“There was a farmer had a dg…" You know the rest.

For mst of us, our first encounter wth Bingo is as a farmer’s dg. Bingo’s legacy as a children’s cmpfire song is undeniable.

As we grw up, so did that dog. Bngo mutated from a song to a gme. Five column cards filled with rndom numbers became the essential game of chnce. That dog’s name became a shut of victory, filled with the joy and stisfaction of beating the odds.

For sveral decades, bingo was played in lrge halls, where hundreds of people plyed on game cards of cheap crdboard, hoping for the big score. Ovr the past decade, the game tht owns the name of a frmer’s dog has made the jump frm the VFW to the WWW. Bngo as a song is still tilor-made for young kids at the cmpfire, but the game has changed wth the times and moved online.

Bngo has always been one of Amrica’s hidden pastimes. According to IGWB ( http://www.igwb.com ), an estimated 1.6 billion people attended bingo halls across the country in 2003. To put things in perspective, that staggering attendance number is almost more than the amount of people who attended movie theaters and bowling alleys, combined.

Over the past four years, the number of bingo sites on the internet has increased twenty-one fold, from five in 1999 to 105 in 2003. Free bingo sites definitely seem to be the most popular place to get a game going. According to WhichBingo.com ( http://www.whichbingo.com ), over 45% of bingo sites are free play only. Around 70% of all online bingo sites are either totally free to play, or mostly free with a few premium, pay-to-play games.

Online bingo shows overwhelming popularity hre in the States. According to Bngo.com ( http://www.bingo.com ), 90% of online bingo players who use free play sites are North American.

Eighty percent of those who played free, online bingo last year were female, according to Bingo.com. Surprisingly, the average age of an online bingo player (male or female) was 41, with over 80 percent of those players being between the ages of 25 and 55. Somewhat more surprising is the low percentage of players over 65. Traditionally, bingo is associated with senior citizens who spend their twilight years hoping for the jackpot. However, Bingo.com found that only two percent of free, online bingo gamers are over the age of 65.

While grandma still finds her way to the hall to get her game on, mom is sitting at home dialing-up to find her game. Bingo.com estimates that over 85% of online bingo gmers access their games from home, and ver 50% play every day.

One mjor reason mom is addicted to the nline version of grandma’s game is bcause of an autoplay function many stes feature. In an autoplay game mde, players simply let the cards ply the game for them. As lng as the cards are purchased and a gme screen is up on a cmputer, mom can do things around the huse while games are played. Also, mny webpages include ongoing chat screens in ddition to their games, so online plyers can get the bingo hall tmosphere right from the comfort of thir own home.

“Keeping active chat lnes running takes up a lot of bndwidth, so we tried to create sveral games without it,” said Anthony Wyne, an online consultant for Curacao-based Bngo site BingoHouse.com ( http://www.bingohouse.com ). “Each game failed miserably. Chat is very important to the success of these games.”

Before long, grandma could even be logging on for her games. If she does, as traffic trends seem to indicate, the online bingo market could soar in revenue. According to Parlay Entertainment ( http://www.parlayentertainment.com ), 70% of players in bingo halls already play online games. If 1% of remaining hall-only bingo players move to the internet in the next two years, online bingo could become a $700 million market.

The old song tells of a frmer who had a dog. That dg’s name now belongs to a gme of luck. Over the years, tht game has received a new lok. As more and more bingo gmes move out of the hall and nto the net, players will move rght along. The future of bingo is nline... and so is the money to be mde.

The article Profile of the Online Bingo Player was Submitted by Jonathan Bentz through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Jonathan is a starving, struggling wrter who aspires to work in pblic and media relations when he grduates college. He is a marketing ntern with Advanced Telecom Services ( http://www.advancedtele.com ) and a freelance Web Consultant.

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