Bingo is played in halls. Bingo rules and payouts and play variations vary from place to place. Bingo brochures detailing particular games, rules and payouts are usually available at each respective location.
Bingo is played on cards with numbers on them in a 5 x 5 grid corresponding to the five letters in the word B-I-N-G-O. Bingo cards contain 24 numbered spaces and one free space (blank). The numbers are assigned at random on each card and are arranged in f
When the game starts, numbers like B-2 or 0-68 are drawn at random and announced. There are 75 numbers in total in American Bingo. In British and Australian Bingo there is 90 numbers in total. When a player finds a matching number on one of his cards (you’re allowed to play several cards at once), he dabs it out with his dabber (a plastic bottle filled with ink, topped with a dabbing sponge). The players have a certain number of seconds to find the number on their Bingo cards (in online Bingo this can be done automatically). The first player to fill the numbers in a pattern according to the rules of the particular game shouts out "BINGO!" and wins.
The patterns you have to complete to make a Bingo differ from game to game. These are some examples:
Postage stamps : you have to fill two squares of four numbers on a single card, each in a corner of your card.
Blood, Sweat and Tears : you have to fill a single bingo card with three bingos (corners do not count)
Kite and Tail : you have to fill a diagonal plus one of the corners running through the diagonal, to make what looks like a kite.
Six Pack : you have to fill to make a pattern of six numbers, two rows of three each, horizontal or vertical. Sometimes you can use the free space, sometimes not.
Nine pack : you have to fill a square of nine numbers.
Cover all : you have to fill all numbers on a card for bingo.
Eight states : you have to fill the numbers surrounding the free space.
Dotted picture frame : you have to fill every other space around the card.
Top and bottom : you have to fill the top row and bottom row. |
