How to Play Bingo

The central feature of bingo is the bingo card, also called a “board.” Bingo cards have 24 numbers, arranged in a 5 x 5 matrix, leaving the center space “free.” Cards can either be printed (the traditional way) or in virtual form on an electronic screen. Randomly selected numbers are “called out” by the bingo game operator, a non-player. In Las Vegas the numbers are usually on ping pong-like balls that are blown from an air chamber, in the manner of a lottery or Keno drawing. The maximum number of balls called in a single game is 75. The numbers are unique (that is, not repeated) in any given game.

A bingo card has the letters B-I-N-G-O across the top, and beneath each letter is a column of 5 numbers. Under “B” the five numbers come from 1-15, under “I” they are 16-30, and so on. The only exception to this arrangement is that the number 15 can be found, by tradition, either under “B” or “I.” Cards are supposed to be unique, but there is no way of knowing for sure, since there are so many possible combinations and sequences of numbers. It is possible that the same five numbers can be found on more than one card, and form a winning pattern on more than one card, though this is extremely rare.

On any given card, no number appears more than once, and no number above 75 is used. The center space is “free” (considered to be marked or covered from the outset). Each of the 24 other locations can, and usually does, accommodate a two-digit number. There are 3003 different ways to choose 5 numbers out of 15 for a given column in bingo. The five chosen numbers can be arranged in up to 120 different ways. The other four columns offer the same number of possibilities, so the total number of possibilities is on the order of 5 septillion (5 x 1027).

When a number is called out, players will mark the spaces on their cards where the number appears. Virtual bingo equipment permits electronic entry of marks. When a card is down to needing only one mark for a win (called “cased” or “care cased”), the machine sends off an audible alert to the player to be on her toes.

When a person has accumulated on any given card a winning combination from numbers called out, the player yells, “Bingo!” As several different patterns can be used to define a winning combination for a specific game, sometimes the player just calls out the name of the combination instead. Once the win is confirmed as correct, a new game begins.

If more than one person wins when a given number is called, the prize will be divided between or among them in accordance with house rules. (Sometimes some combinations pay off better than others.) Ties are extremely common in bingo, which comes as a frustration to most players.

A given set of called numbers wins if, on any player’s card, they form the pattern defined at the commencement of the game as a winning combination. The winning pattern or patterns for any given game are announced by the game operator prior to calling out numbers. Examples of winning patterns are one line of 5, two lines of 5, all four corners and a cross through the middle. Lines can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Other common patterns are the shapes of the letters L, T or Y; a “postage stamp” (2x2 and in a corner); a filled-in central or “inner” square (4x4); a filled-in “roving” square (3x3) anywhere on the card; and filled-in “roving” kite (a 3x3 diamond) anywhere on the board. “Sixpacks” and “Ninepacks” are 2x3 and 3x3 squares or rectangles.

Often (especially after one winner has already announced “Bingo”) the game will continue to a “full card” or “coverall” (also called “blackout”), which means that all numbers on a card have been called out and marked. This is a common example of “Multiple Bingo,” in which play continues with the same cards after one winning pattern has been achieved by someone, until a second winning pattern can be formed.

Certain variations of winning combinations are called “hardway,” meaning that the combination can not take advantage of the free square in the center of the card.

Devoted aficionados of the game will play as many as thirty cards at once, even more. For this reason, bingo parlors or halls provide separate tables for each player. Each player will tape the cards to the table so they will stay put. Special sponge-tips markers called “bingo daubers” are used to mark the cards quickly. Several hundred players may be in the room at once, meaning that several thousand bingo cards will be in play at any one time in an average game.

In many bingo venues in Las Vegas, the number is not only called out, but its selection is broadcast on closed circuit TV screens. This gives players an extra second or two between selection and calling to search the cards; however, “Bingo” can not be called until the number is actually called out.

Finally, many venues offer a “cash ball” or other selective jackpot. If the last ball drawn is the “cash ball” and it permits the player to have “Bingo!” then the player also wins the progressive jackpot. To be eligible, the player must have “validated” the card prior to the commencement of the game, for an additional fee or bet, usually $1. Like progressive jackpots in Video Poker, the “validation fee” is not a good bet until the jackpot gets high enough. Then it may be a positive expectation play, but only at very high levels, because the odds that the cash ball will be the fifth ball called to make bingo for a player are extremely low.