A Night at the Bingo
The Rules of Bingo
Bingo is usually played in Bingo Halls. The Bingo Rules, payouts and games vary from place to place. You will usually find a Bingo Brochure with information on particular games, the rules of the games as well as payout options available at the desired location.
Players buy cards with numbers on them in a 5 x 5 grid corresponding to the five letters in the word B-I-N-G-O. Numbers such as N43 are then drawn at random (out of a possible 75 in American Bingo, and 90 in European Bingo which is called Tombola) until one player completes a 'Bingo' pattern, which usually is a row of 5 numbers either in a horizontal, vertical or criss-cross shape. If you are lucky enough to fill your whole card it is called a blackout.
A bingo card contains 24 numbered spaces and one free space known as the blank. The numbers are placed randomly on each card and are arranged in five columns of five numbers each by five rows.
The numbers in the columns are as follows:
B column are between 1 and 15
I column are between 16 and 30
N column are between 31 and 45
G column are between 46 and 60
O column between 61 and 75.
Players have over a thousand unique cards to choose from and some manufacturers print unduplicated cards of 6,000. There are also series of 9,000 cards available. Hard and Flimsy cards have a series number that is printed on them. For example, card number 1252 will always have the same numbers in the same spaces.
The numbers are called out at a fast pace by the caller, so you need to pay close attention to the numbers that are called out so that you can mark them off on your bingo card.
The caller will keep calling out the numbers until one or more players shout 'Bingo'. Then the game will stop and the numbers are checked to verify whether it is correct or not. If a winner is announced, the prize is awarded and a new bingo game will start with new cards. If there are more than one winner, the prize will then be split among all the winners.
When playing Bingo Online, your bingo cards are randomly selected for you. Many of the online games provide you with about three or four cards. Other games provide you with more.
Every Online Bingo Game has a caller or display board for the bingo numbers. The game pattern required for that certain game will also be displayed. There are some games however that will mark off your numbers on your bingo card automatically. That way you know that you wont miss out on a number that's been called. The Online Bingo game will register you as a winner automatically if you have made BINGO.
