Regardless of whether you’re a novice, seasoned online gamer or simply someone that’s playing for fun, there’s always an underlying desire to bank some serious cash. Naturally, there are no guarantees in the online gaming world. However, the possibilities are there and that’s what makes things interesting. To show you what we mean, we’ve put together a complete guide to online bingo jackpots.
Online Bingo Jackpots Explained
In a standard game of bingo online, there are typically three prizes:
- Single line win.
- Two-line win.
- Full house (i.e. an entire card).
Full house wins are the largest and, depending on the ticket price, can be worth a few pounds up to a few hundred pounds. One thing that’s important to note is that prizes can be split. Two or more players can make a full house at the same time. If that happens, the jackpot will be divided up equally between the total number of winners.
Minimum Guarantee Jackpot Games
The nice thing about most online bingo games is that you’ll know what the jackpot is before you play. For example, the minimum guaranteed jackpot could be £500. Even if the total number of tickets sold doesn’t generate a large enough prizepool to hit the £500 jackpot, the site would make up the difference. However, if more people buy tickets than is needed, the top prize will increase.
Bonus Jackpots
If you play Sun Bingo’s Cash Cave Tuppence Game, you’d be able to turn a £0.02 ticket into a jackpot worth £20,000+ by making a full house in 33 calls or less. In essence, if you can make a full house in the minimum number of calls (or just over), bingo sites will give you a larger than normal payout.
Progressive Jackpots
Progressive jackpot games usually have a theme such as The Chase at Gala Bingo and offer five and six-figure payouts. Of course, there will also be times when payouts cross the £1 million mark. Much like it is in the slots world, progressive bingo prizepools continue to grow until someone hits the right combination.
The Top Online Bingo Payout Sites
Although every UK bingo site online will have it’s own jackpot section, there are a few standout performers when it comes to larger than average prizes:
Gala Bingo: Gala Bingo is one of the industry’s oldest operators. Starting out as a live brand, this site works with Playtech to host a series of TV-themed games as well as the Allsorts room which costs £0.05 to play and boasts prizepools topping £100,000.
Robin Hood Bingo: Despite being one of the lesser-known brands in the bingo business, Robin Hood bingo has some of the best jackpot games around. Self-Made Millionaire is the standout game. Costing £1 to play and featuring 75 balls, this game will give you a £1 million payout if you can make a full house within 24 calls.
Wink Bingo: Part of the Dragonfish Bingo Network, Wink gives you the chance to win up to £1 million every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday if you can make a house within 40 calls. To play this selection of 75 ball games, you’ll have to pay between £0.75 and £1.50 per ticket. If you don’t manage to scoop the big win, you still have the chance to win smaller jackpots worth up to £1,500.
Biggest Online Bingo Winners
Now you can see it’s possible to win some serious money playing online bingo, it’s worth having a look at some people that have actually done it…
Lisa Potter: As her husband watched England playing Spain back in 2012, Lisa decided to login to Ladbrokes Bingo and play one of the site’s jackpot games. After spending £5, the 33-year-old was shocked to see that a bingo jackpot worth £1,364,745 was hers.
Gill O: In the same year Potter picked up a £1 million+ jackpot, Gill O from Nottingham was doing something similar. Although it wasn’t quite a seven-figure score, Gill banked £510,049 and a phone call from Barbara Windsor after her £0.25 ticket for Bejewelled Bingo’s big game turned out to be a winner.
John Orchard: One of the biggest online bingo wins in history didn’t actually happen during a game of bingo. However, it did take place inside Butlers Bingo. After taking a spin on The Dark Knight slot game, John Orchard rolled in the right symbols to scoop £5.9 million. By clinching the win, Orchard not only broke the previous record but showed that online bingo sites are also great places to play progressive jackpot slots.
How to Win at Online Bingo
Unfortunately, we can’t give you a sure-fire way to win the biggest bingo jackpots out there. In fact, we can’t guarantee you a win at all. What we can do, however, is give you a few pointers on how to find the best games and get the most from your time online:
- Find the Right Site: If you read through our online bingo reviews, you’ll not only get an insight into what each site has to offer but where the best jackpot games are. Use this as a starting point before you start making deposits.
- Play With a Budget: Winning is great but it shouldn’t come at the expense of your bankroll. Always choose games you can afford. If you’ve got £100, don’t spend £10 on a single game. As a general rule, stake no more than 5% of your total bankroll on a single game.
- Timing: For bigger payouts, you want to find a game with more active players. In contrast, if you want a better chance of winning, fewer players is better. Therefore, it’s worth doing some research and timing your sessions according to your personal preferences.
- Find the Average: If you can establish the average number of tickets per player, you can go beyond it and, in theory, have a better chance of winning. For example, if ten players had three tickets each, you could buy five. This would give you more tickets than the average and, therefore, a greater chance of scooping a prize.
- Have Fun: Beyond the money you can win, online bingo is extremely entertaining and that’s something you shouldn’t lose sight of. If you’re not having fun, you shouldn’t be playing. You should focus on enjoyment first and understand that anything on top of that is a bonus.
To learn more about online bingo and where to play, take a look through our full list of expert academy articles.
