, but it is also very mentally stimulating. Multiple processes need to be completed when it comes to playing Bingo, so the brain is constantly kept active, even though the actual tasks of chatting, filling out a card and paying attention to competition may seem trivial. To win at Bingo, players need to be alert and aware.

Bingo games are enjoyed by all different types of people from all different walks of life. There is no stereotypical Bingo player, since the wide availability of Bingo games, both online and offline, has allowed it to become a familiar past time all over the world. Aside from being fun, there are other benefits which have been suggested as a result of playing Bingo. Most recently, some of these reports show that online Bingo is capable of having a positive effect on the players’ brain development. Studies also show that players of all ages who enjoy Bingo on a regular basis may be able to improve their mental capacities as a result of playing the game.

This means that players may be able to socialize, have fun and improve their brain functions all at the same time. Similar correlations have been found between players of crossword puzzles. Such studies were performed over long periods of time in order to increase the odds of offering an unbiased view of the situation and the potential of such games to keep minds sharp. Additional findings of online Bingo game player studies concluded that such players have an improved memory and were capable of retaining additional and improved brain functions when compared to those who did not take part in online Bingo game play.