The number of online bingo players is increasing, daily, not least because the game of bingo, itself, is straightforward, learn and play. Online bingo sites now offer not simply the potential for substantial cash prizes, but also the opportunity to socialise, make new friends, and catch up on the latest gossip, in specially designed bingo chat rooms.

All you have to do to start, is to discover the site that suits you best, in terms of the bingo games, and prize money, available, and register for an account. You will then need to make an initial deposit. This deposit may, the truth is, be matched by the site, itself. The actual funding of your account may be achieved via a debit, or credit, card or via a range of secure transaction options recommended through the website in question.

Once registered, you may choose a bingo game by which to participate, and the number of individual bingo cards that you wish to play in that game. When play begins, the bingo balls drawn, or "called", will be displayed on the screen, as well as the game pattern for the present game. Watch this pattern closely, as it may change from game to game, and only by completing the current game pattern can you hope to win a prize.

Many online bingo sites allow players to chat whilst playing bingo, play chat games, and share in each other's success. This brings an effective sense of community, one of the factors that can be making online bingo so popular. Players get to learn one other, share tips as well as have a generally entertaining time, discussing bingo, or anything else which takes their fancy.

Players are able to select from single player games, where the size of the cash prize is determined by how rapidly the player fills in their card, or multiplayer games, through which the players compete against each other to complete set patterns on their cards.

Progressive jackpot bingo adds a new dimension to the excitement of the game, and, remember, the possibility of winning an important cash prize. Progressive jackpot games feature constantly growing prize fund, where money rolls over from one game to the next, until it is won. The larger the range of players playing a particular game the larger the jackpot prize fund that's up for grabs.

The progressive jackpot may only be won under certain conditions, imposed through the online promoter. A progressive jackpot game may require, for example, that a winning pattern is completed in advance of certain range of bingo balls being drawn, or called. The range of balls might be, say, 45, or 40, or 35, and, fairly obviously, the bottom the number the greater difficult the game is to win. If no player completes his, or her, bingo card in the requisite range of calls, the prize money for that games "rolls over" to the next qualifying game; repeated "rollovers" mean that, like the national lottery website, progressive jackpot prizes can reach substantial sums, before they can be eventually won.

Players are now able to download bingo gaming software from many online bingo sites. Downloads are popular while they allow bingo to be lifelike, with realistic sound and enhanced graphics. Online bingo, at one time, perhaps, considered an American phenomenon, has arrived within the UK, and looks to be here to stay.