Rio Bingo
After hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics and being part of Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup, the city of Rio de Janeiro has become familiar to sports fans around the world, even if most of them have never actually been there. And while all the imagery coming out of the city hasn’t always been great, the party atmosphere, beautiful beaches, warm weather and welcoming people have still made it one of the most popular holiday destinations on the planet.
Given the natural beauty of the area, it is no surprise that this city has become a popular theme for online gambling games. In Rio Bingo, you’ll get to enjoy much of that splendor: beautiful greens and blues, tropical drinks, exotic birds, and even a recreation of Christ the Redeemer (well, at least the back of it). But the real focus is on the action, where players have the chance to win random multipliers on each of their cards, opening up the potential for some massive wins if you can get just a little bit of luck to come your way.
A Classic Game with Brazilian Flavor
At its heart, the action of Rio Bingo should be familiar to anyone who has played the style of the game often played in the United Kingdom. That the start of each round, players may purchase anywhere from 1 to 12 cards. They may also set the price per card, allowing for the game to be played at a wide range of stakes levels. If you always want to play for the full dozen tickets, there’s also a “max cards” button that makes it easy to quickly get started.
Once you’re ready to go, it’s time to hit the play button. At this point, your cards will be revealed. The name of the game is 90-ball bingo, and each of your cards will show a grid with three lines, each made up of nine squares. Five squares in each row will show numbers; these will be your targets for that card. The goal is to hit all five numbers on as many lines as possible; the maximum prize comes from a “full house,” or hitting every number on the card (completing all three lines).
When your cards are revealed, your “one line” prizes will also be shown for the first time. In this game, all prizes are randomly assigned from a possible range. However, better results always provide more cash: two lines is always worth more than one line, for instance. At the same time, the first 15 balls will be revealed from the hopper in the center of the screen, beginning to fill out your tickets.
This process is repeated two more times. Before the second round of balls are drawn, your “2 Lines” prizes will be shown to you. The “Full House” awards will finally be revealed before the last 15 balls. At this point, 45 different numbers will have been picked, and the game will come to an end.
It’s now time for you to collect your winnings! On each card that has at least one completed line, you’ll win the largest prize you’re eligible for. The size of your prizes can vary a lot, especially when it comes to what you get for finishing off an entire card. After playing through the game hundreds of times, we’ve come up with the following ranges for each of the prize levels:
- One Line: 1x to 3x
- Two Lines: 4x to 8x
- Full House: 12x to 500x
Not surprisingly, the highest prizes are rarer than lower ones, especially when it comes to the full houses. Those most commonly end up offering somewhere between 16x-45x the price of each ticket, though larger amounts are certainly possible. Technically, it’s possible to win up to 6,000 times the cost of a single card on a given round, though that would require you to fill all 12 cards on the same play – something that seems extraordinarily unlikely, to say the least.
That’s about all there is to this game. There are a few other features you can take advantage of if you’d like to, including an autobet functionality that allows you to quickly play through any number of rounds at the same stakes level and with the same number of cards. You can also speed up any single game by hitting the “quick play” button. This will move you right to the end of the round, showing any prizes that you have won as well as the complete results on all cards.
A Little Luck Can Go a Long Way
This should pretty much go without saying, but just in case: Rio Bingo is a game of luck, and there’s no way for you to insert any skill in an effort to improve your odds. Since you can’t control the numbers, and there is no time at which you have to make any influential decisions, you’re completely at the mercy of the random number generator.
On the bright side, that does mean that everyone who plays gets the same return. In this case, the game offers an RTP of 85%, meaning the house expects to win about 15% of all ticket sales. This ranks fairly low among online casino games, which tend to have better odds than their land-based counterparts. However, it’s still not terribly out of the ordinary for a “specialty” title, so we can’t judge it too harshly, though we expect that serious gamblers will want to look elsewhere in order to get much better odds.
Colorful Theme and Surprises Create Fun Experience
The basic framework of Rio Bingo isn’t anything especially captivating. If you like 90-ball bingo, this might offer you some of the same excitement you get while waiting to hear your numbers called at a live game, though the atmosphere isn’t really the same without other players around to experience it with. The prizes are relatively modest as well, and even still, the biggest payouts are rare.
On the bright side, the color scheme is rich and engaging, and really fits the theme. This is also a very easy game to play, while providing enough action to stay interesting for longer than many of these “random drawing” style games. While it isn’t one of our favorites, Rio Bingo will likely have an audience among casual players who are more concerned with presentation and fun rather than getting the best odds possible.
