Bingo Rules

The caller randomly pulls numbered bingo balls, #1 through #75, places the number up on the bingo board, and calls out the number. You are normally given a few seconds to locate the number on your bingo cards and mark them off. Online bingo games commonly use auto-daubers, which automatically mark your card for you.

Typical bingo cards have five rows and columns with a random selection of numbers. The "B" column contains random numbers between #1 and #15, "I" has #16 to #30, "N" has #31 to #45 (containing a free space in the center), "G" has #46 to #59, and "O" has #60 to #75. If you are the first to complete the numbers in a pattern according to the rules of the particular game, you yell "Bingo!" and win the prize for the game. There are many common Bingo patterns that may be used, so pay close attention to the pattern in effect for your game.

When playing online bingo, your bingo cards are randomly selected for you by the computer. Most bingo sites allow you to choose the number of cards you would like to play for each game of bingo. The game pattern is also displayed on your screen, so you know which bingo pattern you must complete to win the game. Some patterns are easy to complete, which will make for a very short game. Others are more difficult and will take many calls to complete. The most common bingo patterns are straight lines in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction.

Play continues until one or more players are the first to complete the bingo pattern. The game then stops until the numbers are verified. If there is more than one simultaneous winner, the winners split the prize or jackpot.

Bingo Tips

Paper cards with lower card numbers (free space #) tend to have the numbers closer together card #1 (B: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, I: 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20). Longer games like Coveralls tend to draw numbers in sperts close together. 16 17 then 19 and 20 come out. To win more coveralls, try to come in early and get the first set of paper cards issued. On big nights managers stock the counter with plenty cards usually the ones on top are the lowest free space number cards. Check the next coverall for yourself. Notice the flashboard. Lighted up numbers usually in sets by the 30'th number called.

Be curtious to those around you. Do not yell out loud the number you need.

Burning the number (on paper cards) does not mean that it will come out the next time.

Buy a card for a neighbor once a night. You never know when you will want one more game when your wallet says it's time to go.

Share the wealth when you win. Toss out a lucky dollar to those around you when you win. If they win a larger jackpot, they could return the lucky dollar (ten fold), especially if they win with your lucky dollar.

If you want to win at Bingo, play bingo on nights that are generally slower for the operators (Monday - Thursday usually less players than weekends). Being a game of chance if there are fewer players then there are fewer cards in play. If you have as many cards as you can comfortably play and there are fewer cards in play, due to lower crowds, then you have a larger percent of cards in play. Odds in your favor? I think so, especially if the hall you play at offers electronic bingo (computer bingo) and you have 2 or 3 cards per game.

Bingo Cards

Each player has a number of BINGO cards (players can usually play any number of cards). Each BINGO card has 5 rows and 5 columns thus providing 25 spaces. The columns are labeled from left to right with the letters: 'B', 'I', 'N', 'G', 'O'. With one exception (the center space is "free") the spaces in the card are assigned values as follows: Each space in the 'B' column contains a number from 1 - 15. Each space in the 'I' column contains a number from 16 - 30. Each space in the 'N' column contains a number from 31 - 45. Each space in the 'G' column contains a number from 46 - 60. Each space in the 'O' column contains a number from 61 - 75.

Furthermore, a number can appear only once on a single card. Here's a sample BINGO card: B I N G O 10 17 39 49 64 12 21 36 55 62 14 25 FREE SPACE 52 70 7 19 32 56 68 5 24 34 54 71 The number of unique BINGO cards is very large and can be calculated with this equation: // the B, I, G, and O columns * the N column (15 * 14 * 13 * 12 * 11) ^ 4 * (15 * 14 * 13 * 12) While perhaps interesting to a statistician, the number of possible BINGO cards has nothing to do with Players's chances of winning.

How to play bingo

Traditional BINGO is played in person in a large hall. Players meet at the hall, pay a fee to get in, then the games begin. A night of BINGO consists of many BINGO games played continuously, one after another. A single BINGO game proceeds like this:

You will note that there are 75 possible BINGO numbers: B1, B2, B3, ... B15, I16, I17, I18, ... I30, N31, N32, ... O74, O75. Each of these numbers is represented by a ball in a large rotating bin. Each ball is painted with its unique BINGO number. An announcer spins the bin, reaches in a selects a ball, and a announces it to the room. The players check all of their cards to see if that number appears on their card. If it is, they mark it. When a player has a BINGO (5 in a row, column, or diagonal), he or she calls out BINGO.

The game pauses while the card is verified. If indeed a winner, the game stops and a new game begins. If the card wasn't a winner, the game proceeds where it left off. Each BINGO game proceeds until someone wins (there's always a winner). Chances of Winning Every BINGO game has a winning card, so a Players's chances of winning depend on the number of cards in the game and how many cards s/he is playing. For example, if a player has 12 cards in a game with 1200 cards, the chances of winning for that player is 1 in 100.