Online Bingo Jackpots Explained

Bingo is appealing for a good number of reasons, but one of the main ones, and the one that gets players excited to keep playing, is the prizes on offer. Some of the bingo jackpots are really impressive and could be completely life changing if they were won.

It’s the online bingo sites that can really ramp up the online jackpots to these incredible multi-million pound offers. That’s due to the number of people playing; because the sites are open to all, the number of players can be huge, and the more players there are the more money is in the pot.

The prizes in bingo are even more interesting because they seem to be so wildly different to the price you need to pay to play. For just a few pounds or even pence in some cases, you can be entered to win massive jackpots, and there are no restrictions either. Unlike some slot games which require you to pay in a certain amount before you are eligible to be a prize winner, bingo is fair for all, no matter what your budget is. Read on to find out more about how these bingo jackpots really work.

Related: Is Bingo Becoming A Trend Amongst Young People?

Types Of Jackpot

There are lots of different types of jackpot that you can win when you play online bingo. Each site will have its own way of doing things, so each time you play somewhere different you’ll have a new way of winning. However, no matter what, your prize is going to fall into one of four categories. These include:

•         Fixed prize
•         Guaranteed
•         Sliding
•         Progressive

We will talk about each one below.

Fixed Price Jackpots

With the fixed price jackpot it makes no difference at all how many people are actually playing – the jackpot will stay the same (fixed) whether it’s just a handful of people or there are hundreds or even more playing. The prize will be paid out to one individual and that person will have to fit certain criteria. In these games, it is important to note that the prize won’t always be won.

There will be a specific pattern to be completed on the cards during these games, and there will be a time limit too. If no one wins then the prize won’t be awarded, and the game will keep going.

Guaranteed Jackpot

The term ‘guaranteed jackpot’ actually has two potential meanings. It can mean that the prize is definitely worth at least what the advertised pay out is no matter how many people are playing (in essence this is the same as a fixed prize jackpot). It can also mean that the prize will definitely be won, no matter what restrictions or otherwise there might be.

Progressive Jackpots

The name of these jackpots actually explains pretty much exactly what it is. These are the prizes that grow over time if no one wins them. So every time a game is played and no one wins, the prize fund gets larger. In these games it is usually the case that you need to complete a specific pattern – this might be all of your numbers (for the very big jackpots that is definitely what the case will be) before a certain number of calls is made.

These are particularly exciting games because the jackpots can grow to huge amounts, often in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. These life changing sums are difficult to ignore.

Sliding Jackpots

The sliding jackpot is probably the least popular kind of bingo game. In this game, you will start with a large amount of money in the jackpot but this amount will decrease over time, after a specific number of calls has been made.

It’s understandable why these games aren’t as popular as others, but you can still win some large amounts of money, so they can still be played, and they are often lots of fun.

The Rules

The actual rules of bingo may vary from place to place, although the gameplay is going to be very similar no matter where you go. In general, however, there will be a large prize up for grabs (this is the jackpot), and players will need to meet certain criteria in order to win it. This can be different from place to place and could include filling the whole card, finding the corner numbers, or finding one line. You might even be asked to win within a set number of calls.

The prize might actually change depending in the criteria needed to win, but in essence this is how you would play for a large bingo jackpot.

The truth is, though, that there are no standard rules for bingo when it comes to how much money can be won and how long it will take to win it. It’s best to get to know the rules of the game you are playing specifically, rather than trying to get an overview which may in fact not help you at all.

Make sure there are no restrictions that mean you won’t be able to pick up your winnings should you win something. There are restrictions like this, so pay attention to them. These include issues such as not being able to win if you are playing with bonus money that the site has gifted you for joining and so on. It would be a shame to win only to find that you are unable to actually collect your prize because of this.

On the positive side of things, this is a rare restrictions so it is likely that you will be all fine to play not matter where the money originally came from – you or the site. We just want to point out the reasons for checking beforehand so you don’t run the risk of some major disappointment.

One of the best things about bingo is that most of the sites you might play on will try to keep the rules as simple as possible. This way, more people will want to play, and the jackpots (on progressive games at least) will become even bigger.