Ball Lifter – Part of the ball machine that raises balls from where they are stored below the main play field and inserts them into the tip of the ball shooter.

Bingo Board – The board that displays the numbers when they are called out in the midst of a game of bingo. Both digital and analog boards are used with digital being the online bingo form, the analog boards having electronic lights for land based bingo halls.

Bingo Marker – This is the object used to mark off the spaces on bingo cards when the corresponding numbers are called during a game. Items used include ink daubers, crayons or other methods which physically mark the cards.

Blower – This device uses a forced air system to mix up the balls for bingo and then dispenses them out to the caller who then announces the number on the ball and triggers the number’s display on the game board.

Bonanza Bingo – A style of bingo that gives a jackpot during the 13th round of play. Each player in the game adds to the overall jackpot.

Breakopen – A type of bingo game card that is made from paper and has perforated edges around a tab. The play area of the card is covered and underneath there are numbers, symbols or letters that correspond with specific prizes.

Caller – The online or land based bingo hall or casino employee whose job it is to announce the numbers on the balls in a bingo game so that players can mark them off on their cards.

Chat Room – A featured offered in many online bingo and casino sites that allows players to type and talk with each other during and between gaming sessions.

Four Corners – A bingo patter that requires players to cover all the corners of their card. If this goal is completed, they have achieved bingo.

Hardway Bingo – A type of bingo game that requires straight lines to be formed and has no available free spaces.

Jackpot – This is the large prize given for completing a special type of bingo, usually a complex pattern like blackout. Awarded to those that complete such complicated patterns after only a few numbers have been called.

Late Night Bingo – Also referred to as Moonlight Bingo, this is a session of bingo that starts at 10 PM or later each night in a gaming hall.

Lucky Jar – Also known as a Cookie Jar, this is simply a jar containing cash. The contestants win if they hit bingo on certain predetermined lucky numbers. Each time the lucky numbers are called during a session, money is added to the jar.

Main Stage Bingo – Primary game during a session of bingo that typically draws the most players.

Money Ball – A particular number that is determined prior to the beginning of a bingo game which, if called, doubles the players winnings if they hit bingo at that time.

Pattern – This is a shape that players must form in order to achieve bingo. Can be vertical, diagonal or horizontal lines, but may also be specific shapes determined at the beginning of the game.

V.F.W. – Acronym stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars a group that has many halls across the USA and offers bingo to raise money.

Then, the game spread to other nations and perhaps most notably, the United Kingdom. This is where it would catch fire and really take off even bigger than in the US. Both nations used the games in school to teach kids about numbers and so that meant a huge number of people came into contact with this game at a very early age. They would know how to play and they would also go on to play in the casinos and bingo halls that became major gathering places after the film industry was somewhat pushed aside by the invention of TV. Since TV was free, but not very social, it would prove to lead people to want to get together and have a good time so bingo was a natural solution for this. Later, the internet would move in and all of the people of all ages who knew how to play bingo would learn that one could play the game online and win prize money. This proved to be a huge draw and the bingo market on the web took off faster than anyone could ever have guessed. Although that sparked a small revolution, it is still very popular to play bingo in a variety of land based settings.

90 Ball Bingo
For those who live in Australia, countries in South America, European nations or the United Kingdom, it is 90 ball bingo that is going to be the most familiar form of the game. This style of play makes use of a 9 x 3 format game card, the same type that most online players will also be familiar with since the majority of online bingo sites originate in the UK. There are 3 rows and 9 columns on each card and each line will contain 5 different numbers. This means that each card has 15 different numbers for the players to watch out for during the game. The columns are numbered in sequences of 10 that range from 1 right up through 90. Due to all the numbers involved, 90 ball bingo is considered to be substantially more complex than its 75 ball cousin. Most games tend to be played in 3 separate stage. First, the players will attempt to form a single line bingo and then they will move on to try for 2 lines before finally attempting what is called a Full House, an effort to have 15 numbers checked off on their cards in order to call bingo. This final Full House stage is generally where the biggest prize is offered. That means most players spend the game hoping to win the final stage’s bingo prize, but of course there is plenty of fun to be had during the interim. There are a number of variations along this general style, but when it comes to 90 ball bingo, this is the most common way that the game is played.

Boss Media – The Swedish company known as Boss Media started up in 1996, in the city of Vaxjo. They would go on to found their very first online wagering site, known as Gold Club Casino and that led to a storm of opportunities for them. They were approached by a large number of different investors and companies who wanted to have software like they had made so they switched from the casino business over to the software design business, focusing on providing highly customized casino software for their customers. Today they are one of the largest providers of White Label Gaming software for bingo networks on the web.

Chartwell Technology – This is a Canadian company based out of Calgary, but they also have operations in Malta and the United Kingdom. The focus of Chartwell Technology is the look and feel of the casinos that they design for other companies. They are well known for their ability to create very branded solutions for a wide number of different providers and it is Chartwell that is called in when a company wants a white label solution that will be very visual and easy for their players to get into.

Gamesys – Having hit the market in only 2001, Gamesys is a UK based online bingo company that is fairly recent in terms of bingo providers. Their flag ship site JackpotJoy has already given out over 75 million pounds in online prizes and declares a winner every few seconds of each day. Since they provide a browser based gaming experience and do not require software to be downloaded first, they have been able to grab up a large share of the market and now offer not only their own sites, but a variety of white label software solutions for other gaming sites, as well.

Microgaming – As a design company that specializes in both downloadable software gaming packages for online casinos as well as browser based casinos that utilize the Adobe Flash plugin, Microgaming is a big name in the online bingo market. They develop hundreds of different casino games to go with their packages and claim to be the very first online casino site ever built. The company is based in the Isle of Man and started up operations in 1994.

Parlay Entertainment – As one of the largest names in the bingo software category, Parlay holds huge sway over the gaming market in general. Their software runs a large number of extremely well known online bingo sites and according to their calculations they are the company that invented online bingo as we know it today. Virgin, Yahoo, AOL and MSN bingo sites are all powered by their custom software platforms.

Playtech – The force behind the very popular online bingo gaming web site network, the Bingoland Network, Playtech is a big name in the bingo software industry. They are fairly new to the industry, having first set up shop in 1999, but already they have established a very powerful brand name and they continue to develop solutions for other bingo sites online.

The earliest bingo web sites were very basic and did not offer much in the way of sound or graphics, but as the web developed, so did the bingo sites. The Adobe Flash plugin would change everything by allowing bingo providers to add animation and sounds to their games and really increase the fun factor. This and the fact that bingo is a very social game that worked out perfectly with the ability to chat online meant that bingo had a very strong future that would lead it to become one of the biggest online wagering games on the planet in less than a decade. New features were added to the software so that when numbers were called the computer would automatically check them off from players’ cards meant that bingo got even easier to play and those involved could focus more time on chatting – a huge plus for many bingo players. Since it was such huge business, bingo sites cropped up all over the world until today there are hundreds of gaming sites that one can play bingo in. The e-wallet system made things very easy for those who wanted to buy cards and collect their winnings so it was a very short time until bingo reached the billion dollar a year mark and it only seems to continue growing as the years go by. Experts predict that as the increasingly younger female market continues to propel the growth of online bingo there will be an even bigger surge in the coming decades and that the economy of bingo on the web can’t help but flourish.

Number of Cards
When it gets down to it, having a whole lot of cards to choose from during a game is not always a good thing. It is more expensive for one, and two, it can get confusing trying to keep up with all of them. There are software features on most sites that will help the players keep up with the cards they have, but they still will need to be alert so they can announce bingo if they end up winning. It is often advisable to start out with smaller numbers of cards and then work up from there as this will provide the player with some skill before they start trying to manage a great number of cards in the middle of a heated game. Paying attention to the cost of the cards is another smart move because the more expensive cards can win more, but they also might end up costing so much altogether that they are not worth the investment.

Room Size
When playing bingo on the web It is often the number of players involved that will determine the size of the prizes so be sure to check this out. Many people believe it is easier to win in a smaller room, and while that is true, it is also normally a smaller prize that is won so things end up balancing themselves out in the end. Still, a larger room can award such a large prize that it ends up paying for multiple gaming sessions which is very helpful for the average player. Finding the right mix for one’s personal style and strategy is the key to playing successfully and collecting the prizes that go with that intelligence.

Be Sure to Remain Alert
There are going to be plenty of times when a player is embroiled in a chat and so engrossed that they nearly miss checking the number that was just called. This happens offline and online, but the important thing is to make sure that we stay on top of the game as it is happening. This means that it is a very good idea to turn on the auto daub feature while playing online.

Tie Everything Together
By using the above strategies it is possible to become a regular winner in online bingo once one achieves the right mix of strategies for themselves. This is the key to having a successful bingo career, but remember it is also the friends that we make who are half the fun.