Bingo has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 16th-century Italy. Over subsequent centuries it spread through the rest of Europe but really took off in the US in the 1960s. Bingo halls popped up all across the country as a family-friendly game of chance and thrived until the early 2000s when interest waned significantly.
However, with the advent of the internet, bingo online has restored the former glory of the game and players started to swap physical cards for online bingo cards.
Today, there are numerous other games you can play which also combine the thrill of chance with a certain amount of skill and strategy. Here are five other games you will no doubt enjoy if you like to play bingo at home online.
Bingo-type games you will love
Often derived from popular board games, these games employ some of the same principles that make bingo so addictive.
NMBR 9
NMBR 9 is a popular board game from Germany in which players use a deck of 20 cards numbered 0-9, as well as 80 geometrically-shaped tiles also numbered 0-9. The cards are shuffled and used as the random number generator. Tiles are shared between the players and as a number is drawn from the deck, each player starts a pile with their tiles.
Tiles on the piles must touch at least one other tile on the same level. Tiles can also be placed on top of two or more tiles as long as no part of the new tile hangs over the tiles below it.
The aim is to get as high a pile as possible because once all the cards are drawn, players calculate their scores based on the value of the tiles they’ve managed to pile up. Tiles at the bottom are valued at zero while tiles on higher levels are multiplied by the level, for example tiles on level one are worth value x one, at level two, value x two and so on.
The player with the highest score wins.
20 Express
Young math students often use 20 Express as a study aid to learn about probability and improve their strategic thinking. The aim of the game is to try and create the longest train of ascending numbers.
Each player is given a card with a train of 20 cars to fill with numbers. Twenty numbered tiles are randomly drawn and players have to decide which car that number must board. Part game of chance and part strategy, 20 Express is a real brain twister.
Take it easy!
A close cousin of bingo, Take it easy! uses a card with 19 hexagonal cells arranged as a 3X3 hexagon. Each player also has a set of 27 hexagonal tiles with different three-digit combinations of numbers set on colored lines arranged as a triple-cross which links opposite sides of the hexagon.
Tiles are drawn randomly by the designated caller (callers are rotated every round), after which the combination of each tile is called out. Players place the tile on their board with the objective of creating paths by linking the colored lines on each card, which in turn creates a series of numbers that are added together.
The player with the highest score after four rounds wins.
Karuba
Another German game, Karuba, is similar to Take It Easy! in the sense that players lay tiles which create a path or road when they’re linked correctly. Each player has characters that follow the roads through a jungle to find treasure and reach four hidden temples.
Players take a turn to pick tiles that are numbered randomly and then place the identically numbered tile on their boards. This is the bingo similarity. After a few turns, players’ boards will be different since they will have placed their tiles in different places and discarded other tiles along the way.
The game ends when a player reaches all the temples and all 36 tiles have been drawn. The player with the highest score (treasure) wins.
Rolling America
Derived from the Japanese game Rolling Japan, this dice game is a kind of geographical bingo.
Each player’s card is a map of the US, which is divided into 50 differently colored states.
A player rolls two colored six-sided dice (two of seven – six dice represent the colors of the states and one is a clear wild die). Players take the dice out of a bag on every turn.
Players write down each number on the matching state on their cards. If a player draws the clear die, they can write the number down on any state. There are a number of interesting rules and restrictions that make gameplay a little more complex – among them, the rule that neighboring states cannot have numbers with a difference bigger than one.
When a player can’t place a number without contravening this rule, they place an X in the corresponding state.
After eight rounds, the player with the least number of Xs wins.
Bingo variants you should try from Borgata Online
Slingo
Play Slingo online and bring together aspects of 75-ball bingo with some instantly recognizable features of a traditional slot machine, including a 5×5 number grid and slot reels placed immediately below.
Free Bingo
Free Bingo is a 75-ball game that does not require a deposit and offers up to six free tickets every day, every hour on the hour.
No Lose Bingo
No lose Bingo is a 75-ball game in which deposits are refunded if the player does not win.
Penny Bingo
Play bingo online for just a penny per ticket every day.
Bingo Bucks
This is a betting game in which players can wager on bingo or Slingo to earn a bingo bonus.
Classic Bingo games
90-ball bingo game
The most popular version of the online game is played with 90-ball bingo cards. To win at 90-ball bingo, a player can cover all of the numbers on a single row on their ticket, cover all the numbers on two of the three rows on their ticket or cover all the numbers on all three rows of the ticket.
Payouts vary according to the price of the ticket AND the number of players participating.
75-ball bingo game
Unlike 90-ball bingo, this version has a 5X5 grid and requires players to cover/daub ALL the numbers on their tickets. Payouts are determined by the number of players OR the cost of a ticket.
Bingo with Borgata Online
Head to Borgata Online to discover these and many more exciting casino games and specials.