Retired Bingo Games & What To Play Instead
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Updated: 6th Aug 2024
Sometimes online bingo games have to be retired, whether it’s because they needed Adobe Flash which is no longer supported, the bingo platform they ran on was withdrawn or they were just plain unpopular with players. Here we take a look at some of them – and suggest what to play instead if one of them was your favourite.
- Joker Jackpot
- Super Snap
- Royal 5s
- Take Me Out Bingo
- Bejeweled Bingo
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Bingo
- Lucky Numbers Bingo
- Linka-Balls Bingo
- Bingo Lotto
- Wizard of Bingo
- Elimination Bingo
- Immortal Romance Bingo
- Candylicious
- Slingo Boom
- Hot House Bingo
- Big Banker Bingo
- Love Island Bingo
- Tipping Point Bingo
- Housey Bingo
- Game Show Bingo
- Blox Bingo
- Crystal Maze Bingo
- Friends™ Bingo
- Cash Out Bingo
- Masked Singer UK Bingo
- Bingo Boom
- Fluffy Favourites Bingo (Entain)
- The Voice UK Bingo
Joker Jackpot
Joker Jackpot, which was found at many Virtue Fusion bingo sites, was a Flash bingo style game played with an array of 9 playing cards instead of a bingo card. Cards were dealt from a full pack (including 2 jokers) instead of numbers being called, and there were prizes for the J pattern and for a full hand (full house), plus a fixed jackpot for winning full hand in 16 or fewer cards and a progressive jackpot for winning full hand in 14 or fewer cards with a joker as the final card.
Why was Joker Jackpot retired?
That’s easy – the demise of Adobe Flash.
What to play instead
Nevada at tombola
Super Snap!
Super Snap was a networked bingo style Flash card game by Gamesys. Each hand contained 5 cards and a player could buy up to 5 hands per game (potentially expensive as they were £1 each). Super Snap included 3 ways to win. The first way was Match Bonus and this was what happened if your 5 cards formed a scoring poker hand. Each type of poker hand paid a multiple of the £1 hand price, from 2x for 2 pairs up to 250x for a Royal Flush (not a lot given that the chances of being dealt one are approximately 1 in 650,000) . The second way was the Lucky Charm Bonus. To get a Lucky Charm, players had to buy the maximum 5 hands. At the end of the game all players with the Lucky Charm that was called (there were several) would share in the Charm Jackpot. The third way was to call snap by matching all your cards and the prize for this was determined by the number of hands sold. There was also a progressive jackpot which can be won by matching all 5 cards in 7 calls or fewer (at a probability of around 1 in 120,000 per hand); the winner got 40% and the other players in the game in question got 60%. Some Gamesys sites had a version of Snap without the community progressive jackpot. Instead, if you called Snap in 5,6, or 7 calls you won a multiple of the hand price.
Why was Super Snap retired?
Flash again – but player preferences may also have been something to do with it as it wasn’t immediately replaced by an HTML5 playing card game.
What to play instead
Cinco at tombola
Royal 5s
Royal 5s was Playtech’s first HTML5 version of the Cinco/Snap/Flash Fives bingo card game and was exclusive to just one site – Mecca Bingo, where it first appeared in December 2016. All games were multi stake and players could buy hands for 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p or £1. Unlike in the other versions, not all hands were shown on screen, just the best performing ones. The room had a progressive community jackpot (split 50/50 between the winner and all other players) which dropped if someone completed a hand in just 6 calls.
Why was Royal 5s retired?
Not enough player interest in it as a standalone game at Mecca – the more recent Housey Bingo game was more widely networked.
What to play instead
Cinco at tombola
Take Me Out Bingo
Take Me Out Bingo by Gamesys was a standard 75 ball bingo pattern bingo game with a bonus game. Thirty ladies appeared at the top of the game area corresponding to the numbers 1-30. When the number was called the lady switched her light off. If 18 or more lights were still on when bingo was called the community jackpot was paid out and split evenly between all players who held at least 6 tickets to the game. If 6-17 lights were still on they would win 1, 2, or 3 tickets to the next game. 5 or fewer was a black out.
Why was Take Me Out Bingo retired?
Flash again – and maybe the rights weren’t renewed?
What to play instead
Deal Or No Deal Bingo 75, if 75 ball bingo with a bonus game is what appeals. Crystal Maze Bingo, if you just want to be able to win free tickets to the next game.
Bejeweled Bingo
Bejeweled Bingo was a Gamesys 90 ball variant that was exclusive to Jackpot Joy. The bonus game was the Bejeweled Challenge where you had one minute to play the classic match 3 game and beat a target score to win free tickets to the next game and as usual with this type of bonus game there was the opportunity to win tickets based on both individual and community score. In Bejeweled Bingo there was a progressive jackpot that would be won if bingo was called in 38 or fewer calls and it is this particular jackpot that was responsible for the UK’s biggest online bingo win back in 2012 when one lucky player took away more than half a million pounds (larger sums have been won at other sites but on slots, not bingo).
Why was Bejeweled Bingo retired?
Flash again
What to play instead
Blox Bingo at Double Bubble Bingo
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Bingo
Available at some Virtue Fusion sites, this was themed on the iconic TV show but barely qualified as a variant form of bingo at all, as almost all of the time it ended up being a standard 90 ball game with regular prizes. There was an extra sliding jackpot but this only came into play, starting at £500, if the full house was won in 40 or fewer calls (not a frequent occurrence even on a busy network). The top prize was £1 million but the number of calls required to win it was a completely ridiculous 15-17 – making the odds against winning the million pounds with the purchase of a single card a jaw dropping 336 trillion to 1! Winning the UK lottery jackpot with a single set of numbers, at a mere 45 million to one, is an awful lot more likely – and the time it would take for 336 trillion games of online bingo to be played (assuming a game started every 3 minutes, 24/7) is a staggering 1.9 billion years (ten thousand times as long as the entire history of the human species). The game no longer seems to be on offer.
Why was Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Bingo retired?
We have no idea but maybe, just maybe, someone thought it was a bit much to be advertising such a staggeringly unlikely million pound prize ?
What to play instead
Regular 90 ball bingo at Paddy Power Bingo
Lucky Numbers Bingo
Lucky Numbers Bingo was another Virtue Fusion 90 ball special with an add-on game. You had to choose three numbers from your cards and would win fixed value extra prizes if any (or all) of them were the number(s) on which the line and FH wins are called.
Why was Lucky Numbers Bingo retired?
Possibly due to consolidation of Virtue Fusion networked bingo rooms?
What to play instead
Britain’s Got Talent Bingo is basically the same game
Linka-Balls Bingo
Linka-Balls Bingo was another Mecca Bingo exclusive and was 90 ball bingo with feature prizes for players with 6 or more tickets in play. As the bingo balls dropped, they piled up adjacent to the playing area. Each time there were three balls on the same colour in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) a feature prize was awarded and this could happen once per colour per game (in theory all 6 prizes could be awarded in the course of just one game). Feature prizes were split equally between all qualifying players.
Why was Linka-Balls Bingo retired?
It was dropped in Autumn 2018 to make room for BOB – presumably the player numbers were disappointing.
What to play instead
Friends Bingo at Foxy Bingo if what appeals is 90 ball with an extra feature game that runs during the game itself and not afterwards. Blocks at tombola if you want it to be all about collecting colours.
Bingo Lotto
The 49 ball variant Bingo Lotto was a Gala Coral exclusive. Each card had just 6 numbers (with a maximum of 49 cards per player per game) and there were prizes for 3, 4, 5 and 6 numbers, plus a hefty progressive jackpot (seeded at £25K) which could only be won by getting all 6 numbers in the first 6 calls.
Why was Bingo Lotto retired?
We suspect the National Lottery like branding may have been a problem
What to play instead
Paper at tombola has similarly sized tickets. Or if it’s just the speed you’re after you could try Dirty Gertie (30 ball) at Foxy Bingo.
Wizard of Bingo
Wizard of Bingo was a 75 ball variant by Cozy where the aim was NOT to get full house first. In this game, which was loosely themed on the Wizard of Oz, 10 of the balls brought the Witch on to curse any card bearing that number (unless protected by the Magic Shoe ball which lasted for 5 calls) . When a card was cursed for the third time it was destroyed. Cards that completed the coverall would be removed by the Monkey and the last card or cards left in the game would win.
Why was Wizard of Bingo retired?
Rumour had it that they didn’t have authorisation to use the characters which would explain why it was only around for a few weeks.
What to play instead
There’s nothing quite like this game around these days. The live game Deal Or No Deal The Big Draw has a similar level of complexity, especially if you buy tickets to the side game. Or you might like The Machine at Tombola, where there’s an extra prize that removes the main prizes from the game if won.
Elimination Bingo
Elimination Bingo was available at GameVillage and sister sites only (originally on a proprietary platform and subsequently on Cozy). It had a similar concept to Wizard of Bingo but was less interesting. It was played with regular 75 ball cards and when the number of squares shown in the “Matches to Elimination” box was covered, the card disappeared. The last card or cards left in the game won.
Why was Elimination Bingo retired?
Exclusive GameVillage bingo rooms were removed when the site joined the main Cozy network. The Cozy network is now closed and the software has been bought and repurposed by GVC so we don’t expect to see it reused.
What to play instead
Battle Royale Bingo at Foxy Bingo and also try the Mega Ball live game.
Immortal Romance Bingo
Immortal Romance Bingo was a 90 ball bingo variant by Microgaming based on the very popular online slot. The four characters who preside over the different bonus rounds in the slot – Amber, Troy, Michael and Sarah – each added a different feature to the bingo game, and in each game one of the four was active. Each special feature acted on a strip of 6 tickets so tickets could only be purchased in strips (and the room was cash only). Amber added an extra ball (the Scatter Ball) to the game and when it was called up to two numbers per strip would be daubed. Troy assigned each strip a special number and when it was called vampire bats flew in and randomly daubed up to 3 numbers. Michael also assigned each strip a special number and when it was called all the numbers in that column, all the way down the strip, were counted as daubed for the next 5 calls. Sarah’s Wild Vine feature worked like Troy’s but the number of random daubs was 4. Each strip contained at least one special Medallion number and if one of these was called the player got a notch on their personal power up bar. When a player had collected 20 notches they could enter the Chamber of Wins to spin the jackpot wheel. There were minor, major and mega jackpots to be won plus a consolation prize of free spins on the Immortal Romance slot.
Why was Immortal Romance Bingo retired?
Flash again – and this is one game that will DEFINITELY not be making a reappearance on HTML5 as the Microgaming bingo software itself has also now been retired.
What to play instead
If you like the idea of spinning a wheel for a chance of a jackpot win – Cashpot Bingo at Gala Bingo. If you like the idea of power up modifiers – any Slingo Games. If you just want to win slot spins, the Wow Spintastic room at Dragonfish bingo sites or the Bubble Wild bingo room at Heart Bingo.
Candylicious
Candylicious was a 52 ball bingo game found at Dragonfish network bingo sites and some other 888 bingo sites. All the bingo balls were replaced with sweets and basically it was just a reskinned version of the playing card based Bingo 52, played at breakneck speed – and that’s not an exaggeration. The sweets exploded from the candy machine so quickly that the entire game was over in seconds – if you didn’t pay attention you could easily miss the whole thing!
Why was Candylicious retired?
Not enough players – not really surprising, as it was a super fast game with no proper pre-buy so you had to be paying attention at exactly the right time to buy tickets and see them play.
What to play instead
If you liked the way the game played – Bingo Deal at Dragonfish bingo sites. If you actually liked the speed – Bingo Blast at Pragmatic Play bingo sites. If you liked the theming, Burst Bingo or Emoji Bingo at Mecca Bingo.
Slingo Boom!
Slingo is a cross between 75 ball bingo and a slot machine and was widely available as a social and partially skill based game until it was bought by Gaming Realms and turned into a real money game of chance. There are several versions of real money Slingo but the only one that could be classed as a bingo variant is Slingo Boom, the multiplayer version which debuted at Slingo.com and was then rolled out to sister sites. The other versions are single player and are essentially slot machines.
In Slingo Boom each player had a 5 x 5 card which was basically a 75 ball card without the middle square marked off. The numbers appeared on the five reels at the bottom of the play area and while each player had different numbers on their card, the numbers spun on the reels were the same for everyone in the room. You won by marking off all the numbers in 1 or 2 lines (known as Slingos) or getting full house. The reels did not just contain numbers, however; to make it a bit more interesting they also contained jokers, super jokers and devils. These will be familiar to anyone who has played Slingo in one of its earlier non real money incarnations, but in Slingo Boom their effect was purely automatic. The joker randomly marked off a number from the column above the reel it appeared on, the super joker randomly marked off a number from anywhere on the board, and the devil was a null symbol ensuring no-one could mark off a number from that column on that spin. Unlike all other versions of Slingo, Slingo Boom had no maximum number of spins and play continued until someone won.
Slingo Boom had a further unique twist in that players who just missed out on the full house were sometimes given the opportunity to buy an extra spin for the chance to win a prize equal to the full house prize.
Why was Slingo Boom! retired?
Slingo Boom! never attracted enough players, perhaps because it wasn’t ever promoted as a bingo game. It’s another game that won’t be coming back as the sites themselves all closed at Christmas 2019 (some are now back on the Skill On Net casino platform).
What to play instead
5 line bingo or any Slingo game – or both at the same time, at a site such as Buzz Bingo, for the full experience! Or try Slingo Bingo at Foxy Bingo.
Hot House Bingo
Hot House Bingo was exclusive to Gala Bingo and was a radical take on 90 ball bingo. Each player had a strip of 3 tickets and all 90 balls were called. The calls were divided into 5 unequal ranges and the aim was to complete tickets in a number of calls that fell within a scoring range (3 of them scored and 2 didn’t). All the tickets that were completed in a range shared the prize pot for that range. If no tickets were completed within the range (which happened occasionally with the lowest range) the prize was added to the other scoring ranges. The ranges and prize weighting moved around from game to game.
Why was Hot House Bingo retired?
Hot House wasn’t popular with players and only lasted a few months. Its unpopularity may have been to do with the blatantly terrible RTP in some of the games – or maybe it was just too complicated for players to get their heads round?
What to play instead
If you liked the idea of different tickets winning at various stages of the game – Bingo 60 at tombola. If you liked that the game played all the way to the end – Battle Royale Bingo at Foxy Bingo. If you liked more players winning prizes – Roll On Bingo at Virtue Fusion bingo sites.
Big Banker Bingo
Big Banker Bingo was only available at Ladbrokes, Gala and Coral (back when they were on Virtue Fusion) and was only playable on HTML5 (mobile, tablet, and the new bingo lobby). It was essentially the same as the 90 ball version of Deal Or No Deal Bingo but with the red boxes replaced by golden safes and (because it was exclusive to the three sites rather than running across the Virtue Fusion network like the original game) fewer players competing for smaller prizes.
Why was Big Banker Bingo retired?
The room was removed in June 2019 and this was probably due to consolidation as GVC prepared to move both Coral and Ladbrokes off the Virtue Fusion platform.
What to play instead
Love Island Bingo
Love Island Bingo was a 90 ball bingo game that was exclusive to Sky Bingo. Players with 6 or more tickets to a game collected drops of water – fill the bottle to collect a £1 bonus, split between Love Island Bingo and the Love Island Date Night slot. There was also a Spin The Bottle feature at the end of some games only – if the bottle stopped on one of the three (rather small) jackpot segments all players with tickets in play got a share of the corresponding jackpot.
Why was Love Island Bingo retired?
We suspect the agreement to use the Love Island branding was for a limited time. Of course, it could make a reappearance during a future season.
What to play instead
Potion Shop Bingo, also at Sky, is the same game with different theming. Or why not play our just for fun version of Love Island Bingo?
Tipping Point Bingo
Tipping Point Bingo was another Sky Bingo exclusive and was a TV tie-in with the ITV quiz show of the same name. It had 40 balls and 8 numbers per card which is the same game mechanic as Rainbow Riches Bingo, and as in the other game there were prizes for 1 cluster and full house. Instead of the rainbow track of the other game there was a straightforward progressive jackpot, split 50/50 between the winner and the other players on full house in 12 or fewer calls.
The actual experience of playing the game was quite different to Rainbow Riches Bingo, however, as what made Tipping Point Bingo really exciting was the way in which the balls – or, rather, counters – dropped. In the screenshot, number 13 is being called but until the counter reached the bottom of the screen all that would be known was the drop zone (in this case, 11-20) and whether the number was odd or even (black for odd and white for even). It certainly enhanced that 1TG feeling!
Tipping Point Bingo also had a Win Zone feature game which ran during certain sessions. After each game, an animation played and players could watch the counters drop; each counter – and up to 10 could drop per game – was worth £20 cash and the special jackpot counter was worth £1000. The total sum from the dropped counters was split 50/50 between the FH winner and all remaining tickets. There was also an exclusive Tipping Point slot and scratchcard.
Why was Tipping Point Bingo retired?
The Tipping Point slot and scratchcard were also removed so this is almost certainly a case of the agreement to use the branding expiring.
What to play instead
Rainbow Riches Bingo is the same game underneath – play at Betfred Bingo or any other Virtue Fusion bingo site.
Housey Bingo
Housey Bingo was the Virtue Fusion version of the 52-5 playing card game, launched at many sites at the start of 2020 as a rather belated replacement for the Joker Jackpot game which was retired with the Flash bingo client. Housey Bingo was a multi stake game (stake levels were generally from 5p to 40p) and there was a limit of 5 hands per player per game. To win the progressive jackpot required bingo in 7 calls.
Why was Housey Bingo retired?
Playtech have now had several attempts to do a playing card bingo game but none of them have attracted a critical mass of players.
What to play instead
Cinco at tombola, or Nevada (also at Tombola) if you like the playing card theme but fancy a bit of a change.
Game Show Bingo
Exclusive to Jackpotjoy, this was a regular 90 ball bingo game with two jackpots and an optional skill based bonus game in which free tickets to the next game could be won (to take part in the bonus game you had to buy at least 6 tickets to the bingo game). The progressive jackpot was triggered if bingo was called in 40 balls or fewer, and was shared 50-50 between the winner and all other players with tickets to that game. The Game Show Bingo bonus games were Sumo, Bungee and Balloon Pop; in each game you could win up to 6 tickets for the next game based on your personal score and another 6 based on the community score of everyone who took part.
Why was Game Show Bingo retired?
Mixing a skill based bonus game with a gambling game is no longer allowed, we believe.
What to play instead
There are many 90 ball bingo games with non skill based bonus games – Deal Or No Deal Bingo is probably the best known.
Blox Bingo
Blox Bingo was a 90 ball bingo game by Gamesys which could be played at Double Bubble Bingo. Like other Gamesys 90 ball variants, it had a bonus round which could be played by anyone with 6 or more tickets to the game it followed. The bonus round was a game of Blox Blitz; players had to create lines of three or more by swapping Blox and if they scored highly enough and/or the community scored highly enough they won tickets to the next game.
Why was Blox Bingo retired?
Same reason as Game Show Bingo
What to play instead
See Game Show Bingo
Crystal Maze Bingo
Crystal Maze Bingo was a Gamesys 90 ball bingo game themed on the cult TV show. The feature round played at the end of every game; players who bought more than 6 tickets could try to click on as many golden notes as possible (and avoid silver notes) to win tickets to the next game; the community score counted as well as individual scores.
Why was Crystal Maze Bingo retired?
Same reason as Game Show Bingo and Blox Bingo
What to play instead
See Game Show Bingo
Friends™ Bingo
Friends™ Bingo was a themed 90 ball bingo game which was exclusive to Foxy Bingo. It was standard 90 ball bingo with two extra features – the Central Perk ticket which worked like the Golden Cobbles in Coronation Street Bingo, but with all prizes fixed rather than progressive, and the Team Community Pot which paid out in every game.
Why was Friends™ Bingo retired?
End of the agreement to use the IP
What to play instead
Coronation Street Bingo
Cash Out Bingo
Cash Out Bingo was a 90 ball bingo game at Foxy Bingo with a novel twist. There were no 1L and 2L prizes; instead, the game was paused just before the last call and all players with 1TG were shown how much money is in the Cash Out pot and how many other players have 1TG – they could choose to take a share of the pot or play on in the hope of winning the full house prize.
Why was Cash Out Bingo retired?
We’d hazard a guess that it required players to pay very close attention which isn’t always possible, especially on a mobile
What to play instead
If you like the concept, Slingo lets you decide whether to take any winnings or pay for extra spins.
Masked Singer UK Bingo
Masked Singer UK Bingo by Pragmatic Play was a 90 ball bingo game which was exclusive to PlayOJO. It was standard 90 ball bingo with an extra feature. Before buying tickets, you chose one of the eight masks; at the end of the game, if your mask was the same as the one that won full house you won a free bingo ticket.
Why was Masked Singer UK Bingo retired?
The end of the agreement to use the IP.
What to play instead
Any 90 ball bingo game
Bingo Boom
Bingo Boom by Entain added an optional gem drop feature game to 90 ball bingo. It played concurrently with the main game and you scored by lining up and exploding 3 or more gems of the same colour. Any score of 100 or more won a multiplier which would be applied to your prize if you won full house.
Why was Bingo Boom retired?
We’re guessing it was the same reason as the three Gamesys bingo games that were retired around about the same time – adding a skill element became a no-no.
What to play instead
For a 90 ball game with a gems theme, how about Diamond Dazzle?
Fluffy Favourites Bingo (Entain)
Entain’s Fluffy Favourites bingo game was a 36 ball, 16 number affair with all of the numbers replaced by a combination of plushies from the slot games and coloured balloons (so very similar to Morph). It was multi-stake and single ticket and could be played from just 2p. The feature game which was awarded to the full house winner (on top of the regular prize) was based on the Toy Grabber bonus round from the slot games; it had a top prize of £50 but most players won 50p or nothing.
Why was Entain version of Fluffy Favourites Bingo retired?
It’s a mystery, as the Playtech version is still around. Maybe they lost the rights? Or perhaps the bonus game was considered too skill like?
What to play instead
If you liked the Fluffy theming, play the Virtue Fusion version. If you liked that it was a 36 ball single ticket game try Winning Headlines at Sun Bingo or Morph at tombola.
The Voice UK Bingo
The Voice UK Bingo was a TV tie-in bingo game exclusively at Buzz Bingo. It was 80 ball bingo with a bonus jackpot game very similar to the one in Coronation Street Bingo. Instead of the golden ticket there were four coaches’ chairs each with 4 numbers on and these were marked off when someone won full house on that number. The full house winner got £5 for one number and £50 for turning a chair around – unless it was the last chair, in which case it was £500.
Why was The Voice UK Bingo retired?
The deal to use the branding ended.
What to play instead
Buzz now have regular 80 ball bingo. Or if you liked the bonus feaure, Coronation Street Bingo does it better.
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Not sure if anybody remembers, but there was a bingo game with arctic animals in it. I think it was called lucky something? I really liked it, but it’s been years since I played. I remember trying to download it but couldn’t find it. When I did, the company discontinued it. Really just wish I could find it again. Thanks
Was it a real money bingo game or just social?