Online Bingo is the latest craze to hit the UK. With hundreds of online websites offering bingo to suit every budget, it is no surprise that the British public are going bingo mad.

Bingo websites offer customers exceptional value for money with prizepool that can reach into the tens of thousands of pounds. Bingo tickets vary in price, depending on the guaranteed prizepools, but with tickets costing only 1 penny and games starting every couple of minutes, bingo is rapidly becoming the indoor activity of choice for almost every household in the UK.

The online bingo phenomenon is big business. In fact is is believed to be one of the most lucrative online businesses in the world. Websites like Sky Bingo give away as much as £4,000,000 each and every day. Players from all over the UK are signing up to one or more of the hundreds of online bingo websites to play bingo for the chance to share of the millions of pounds won every day. All of the major bingo websites offer new players some extremely generous bonus offers and promotions, some of which include free money to boost player accounts and give added value for money and more importantly for the player, lots more chances to play for those huge jackpots.

Bingo has never been so popular and with hundreds of new players signing up every day, is set to grow in popularity for many more months.

If you ask most British people about 85 ball bingo then they probably haven’t heard of it but it’s more than likely that not only are they almost certain to have seen the game, they are also highly likely to know someone who has played it. So what is 85 ball bingo, well the place that all those people should know it from is the arcades near the seaside. Nearly every seaside resort in the United Kingdom have a penny arcade somewhere along the sea front and within those walls is the most common home for 85 ball bingo. The grid used is traditionally 4×4, with the four columns being red, yellow, blue and white. The numbers are divided into columns as well, red contains numbers 1 to 20, yellow is 21 to 40, blue is 41 to 60 and finally white covers 61 to 80. Each number has a little black door that can be slid over the number once it has been called. the doors are designed so at the end of the game resetting the board for the next game can be achieved by simply sliding the hand across the board which slides all the doors into the open position. As numbers are called they are traditionally also described by colour as well, for example white 80 or red 17, this makes the numbers easy for all to find and ensures the game runs smoothly and quickly. The last thing an arcade wants is a game taking up longer than required as they make more money for every new game played.

Traditionally the games played in the arcades rewarded players with tokens or tickets which could be exchanged for a small prize or collected throughout your holiday and exchanged for a bigger prize before you went home. By awarding prizes as tickets the organisers avoided the British gambling laws which have constantly viewed bingo as a grey area in relation to gambling. The majority of arcades did however restrict bingo play to the over 18s which seemed to keep local councils satisfied.

85 ball bingo has been making a comeback recently as a few online bingo sites such as Sky Bingo and Jackpotjoy Bingo, have introduced it as an alternative game on their sites, it is perfect for anyone who gets bored quickly as the game play is fast and furious. Usually any line or all four corners is all that is required to win so the games can, in theory, be won with just 4 numbers called, in practise it’s normally more like 25 – 35 for the average game. Obviously online sites pay out in cash and don’t have the little doors to slide over when you knock a number off, but apart from that their versions are just the same. No chance of heading home from your holiday with a car overflowing with soft toys that Grandma won at bingo though, and wasn’t that half the fun?