The Pot of Gold at the End of the Bingo Rainbow
What makes bingo a popular and entertaining past time is that it does not require any skill to play unlike table games like poker or black jack. The only attribute required of the bingo player is mental alertness and a good ear to able to hear and daub on the bingo card the numbers called. Like other random number games such as keno and lotto, the player is up against hundreds, and even thousands of participants. But what distinguishes bingo from the rest of the games aside from its colorful history is that it provides a more intimate social interaction with other players and a jack pot that continually lures many players into bingo halls and casinos. What is in the pot that can be found at the end of the bingo rainbow?
From small time bingo games in held in community church courtyards to high-stakes games in Indian casinos, a cash prize could range from 100 up to 1 million dollars, a car, a trip or household appliances. Generally, the casino is required by state or local rules to payout at least half of the money that is raked in but at the same time placing a cap on the money that could be given out in prizes per bingo session.
But things get a bit different and real juicy in progressive jackpots. As the name suggests, progressive jackpots are prizes that keep on growing until some lucky fellow wins it. The casino starts a bingo progressive game by adding to the pot an amount of money instead of just setting the jackpot as a percentage of total card sales. If no one wins the pot, the casino again adds in extra money to make it even more attractive. Sometimes the jackpot gets so big that the law has to limit its amount. But in some states, sky is the limit for the money that a player can win in a progressive bingo game.
Big stakes bingo has become so popular - and competitive that several bingo halls are putting up games with jackpots of fifty thousand up to one million bucks. To win the jackpot, a player must have a blackout in only 49 balls. But innovative casinos have devised some super jackpots that pay bigger amounts depending on how fast the winner gets the blackout. If for instance, a blackout in 49 balls would have a payout of, say, fifty thousand dollars, a blackout in only 45 calls would win double that amount. There are other variations of the super bingo jackpot like winning a special pattern within a limited number of calls. The winner then gets to play another game like spinning a wheel or picking off the board the right envelope that contains the jackpot. Understandably, it is very difficult to win the super bingo jackpot and would sometimes take weeks and even months to win. But then, like any game of chance, anything is possible. Who knows, you could be tomorrow's lucky super bingo jackpot winner.
