Bingo The Real Truth / Odds and More.
Understanding Bingo Odds
Calculating odds in bingo is theoretically very simple -- it's the number of cards you're playing divided by the total number of cards in play. So if 100 cards are in play, and you have 4 cards, your chances of winning are 4 in 100, or 4 percent. The trick is being able to count how many cards are in play in a game. You can do a head count and multiply that number by what you think is the average number of cards per person, but this can be easier said than done.
However, these odds don't apply to progressive jackpot games. Remember that in most progressive games, a winner is not guaranteed. So, the odds of winning a progressive jackpot depend more on the difficulty of covering the pattern in the predetermined number of calls. The odds are so steep in some progressive games that it may be weeks or even months before somebody wins.
The Magic of Online Bingo
The reason that online bingo is so popular is that the number of people playing is not limited by the amount of people that can fit into a bingo hall. Therefore, the jackpots can be huge. Online you could have as many as 1000 people playing those four cards each. That means that there are 4000 cards in play.
In Summary
As no two bingo cards are alike, this game has a randomness that is hard to calculate as odds mathematically. In fact you could say that the random factor is what makes bingo so exciting.
Bingo is also one of the fairest of the gambling games that you can play either online or in real life. Its lack of complexity makes it difficult for corrupt types to manipulate. It is also a game where two people are capable of winning at once in which case the jackpot is usually split between the two victors. If two people call bingo at the same time, it is a matter of pure chance and the jackpot is always split as is typical of par-mutuel games (games that have jackpots that are based on admissions.)