Bingo Terms Explained: A Plain-English Glossary of UK Bingo Words
New to online bingo, or coming back after a few years away? The lobby can feel like it has its own language – strips, 1TG, pre-buy, sharepots, chat hosts. None of it is complicated once someone explains it. This glossary covers the words you’ll see most on UK bingo sites, grouped so you can find what you need quickly. Where a term is specific to one site, we say which site and when we checked it.
The quick list
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Dab / dabber | Marking off a called number (and the pen you’d use in a club) |
| Auto-dab | The site marks your numbers for you |
| Strip | Six 90-ball tickets that between them hold all 90 numbers |
| Line / two lines / full house | The three usual prizes in a game of 90-ball bingo |
| 1TG / 2TG | One to go / two to go – a ticket one or two numbers away from winning |
| Coverall | Every number on a 75-ball card marked off |
| Pre-buy | Buying tickets for a game that starts later |
| Multi-stake | A game where you choose your ticket price and prizes are scaled to it |
| Sharepot | An extra pot shared between players in a game or room |
| Chat host (CH) / CM | The staff member who runs a room’s chat and chat games |
| Wagering | How much you must play before bonus money becomes cash |
Tickets and cards
Ticket (or card). What you play with. A 90-ball ticket has three rows and nine columns, with 15 numbers spread across it. A 75-ball card is a five-by-five grid with a free space in the middle. Our guide to 90-ball, 75-ball and 80-ball bingo shows how each layout plays.
Strip (or book). A set of six 90-ball tickets that, between them, contain every number from 1 to 90 exactly once. Buy a full strip and every number called will be on one of your tickets – it doesn’t make you more likely to win than six separate tickets, it just means you’re never sitting with nothing to mark.
Dab, dabber, daub. To dab is to mark off a number. In a bingo club you use an ink dabber; online, the word has stuck around for clicking or tapping a number.
Auto-dab. The game marks your numbers automatically as they’re called, so you can’t miss one. Most online rooms do this by default. Mecca’s Best Odds Bingo, for example, lets you “pop” emojis yourself or leave the game to do it.
Best card / ticket sorting. Online rooms usually move your tickets around so the ones closest to winning sit at the top. It’s just a display feature – it doesn’t change the numbers.
Winning a game
One line, two lines, full house. The usual prizes in 90-ball bingo. One line is a complete horizontal row on one ticket; two lines is two rows on the same ticket; full house is all 15 numbers on a ticket. The game ends when the full house is won.
House! (or Bingo!) What you’d shout in a club when you win. Online, the software spots winning tickets for you and pays out automatically.
1TG / 2TG. Short for one to go and two to go. You’ll see it in chat (“2TG!”) and on tickets that are close to a full house. Some rooms pay a small extra prize to these near-misses. Mecca Bingo’s bingo features page (checked 23 October 2026) describes a “1 and 2 To Go” pot that is shared by players who were one or two numbers away from the full house, paid per ticket or per player depending on the game.
Pattern and coverall. In 75-ball bingo you win by completing a shape shown before the game starts – a letter, a picture frame, a diagonal and so on. A coverall (sometimes called a blackout) means marking every number on the card.
Calls and bingo lingo. The caller’s rhymes for each number, such as “legs eleven” for 11. Online, the balls are drawn by a random number generator rather than a machine. Our full list of UK bingo calls covers all 90.
Rooms, games and extras
Lobby and room. The lobby is the menu of games; a room is one game type with its own ticket price, schedule and chat. Rooms often run back-to-back games all day.
Pre-buy. Buying tickets now for a game that plays later, often a bigger scheduled game. tombola’s guide to pre-buy says you don’t need to stay logged in while the game plays, winnings are added to your account, and confirmed purchases can’t be cancelled. Each site sets its own rules, so check the room’s info before you buy.
Multi-stake. A game where you pick your own ticket price, with prizes scaled to what you paid. Mecca explains that in its multi-stake games the prize shown in the room is for the top ticket price, and everyone else is paid in proportion to their stake.
Best Odds Bingo. A Mecca Bingo game where each player buys just one ticket per game, so everyone has the same number of tickets. When we checked on 23 October 2026 it was a 50-ball game with ten emojis on each ticket and tickets from 10p. It has been excluded from Mecca’s bingo welcome bonus, so check the terms if you’re playing with bonus money.
Sharepot. An extra prize pot shared out between players rather than going to one winner. Mecca’s “Win Win” games, for example, share a pot among players who buy six or more tickets, even if they don’t win the line or full house.
Linked games. Games played across several rooms (or several sister sites) at once, so the prize can be bigger. Mecca also runs “Club Clash” linked games, where every player in the room that produces the full-house winner gets a share of an extra pot.
Progressive jackpot. A pot that grows with every game until someone wins it, often only if the full house comes in a set number of calls. Our guide to bingo jackpots explains the different types.
Free bingo. Rooms or sessions where tickets cost nothing but real prizes are paid. Rules on who can join vary a lot – see our free bingo guide.
Penny bingo. Rooms with tickets from 1p. Handy if you want a long session on a small budget – our low deposit bingo guide lists sites with low minimum deposits.
Chat and community
Chat is a big part of online bingo, and it comes with its own shorthand.
- Chat host (CH) or chat moderator (CM). The staff member who looks after a room’s chat, welcomes players, runs chat games and enforces the rules. Mecca calls them chat hosts and says their decisions are final.
- Chat games. Small quizzes and games run in the chat, usually with small prizes. Mecca says its chat hosts award chat game winners based on what they see on screen.
- Roomies. The other players in your room.
- WTG / GL. “Way to go” and “good luck” – the polite things to type when someone wins or a game starts.
One rule applies everywhere: never share your login, card or personal details in chat. Mecca’s chat guidelines say no one, including its own staff, will ever ask for your login details.
Money and bonus terms
- Cash balance and bonus balance. Money you deposit or win as cash can be withdrawn. Bonus money usually can’t until you’ve met the wagering, and on many sites withdrawing cash early cancels any bonus left.
- Wagering. How many times you must play through a bonus before it turns into cash. Since 19 January 2026, UK Gambling Commission rules cap wagering at 10x. Our bingo bonus wagering guide has worked examples.
- No wagering. Winnings from the offer are paid as cash straight away – see our no wagering bingo guide.
- Significant terms. The key conditions of an offer – minimum deposit, wagering, expiry, eligible games and excluded payment methods. They should be shown next to the offer, not hidden away.
- Deposit limit. A cap you set on how much you can deposit over a day, week or month. All UK sites must let you set one, and it’s one of the simplest ways to stick to a budget.
Frequently asked questions
What does 1TG mean in bingo?
1TG means “one to go” – your ticket needs just one more number for a win, usually the full house. 2TG means two to go. Some games pay a small extra prize to players who were one or two numbers away when the full house was won.
What is a strip in bingo?
A strip is six 90-ball tickets that between them contain every number from 1 to 90 once, so every number called appears on one of your tickets. It costs the same as six tickets and doesn’t improve your chances compared with six separate tickets.
What does auto-dab mean?
Auto-dab means the bingo software marks off your numbers automatically as they are called. Most online bingo rooms do this by default, and winning tickets are spotted and paid automatically too.
What is pre-buy in online bingo?
Pre-buy lets you buy tickets in advance for a game that plays later. On tombola, for example, you don’t need to be logged in when the game plays and any winnings are added to your account. Rules differ between sites, so check the room information before you buy.
Ready to put the lingo to use? Our list of the best UK bingo sites compares each welcome offer with its wagering, minimum deposit and expiry side by side, and our bingo site reviews – including Mecca Bingo – go into each site’s rooms and features. We only list sites licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
18+ only. Bingo should be a bit of fun – set a budget and stick to it. If gambling stops being fun, get free, confidential help from GambleAware, the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 (GamCare), or block gambling sites with GAMSTOP. Bingo Hounds may earn a commission if you join a site through our links; this never affects our reviews.