Blackout Bingo is a gaming app that offers the chance to win real money and all kinds of other prizes, ranging from hoodies and flip-flops to bread makers and other kitchen appliances.
Blackout Bingo promises a “fresh, social competitive twist” on the classic game, but is it a good way to make money, or would you be better off with a different side hustle?
We sent our tester to find out.
01.What is Blackout Bingo?
Blackout Bingo is an app made by Big Run Studios Inc. As mentioned, it’s based on the classic game of chance, bingo.
As of May 2024, the Blackout Bingo app has a 4.5-star rating in the Samsung Galaxy store and over 100,000 reviews. In the iOS store, it has a 4.5-star rating and 92,000 reviews.
It’s a legit app, and it definitely works, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worth your time.
Can you really win money on Blackout Bingo?
Yes, you can really win money on Blackout Bingo. If you win certain games (i.e., not practice games), you can get real cash prizes.
You’ll receive your winnings via PayPal, credit or debit card, or a check, depending on how you paid the deposits for the games you entered, whether or not you live in the US, and other factors.
However, although it’s possible to make money on Blackout Bingo, it’s not easy. As with most gaming apps of this type, there’s a very good chance you’ll spend more than you earn.
How much does Blackout Bingo pay?
We spent about 2¼ hours playing Blackout Bingo. We deposited $10 in total, and we earned back $11.40, which means that we made a total profit of $1.40.
That’s actually a fairly good result compared to what we’ve gotten from some of the other apps we’ve tested, but a rate of $1.40 for 2+ hours of work isn’t anything to write home about.
If our experience is anything to go on, you shouldn’t expect to earn big bucks using Blackout Bingo.
Is Blackout Bingo free (or do you have to pay to play)?
Blackout Bingo is technically free to play, but it heavily encourages you to spend money.
All games with cash prizes have entry fees, and the easiest way to pay them is to fork over cash of your own. That isn’t absolutely required; the app also has several types of “credits” that you can use to enter games, and it’s possible to earn these by completing various (free) tasks in the app.
However, it takes thousands of credits to enter each game, and earning enough takes a long time. It’s very tempting to spend your own money in order to enter games more quickly.
Does Blackout Bingo charge any fees?
If you don’t use your Blackout Bingo account for 6 months, you might begin incurring a maintenance fee of $2 per month.
The fee will come from your in-app balance, so you won’t ever get charged on your credit or debit card or your PayPal account. To avoid the fee, make sure you log in to Blackout Bingo at least once every 6 months (at least to play a free game).
02.Pros and cons of Blackout Bingo
03.How does Blackout Bingo work?
Blackout Bingo works much like traditional bingo.
As numbers get “called,” they appear at the top of your screen. You then have to search for those numbers on your bingo board (or boards, if you’re playing with multiple) and “daub” the ones you find.
Not all of the numbers will appear on your bingo board. The center tile on each board always comes pre-daubed at the start of the game.
The aim of the game is to get as many “bingos” and “Blackouts” as you can. You’ll earn points for each one; whoever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
Getting bingos
To get a bingo, you must daub a group of numbers in one of the following ways:
- Horizontal line: Daub five numbers in a row.
- Vertical line: Daub five numbers in a column.
- Diagonal line: Daub four numbers to create a diagonal line that includes the pre-daubed tile in the center.
- Four corners: Daub the four numbers in the corners of the bingo grid.
Once you have daubed five numbers in one of these ways (or four numbers in addition to the center tile), you can then click “Bingo.”
Getting Blackouts
To get a “Blackout,” you have to daub every single one of the numbers on your bingo card.
If you daub the wrong numbers (i.e., numbers that haven’t been called), you’ll lose points. This means you have to be accurate (as well as fast—games move fairly quickly).
How long do Blackout Bingo games last?
Blackout Bingo games last for at least 1½ minutes. They usually go on for longer (around 2 minutes), since there are bonus features called “Boosts” that take up extra time when you use them. You can also get time bonuses (which give you more time to daub and claim bingos).
Some games run for more than one round when there’s a tie. Tiebreaker rounds are especially likely when playing games with more than two participants.
Boosts
Boosts help you get bingos and Blackouts during your games (and score more points).
As you daub numbers on your bingo board, a meter at the bottom left of your screen will fill up. When it’s full, you’ll get a “Boost.” You have to click on it when you’re ready to use it, so there’s an element of strategy in choosing the best time.
There are several types of Boosts available. Here are some examples:
- Free daub: This allows you to daub any number you want to on your bingo grid. You can pick a number that will help you make a bingo (or, ideally, multiple bingos).
- Double points: This doubles all the points you earn for the next 10 seconds.
- Free column: This allows you to daub a whole column on your bingo board with one tap.
- Wild letter: This allows you to get 10× points for any of the numbers you daub in a column of your choice.
- Time boosts: These add an extra 10 seconds to your game so that you have more time to daub numbers and score points.
- Golden ball: This lets you choose from four balls with numbers. You should pick one that will help you get closer to a bingo.
- Double fill boost: When you activate this, all your daubs will fill the boost meter twice as much during the next 10 seconds. This means you can get other new boosts faster while the effect of the Double Fill Boost lasts.
Some Boosts are easier to get than others. There may also be other types of Boosts that appear less frequently than the ones above.
How to enter Blackout Bingo games
All Blackout Bingo games require an entry fee of some kind. The app’s system is fairly convoluted. There are two different types of games, which you enter in different ways:
- Practice games: You can enter these games with “Z coins” or “Zs,” which are special credits you can earn with various tasks. Practice games never have cash payouts, so there’s no way to earn money with them.
- Cash games: These are games with real payouts. You can enter these with actual money, or by plunking down another type of credit, called “Bonus Cash.” Confusingly, you can buy Bonus Cash with a third type of credit, called “Ticketz,” although you can also earn it directly by completing other tasks in the app (e.g., winning trophies).
Both due to the confusing nature of the credit system and the time-consuming nature of earning tickets, it’s very tempting to pay to play with real cash. We don’t recommend doing this, as you can easily end up spending more than you earn.
If you opt to spend cash, the entry fees you’ll see will span an extremely wide range. The lowest we saw was $0.60 and the highest was a whopping $120.
The latter sorts of games, with entry fees and prizes in the hundreds of dollars, were some of the highest-stakes games we’ve ever seen on an app like Blackout Bingo.
Types of credits on Blackout Bingo
As mentioned, there are several types of credits on Blackout Bingo:
- Bonus Cash: This is a type of credit that you can use to enter games with real cash payouts. You can’t directly withdraw it or use it to buy gift cards—its sole purpose is to pay entry fees. You can buy Bonus Cash with Ticketz.
- Ticketz: You can earn these credits by playing bingo games and completing other small tasks in the app. In addition to trading them for Bonus Cash, you can also use them to directly buy gift cards and merchandise (but not PayPal credit).
- Z coins: These are “just for fun” credits that you can use to play practice games. Unfortunately, that’s their only use, and since practice games never pay out real money (they only pay out Z coins), these have no actual monetary value.
How all of this works in practice: If you don’t want to spend real money to play, you’ll have to earn Ticketz by completing small tasks. This will take a lot of patience—most of the time, you’ll only earn Z coins for your work, but occasionally, the app will throw a few Ticketz your way.
Once you accumulate enough of them, which will take hours, you’ll be able to trade them for Bonus Cash. You’ll then use this to enter games and (hopefully) earn real, withdrawable cash.
If all of this is making your head spin, you’re not alone. We had the same problem. The convoluted credit system is one of the downsides of playing Blackout Bingo, and our hunch is that virtually everyone ends up plunking down real cash to play instead of earning credits the hard way.
How much are Ticketz worth on Blackout Bingo?
You can exchange 20,000 Ticketz for the equivalent of $1 in Bonus Cash.
If you choose to trade Ticketz directly for gift cards (or merchandise, such as gadgets, clothing, and jewelry), the rates are somewhat variable, but you’ll need a very large number to afford anything. To give you an example, we saw a $10 gift card on offer for 600,000 Ticketz—a number that’s simply not practical to earn without spending real money.
04.How to win money on Blackout Bingo
You win money on Blackout Bingo by entering games with cash prizes. In general, the higher the entry fee, the bigger the prize will be.
Our experience
When we played Blackout Bingo, we saw games with entry fees of $0.60–$120 and prizes ranging from $1 at the lower end of the spectrum to $200 at the upper end.
We entered many games—both practice games (for free) and cash games (where we paid the entry fee with real cash). Here’s a recap of our experience:
- Beginner Game: This was the first game we played after the tutorial. It wasn’t a cash game, so it didn’t offer any real prizes—just Z coins. There were two players, and we came in second place, winning nothing.
- Practice Game: The three games we played all had two players and an entry fee of 3 Z coins. We came in first place all three times without trying very hard. We won 5 Zs each time.
- Basic Game: We played this game four times. It had two players and a small entry fee of $0.60. We won once, collecting a prize of $1, but we lost three games, so we ended up in the red.
- Blackout Court: We saw several versions of this four-player game—some with high entry fees and prizes, some with lower ones. We played twice, paying an entry fee of $3 to compete for a prize of $8. We came first once, winning $6, and reached the final round on another occasion, winning $2.
- St Paddy’s in Boston: This was a limited-time-only game, so we played it once. It was for two players, the entry fee cost $1.80, and the prize was $3. We came second, so we lost and didn’t get any money.
- Skilled – 1 Card: We played this two-player game twice and paid an entry fee of $3. In one game, we came second and won no cash. In the other game we played, we came first and won $5.
- Skilled – 2 Card: This was also a two-player game; again, we played twice. We came first in one game, winning $5, and second in the other game, winning no cash prizes.
- Expert – 1 Card:This was a 2-player game with an entry fee of $6 and a prize of $10. We won, which netted us $10, as promised.
- Sightseeing in India: This was a two-player game with an entry fee of $1.80. We played three times. We lost one game, for which we received no cash prize, but we came first twice, winning $3 each time.
In all of the cash games we entered, regardless of whether we won or lost, we earned Ticketz—usually several hundred of them.
The final result of our Blackout Bingo experiment was that we earned $11.40 from our efforts, having spent $10. This means we turned a profit of just $1.40.
05.Other ways to earn and win prizes
Although bingo games are the only way to directly earn real cash on Blackout Bingo, there are many other tasks you can do to earn Ticketz, which you can swap for gift cards or merchandise.
Daily Challenge
Completing the “Daily Challenge” on Blackout Bingo gives you opportunities to earn Ticketz and other rewards. Challenges generally consist of playing a match of a certain type.
Our experience
We completed the Daily Challenge on four occasions.
Our first Daily Challenge was to play one practice match. We did this and earned an extra 50 Zs (on top of our usual prize for the game).
On three other occasions, the Daily Challenge was to play one pro match. We earned 250 Ticketz for doing this.
Login bonus
Blackout Bingo gives you free credits just for logging in to the app. To claim these, go to the “Store” tab, then scroll down to “Earn More Rewards.” Whether you get Zs or Ticketz seems to be a matter of luck.
Our experience
We collected login bonuses on six occasions. Most of the time (on four occasions), we collected only Zs. However, we also got 461 Ticketz for one login and 18 Ticketz for another.
The upshot is that you can sometimes get Ticketz if you’re lucky, but you shouldn’t count on it.
Qualify for the leaderboard
You have to play five games before the app will let you compete for a space on the Blackout Bingo leaderboards.
Once you’ve unlocked this feature, click on the “Leagues” tab. You’ll see a leaderboard similar to the one in the screenshot below. The board features the players who’ve earned the most “medals” in the app (metals are yet another type of reward that you can earn for playing games, along with Ticketz and actual cash).
Blackout Bingo has regular “Leagues.” The app will track how many medals you receive during each League. If you rank highly enough on the leaderboard, you’ll earn a prize that may consist of Zs, Ticketz, or cash.
Our experience
After we qualified for the Blackout Bingo leaderboard, we checked it several times. We got prizes on two occasions: one prize of 300 Ticketz and one of 1,280 Ticketz.
Graduate through tiers
Blackout Bingo has tiers you can reach by earning Ticketz. When you hit a tier, a multiplier will be applied to the Ticketz you earn in the following month.
Blackout Bingo users graduate through the tiers in the following order, with the respective eligibility criteria and benefits shown below:
| Tier Number | Tier Name | Number of Ticketz Required* | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bronze | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Silver | 250 | 2× |
| 3 | Gold | 50,000 | 3× |
| 4 | Platinum | 150,000 | 4× |
| 5 | Diamond | 400,000 | 5× |
| 6 | Black | 800,000 | 6× |
*You must earn these within a calendar month to qualify for the tier. You’ll then remain in that tier until the end of the subsequent calendar month.
There may also be other benefits for graduating through the tiers. For example, if you reach the Black tier, you’ll get “VIP status,” which gives you special benefits, such as speedier withdrawals.
Our experience
We only graduated to a new tier once on Blackout Bingo, when we went from Bronze to Silver. After we did, at least some of our Ticketz prizes were subject to a 2× multiplier. We couldn’t tell whether this multiplier applied to all of the Ticketz prizes we won or just certain ones.
Blackout Bingo has other achievements you can get. For instance, on your profile page, the app displays your “Skillz level” and “game level.” However, you won’t earn any rewards for graduating through these levels (which you can do by playing more games), so they’re essentially just for bragging rights and don’t have any significance for your earnings (something that we confirmed by contacting Blackout Bingo’s customer service). 1
Earn trophies
You can win trophies by passing in-game milestones, such as winning your first cash game. When you redeem your trophies (which you have to do manually), you can get real cash and Bonus Cash.
Our experience
We won a number of trophies during the time we spent playing Blackout Bingo.
These included trophies for the following:
- Creating our account
- Changing our username
- Winning three practice tournaments
- Winning three pro games
- Winning three pro games in a row
- Playing 10 pro tournaments
- Accumulating $5 in total winnings
- Accumulating $25 in total winnings
Some of these trophies gave us Zs; others gave us Ticketz.
Win sweepstakes
Blackout Bingo players can sometimes enter into sweepstakes like the ones shown in the screenshot below. These offer the chance to win Bonus Cash. There may also sometimes be other prizes available.
Blackout Bingo also has special sweepstakes with bigger prizes for VIPs. However, you have to collect 800,000 Ticketz in the space of a month to become a VIP, so this feature will be unavailable to all but the biggest bingo junkies.
Our experience
We checked the Skillz sweepstakes results a few times to see whether we had won any prizes. Unfortunately, we never got lucky.
Join Bingo Club
Bingo Club is a feature that you can use after you’ve played eight games on the app. Once you join Bingo Club, you can customize your game boards. You may also be able to earn special rewards through it.
Our experience
Our tester got access to Bingo Club after playing eight Blackout Bingo games, just as promised. We could then access the features shown in the screenshot below to customize our Blackout Bingo games.
We couldn’t see any obvious ways to earn rewards, so we didn’t end up using this feature.
Look for promo codes
We reached out to Blackout Bingo’s customer support team to find out whether Blackout Bingo ever publishes promotional codes. This feature is common on gaming apps like this; the way it usually works is, you’ll find codes on Facebook or in other places online, then enter them in the app for a prize.
Blackout Bingo’s team said that we should keep an eye out for promo codes in emails and push notifications. We’re not sure whether they share codes regularly or whether it’s an occasional occurrence, but it’s something to watch out for.
Our experience
We checked our email periodically to see if we’d gotten any promo codes. Although we used the Blackout Bingo app for around a month, we didn’t see anything exciting in our email.
Invite friends
You can get free Bonus Cash by inviting your friends to play Blackout Bingo.
To get your credits, give your friend a promo code to use when they make a deposit on their Blackout Bingo account. This code will give them $1 in Bonus Cash; you’ll also get a corresponding $1 in Bonus Cash.
Blackout Bingo doesn’t specify whether there’s a limit to the number of people you can invite, so it’s not clear whether the $1 Bonus Cash offer is for an unlimited number of invitations or if you can just do it a few times.
Our experience
We didn’t invite any friends to play Blackout Bingo, so we didn’t test this feature.
06.How to start playing Blackout Bingo
Here’s what you need to know to start playing Blackout Bingo.
Where to download the app
To start playing Blackout Bingo, you can download the app from Skillz, which is a platform that hosts cash games, or from the website of Big Run Studios (the makers of the app).
You can also download the app directly from the Samsung Galaxy store (if you have a Samsung Galaxy device) or from the iOS store (if you have an Apple device). Use the following buttons:
The app is not currently available on Google Play (which bans anything Google considers a gambling app), so if you have an Android device but it isn’t a Samsung, you’re out of luck.
How to make payments on Blackout Bingo
As we’ve already stated, we discourage players from making payments on Blackout Bingo. If you do this, you could easily end up spending more than you win. Anyone who’s struggled with gambling problems should be especially careful about using the app in this way.
If you decide to put down a cash deposit, there are several ways to do so. You can pay via:
- Credit or debit card
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
07.How to withdraw money from the Blackout Bingo app
Blackout Bingo says that if and when you win cash, you can withdraw your balance at any time by tapping “Withdraw” on the main menu. Our tester had some trouble finding this button, but she located it eventually (it’s in the main menu, under “Account”).
Unfortunately, when you cash out from Blackout Bingo, the way you get paid is rather complicated. The gist is that you may receive your payment in multiple parts via different methods, depending on how much you won and how you originally paid the deposits for your winning games.
How Blackout Bingo pays you for withdrawals
Blackout Bingo has a rather confusing system for withdrawals. The help pages say that “any withdrawals up to the amount of your total deposits will be processed using the same form of payment as your deposit, either PayPal or credit card, in order of oldest to newest deposits made.”
Our interpretation is that you’ll be paid as if you were being refunded for purchases. In other words, if you made a deposit of $5 via debit card, then another deposit of $5 via PayPal, and a last deposit of $5 via Apple Pay, you’ll receive reimbursem*nts of $5 to each of those accounts (in that order).
If you have further winnings to withdraw after that, Blackout Bingo says that it will send these to you as a paper check if you’re in the US or via PayPal if you’re based in another country.
However, when we withdrew from Blackout Bingo, we didn’t receive the check that we were expecting. Instead, Blackout Bingo gave us two $5 refunds on the card we had used to pay our two $5 deposits, which was as we expected. We then received an additional $1.40 payment on the same card (instead of a check). This wasn’t a problem for us, but it indicates it’s a bit hard to predict which methods Blackout Bingo will use to pay you for withdrawals.
What’s the minimum amount you can withdraw on Blackout Bingo?
Blackout Bingo doesn’t specify a minimum amount you can withdraw from the app. However, it’s better to withdraw larger amounts if possible to avoid fees.
Are there fees for withdrawals from Blackout Bingo?
Yes, there are fees for withdrawals from Blackout Bingo. These only apply to withdrawals under $10, which are subject to a $1.50 fee.
How long do Blackout Bingo withdrawals take?
Blackout Bingo says that users should expect their payouts in 4–6 weeks, but that payments are often processed more quickly. When we withdrew money, we got it on the same day. Nonetheless, to be safe, it’s best to allow 6 weeks for your money to arrive.
If you’re a VIP member (i.e., you’ve accumulated enough Ticketz to reach the top tier), you can get withdrawals within 10 days. However, you can only become a VIP member if you spend a lot of time on the app and earn a very large number of Ticketz.
Other important information about Blackout Bingo withdrawals
One thing to bear in mind when you cash out from Blackout Bingo is that you forfeit any Bonus Cash in your account when you do so. This is an annoying feature that disincentivizes withdrawals, since there’s no way to spend your Bonus Cash without also spending the withdrawable cash in your account. 2
What’s more, you can’t deposit money to Blackout Bingo while a withdrawal is pending. You have to cancel your withdrawal and then use the money in your account to pay the entry fees for subsequent games.
It’s unclear how long this process takes, so you may have to wait a while for the cancellation to go through before you can start playing again.
08.Who can play Blackout Bingo?
Blackout Bingo claims to be a skill-based game, but it’s essentially a gambling app. This means that in some states, it’s illegal to play games with cash prizes (although anyone can play practice games).
Cash matches are banned in the following states:
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Louisiana
- South Dakota
You have to turn on your device location settings to play Blackout Bingo (presumably so that they know whether you’re in an eligible state or not).
You also have to be 18 years or older to play cash games. 3
09.Alternatives to Blackout Bingo
If you want to get paid to play games but you’re not impressed by Blackout Bingo (or can’t get it on your device), here are several alternatives:
- Bingo Cash: We tested this app (and wrote about it in our Bingo Cash review) and found it uncannily similar to Blackout Bingo. Like Blackout Bingo, Bingo Cash is only available for Apple and Samsung Galaxy devices, so you’re out of luck again if you’re a non-Samsung Android user.
- Mistplay: This is another app that allows you to play games to earn rewards. It’s only available for Android devices, so it’s a good option for non-Samsung Android users, who can’t get apps like Blackout Bingo or Bingo Cash.
- Swagbucks: This is a rewards platform that allows you to earn points by playing games (and by taking surveys and completing other tasks). You can then redeem your points for gift cards, PayPal credit, and more. There’s no gambling element on Swagbucks, so it’s a safer alternative to Blackout Bingo. Read our Swagbucks review to find out more about the site and what it offers.
- InboxDollars: InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks; it’s a rewards platform you can join to earn gift cards, PayPal credit, and other rewards by playing games, taking surveys, and more. Again, it’s a safer alternative to gambling apps. Check out our InboxDollars review for more information about how the site works.
Article Sources
- Skillz."What are Game Levels and Skillz Level?"Retrieved May 2, 2024.
- Skillz."How do withdrawals work? Will I receive my withdrawal via check or online?"Retrieved May 2, 2024.
- Skillz."The Legality of Skill Gaming"Retrieved May 2, 2024.
