Today’s bingo players seem to
be more interested than ever before in the lure of potential giant jackpots.
There has been an onslaught of new progressive games with jackpots that can soar
to as high or higher than six figures. The cost of validation to be eligible for
the progressives is usually very nominal (most often, $1), so players are
willing to take the extra chance at a possible big payday. (On the other hand,
unfortunately, we always hear horror stories about someone who hit a progressive
but didn’t pay for validation too!)
Planet Bingo is the newest
progressive to hit the Las Vegas valley. Actually it’s five separate
progressive jackpots that are up for grabs during every regular session game.
You’ll find Planet Bingo, (replacing the former Cashball games), at the Gold
Coast, Suncoast and the Plaza.
Here’s a quick look at the
general rules and an explanation of how Planet Bingo is played:
1. There are no rule changes to
how you play any regular bingo game. You play bingo exactly as you always have.
2. Prior to the start of each
game, Planet Bingo “colors-up” the 75 balls on big screen
television-type monitors throughout the hall, dividing them into five color
groups. The division of colors is seven blue, 10 green, 12 purple, 21 red and 25
yellow.
3. When a player hits a bingo,
if the straight-line portion of the winning pattern is of all one color, the
player not only wins the regular game payout, but the progressive payout as
well! The jackpot then recycles and is available for the very next game.
4. Since the chance to hit a
Bingo on yellow, for example, is greater than the chance to Bingo on blue,
(because there are only seven blue colored balls versus 25 yellow), the starting
jackpots also increase by color. Again by example, the yellow progressive
jackpot may start out at around $500 to the blue jackpot starting at as much as
$10,000. They continue to “progress” until won, and then unlike the
former Cashball jackpot, immediately re-set to become available for the next
game.
It is even possible, (albeit
unusually unlikely), to win more than one jackpot per game. In a game that
requires two straight line bingo’s to win, (as in double bingo), it is
possible that the two lines could each be of a different color. The player could
potentially collect three jackpots. One for the regular game and two for the
colored progressive jackpots!
The cost to play is a $1
validation fee and is good for the entire session. That’s about 9 cents per
game, (based on 11 games not including the coverall game), and about 2 cents per
colored jackpot per game.
MPBingo, (which stands for
Multi-Progressive Bingo), the company responsible for Planet Bingo, has been
available at Indian Bingo Halls for years. Planet Bingo has paid out in excess
of four million dollars over the past three years. Over $50,000 alone has been
paid out at the Gold Coast, Suncoast and Plaza since its inception
here just a few short weeks ago! That’s a lot of “out of this world”
bingo jackpots!
Until next week”¦May you all
shout ”¦ “B-I-N-G-O!”