It seems like everything is getting the word cyber put in front of it nowadays, but bingo, the game you used to play at camp or church, what can be cyber about bingo?

The answer is everything, all the way across the B-I-N-G-O.

Cyber bingo started with electronics in the bingo hall. Electronic bingo cards and electronic bingo games not only became a new way to play the game, they became the standard. Reports show that 70% of bingo hall players are now using electronic games. With electronic bingo the game can be played at a quicker pace and the player can play multiple games without going cross-eyed. It gives the average player a better chance to win and allows the accustomed bingo players more chances to play without losing any of the excitement.

But more games and more players ended up providing cyber bingo with its first problem: how can a bingo hall with limited space and funding provide electronic bingo games for all the people that want to play them? The truth is that they can't. The average bingo hall doesn't have the capacity to be filled with electronic equipment, nor does it have the means to keep up with electronic advancement.

That's the beauty of throwing the word cyber in front of a word like bingo. The technological world we live in is not trying to leave people behind, but bring them along, even bingo players. Everybody wants to play cyber bingo, but everybody can't get into a bingo hall, so what do we do? Give up and go back to spinning beans in a barrel? No, we find a place where everybody can play cyber bingo. Where is this magical place with out seating restrictions, this bingo room whose tables stretch into eternity, this imaginary cyber bingo hall that never ends? Where else would it be but cyber space.

That's right, the Internet, online bingo, virtual reality, your own bingo card on your computer screen. Now cyber bingo makes complete sense. Think about the number of people that can be linked into a bingo tournament through the Internet. If you have a computer with online capabilities you have a seat in this bingo room.

Forget the hundred people who play bingo at your church; forget the thousand that play at the casino's bingo hall; with cyber bingo we're talking tens of thousand, possibly even millions of people, all able to sit down to the same game without worrying about elbow space or fire restrictions.

Online bingo is not here to destroy the classic game. It's here to allow everybody to play, whenever they want. Cyber bingo has no hours, no space restrictions. There are already over 100 online bingo websites, a number that has been doubling consistently yearly. In the next two years reports say that 1% of the land bingo market will move online. That's 1% of a reported 1.6 billion people that call bingo their favorite form of entertainment. And cyber bingo is here to accommodate them all.

While bingo was invented in the United States it is now played around the world.You may log onto a bingo site and compete with other players from around the world. Most sites have clear instructions and you don't have to be a computer person to play. The stereotype of the blue haired bingo player is gone forever. Now bingo players represent almost every ethnic and socioeconomic group. While cyber bingo will never take the place of the traditional bingo hall, it allows players who, for one reason or another, do not have access to a bingo hall.And, best of all, you don't have to sit in a smoky bingo hall and breathe someone else's second hand smoke.