In the United States and Canada, bingo is a game of chance in which each player matches the numbers printed in different arrangements on cards. The game host (known as a caller) draws balls at random, marking the selected numbers with tiles. When a player finds that the selected numbers are arranged on their card in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, they call out "Bingo!" to alert all participants to a winning card, which prompts the game host (or an associate assisting the host) to examine the card for verification of the win. Players compete against one another to be the first to have a winning arrangement for the prize or jackpot. After a winner is declared, the players clear their number cards of the tiles and the game host begins a new round of play.
Alternative methods of play try to increase participation by creating excitement. Since its invention in 1929, modern bingo has evolved into multiple variations, with each jurisdiction's gambling laws regulating how the game is played. There are also nearly unlimited patterns that may be specified for play. Some games require only one number to be matched, while cover-all games award the jackpot for covering an entire card. There are even games that award prizes to players for matching no numbers or achieving no pattern.
A game of chance named lotto was being played in Italy by about 1530. In the 18th century, a home version (called Tombola) was created in Naples with the addition of cards, tokens, and the calling out of numbers. In the nineteenth century, a game like this was widely played in Germany to teach children spelling, animal names, and multiplication tables.
The French game Le Lotto appeared in 1778, featuring 27 squares in a layout of three rows and nine columns. Five squares in each row had numbers ranging from 1 through 90, which led to the modern design.[1]
In the early 1920s, Hugh J. Ward created and standardized the game at carnivals in and around Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania area. He copyrighted it and published a rule book in 1933.[2][3][bettersourceneeded]
The game was further popularized by Edwin Lowe. While at a traveling carnival near Atlanta in December 1929, the toy merchandiser saw people eagerly playing a game called "Beano," following Ward's rules, with dried beans, a rubber stamp, and cardboard sheets. Lowe took the game to New York, where friends liked playing it. The Lowe-produced bingo game had two versions: a 12-card set for $1.00 and a $2.00 set with 24 cards. By the 1940s, there were bingo games throughout the US.
The origin of the name Bingo is unknown but may date to the mid-1920s. There are claims that one of Lowe's friends[4] was so excited to have won that she yelled out "Bingo" instead of "Beano," or that the word echoes the sound of a bell.
The most common bingo cards are flat pieces of cardboard or disposable paper that contain 25 squares arranged in five vertical columns and five side-to-side rows. Each space in the grid contains a number, except the middle square, which is designated a "free" space.
A typical bingo game utilizes the numbers 1 through 75. The five columns of the card are labeled 'B', 'I', 'N', 'G', and 'O' from left to right. The center space is usually marked "free" or "free space", and is considered automatically filled. The range of printed numbers that can appear on the card is normally restricted by column, with the 'B' column only containing numbers between 1 and 15 inclusive, the 'I' column containing only 16 through 30, 'N' containing 31 through 45, 'G' containing 46 through 60, and 'O' containing 61 through 75.
The number of all possible bingo cards with these standard features is P(15, 5) × P(15, 5) × P(15, 5) × P(15, 5) × P(15, 4) = 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 or approximately 5.52×1026.
In u-pick 'em bingo and other variants of bingo, players are issued three 25-number cards that contain all 75 numbers that may be drawn. Players then mark which numbers they wish to play and then daub those numbers according to the numbers drawn. In addition, double-action cards have two numbers in each square.
A player wins by completing a row, column, or diagonal. The most chips one can place on a bingo board without having a bingo is 19, not counting the free space. (For this to happen, only one empty cell can reside in each row and each column and at least one empty cell must be in each diagonal.)
In addition to a straight line, other patterns may be considered a valid bingo in special games. For example, a 2×2 square of marked squares in the upper-right-hand corner could be considered a "postage stamp". Another commonly valid pattern is covering the four corners. Certain special games only count specific patterns as bingos, such as a roving 'L', which requires players to cover all B's and the top or bottom row or all O's and the top or bottom row, or a blackout, covering all 24 numbers and the free space.
Equipment
The numbers that are called in a game of bingo may be drawn utilizing a variety of methods to randomly generate the ball call. With the expansion of computer technology in bingo, electronic random number generators (RNG) are now commonplace in most jurisdictions. However, some jurisdictions require mechanical ball draws which may utilize a randomly shuffled deck of bingo calling cards, a mechanical ball blower that mixes ping pong balls with blown air, or a cage that is turned to mix small wooden balls. All methods essentially generate a random string of numbers that players match to the bingo cards that have numbers on them.
Culture
Bingo game on Labor Day in Sheffield, Vermont, 2017
Single games often have multiple bingos; for example, the players first play for a single line; after that, play goes on until a full card is called; then, play continues for a consolation full card.
Players often play multiple cards for each game. Because of the large number of cards played by each player, most halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called daubers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however.
Bingo is often used as an instructional tool in American schools and in teaching English as a foreign language in many countries. Typically, the numbers are replaced with beginning reader words, pictures, or unsolved math problems. Custom bingo creation programs now allow teachers and parents to create bingo cards using their own content.
Terminology
Ready/waiting/cased/set/down/chance/shot/pat/open
A player who only needs one number in order to complete the bingo pattern is considered to have a Shot or be Ready, Waiting, Cased, Set, or Down, or to "have a chance".
Breaking the bubble or "possible"
The bubble is the minimum number of balls required to complete the bingo pattern. This is the earliest point any player could have a valid bingo. For standard bingo games, at least one number in each column or four/five numbers in a single column need to be called for a bingo to be possible.
Jumping the gun/premature bingo/social error
One who calls bingo before having a valid bingo. The most common situation is someone calling bingo using the next number in the screen before it has been called.
Wild numbers
Many bingo halls will have certain games with a wild number. Wild numbers allow bingo players to start with multiple called numbers. Typically, the first ball drawn is the determining factor.
Standard
All numbers ending with the second digit of the first number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers ending in a 2 including B2 is considered a called number.
Forwards/backwards
All numbers beginning or ending with the wild number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers beginning or ending with a 2 is considered a called number. If the first number ends with an 8, 9, or 0, another number may be drawn as there are no numbers starting with an 8 or 9 and only 9 numbers starting with a 0. Some halls will also redraw a number ending with a 7 as there are only six numbers beginning with a 7.
False alarm or just practicing
A tongue-in-cheek term used when one calls bingo but is mistaken. This could be because of mishearing the caller or stamping the wrong number by mistake. Someone who calls a "falsie" genuinely believes that they have a bingo. This is also known as a "social error". Another term used for this is a "bongo".
Hard-way bingo
A bingo pattern in a straight line without the use of the free space.
Reach
In Japan, a player will yell "Reach" when they are one space away from a bingo.[5]
The business of bingo
In the United States, bingo games are commonly organized by churches or charity organizations,[6][7] with their legality and stakes varying by state regulation. Bingo halls in some states are rented out to sponsoring organizations, and these halls often host games almost daily. Church-run games, on the other hand, are typically weekly events held on church premises. These games are usually played for modest stakes, although the final game of a session often features a coverall game with a larger jackpot prize for winning within a certain quantity of numbers called. A progressive jackpot is one that may increase per session until it is won.
Commercial bingo games in the US are primarily offered by casinos (only in the state of Nevada) and Native American bingo halls, which are often located in the same venue as Native American-run casinos.[citation needed] In Nevada, bingo is mainly offered by casinos catering to local gamblers, rather than the famous tourist resorts. They typically offer one-hour sessions on the odd hours, such as 9 am, 11 am, and 1 pm daily, usually from 9 am to 11 pm, with relatively modest stakes except for coverall jackpots. Most bingo parlors in Las Vegas use handheld machines for the games.
Native American games usually offer only one or two sessions a day and are often played for higher stakes than charity games to attract players from distant places. Some also offer a special progressive jackpot game that may link players from multiple bingo halls.
In both Canada and the United States, some gay bars and other LGBT-oriented organizations host bingo events, often combined with a drag show and marketed as "Drag Bingo" or "Drag Queen Bingo".[8] "Drag Bingo" events originated in Seattle in the early 1990s as a fundraiser for local HIV/AIDS charities.[8] They have since expanded to many other cities across North America, supporting a diverse range of charities.[8]
Cheektowaga, New York, with one bingo hall for every 6,800 residents, is believed to have the highest concentration of bingo halls in the United States. The suburb of Buffalo's large Polish-AmericanCatholic population is thought to be a factor in bingo's significant popularity in Western New York, which has five times as many bingo halls per capita as the rest of the state.[9]
Electronic bingo
Bingo-Tronic machines in a computerized bingo parlor, 2012
The advent of computer technology in bingo has blurred the lines between traditional slot machines and bingo slot machines. To the average person, bingo-based slot machines are physically indistinguishable from an RNG based slot machine typically seen in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. These devices are commonly called Class II machines, because the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act separated bingo, including electronic and mechanical aids, where players play against each other, from Class III slot machines, where players play against the house.[10]
As a result of the passage of SB1180 in 2017, the State of Arizona now allows technological aids for bingo games that function only as an electronic substitute for bingo cards. These technological aids are not defined by Arizona law or regulation, but one such electronic technological aid consists of a system which includes a network linking player interfaces to a number drawing device (ball-draw server) and an electronic substitute for a "live" cashier. The player interfaces themselves do not contain random number generators or allow a player to directly deposit cash. Rather, the Arizona technological aid system allows a player to deposit money into a unique individual player's account, pay for the games played out of that account, and at the end of play redeposit the value of any unused games that the player may have purchased or won back into that account. The system does not allow the player to print a redemption ticket or receive anything of value directly from the player interface. Music Bingo. Music Bingo is growing in popularity and is finding its way into bars, pubs, and other events as bingo is already a familiar concept and when integrated with music, also results in fun and collaboration among players (singing along to the songs that are randomly played). Music bingo was first introduced as a game show in 1958[11] and continues to expand today.
Bingo-based game shows
Lingo, a game show incorporating Bingo mechanics and five-letter words
Slingo, an online game that blends slots and bingo
Games available in most casinos are commonly called casino games. In a casino game, the players gamble cash or casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes. Casino games are also available in online casinos, where permitted by law. Casino games can also be played outside of casinos for entertainment purposes, like in parties or in school competitions, on machines that simulate gambling.
A slot machine, fruit machine, poker machine or pokies is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers.
Pachinko (パチンコ) is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-strategy gambling.
Uno, stylized as UNO, is a proprietary American shedding-type card game originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins in Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, that housed International Games Inc., a gaming company acquired by Mattel on January 23, 1992.
Lottso! is a game offered by the website Pogo.com. It is a blend of Bingo and a Lottery. Its outcome usually is decided by luck, although players can develop certain strategies to win the game.
itbox is a networked gambling games terminal which is found in thousands of pubs, leisure centres and amusement arcades in the United Kingdom. Classified as a "skill with prize" (SWP) machine, each itbox terminal typically includes 25 different games. Each game costs 50p or £1 to play and lasts between 10 seconds and several minutes. From most of these games it is possible to win modest cash prizes. Although strictly the name 'itbox' refers only to Leisure Link-made terminals, the name is often casually applied as a genericized trademark to other SWP terminals such as Paragon SWP, Gamesnet, ind:e and Fatbox.
A scratchcard is a card designed for competitions, often made of thin cardstock or plastic to conceal PINs, where one or more areas contain concealed information which can be revealed by scratching off an opaque covering.
Slingo is an online single and multi-player game that combines elements of slots and bingo. The game was created by New Jersey real estate developer, Sal Falciglia Sr. in 1994, who also founded the company Slingo, Inc. to create and market games based on the Slingo theme. In July 2013, RealNetworks acquired Slingo for $15.6 million, and in July 2015 RealNetworks announced that it would sell Slingo to London-based gaming company Gaming Realms. Slingo has since become popular in the UK online gambling industry, with many sites now hosting the game, including its various iterations of which there are currently 12. These are known collectively and individually as ‘Slingo Originals’ and were developed by Gaming Realms’ development and publishing branch of the same name. Both the games and brand have enjoyed commercial success, and have been praised for their playability and originality.
Bingo cards are playing cards designed to facilitate the game of Bingo in its various forms around the world.
The New Zealand Lotteries Commission, trading as Lotto New Zealand since 2013, is a Crown entity that operates nationwide lotteries in New Zealand. It was established in 1987 and operates under the Gambling Act 2003. Its oldest and most popular game is Lotto, which boasts a top prize pool of NZ$4 million. Other games include the four-draws-daily Keno, the daily Bullseye, and a variety of scratchcards and online games known as Instant Kiwi. Instant Kiwi may only be played by persons 18 years of age or older, under the Gambling Act 2003. Powerball and Lotto Strike are optional extras with every Lotto ticket.
The Connecticut Lottery Corporation, also called the CT Lottery, is the official lottery in Connecticut. It was created in 1971 by then-Gov. Thomas Meskill, who signed Public Act No. 865. The first tickets were sold on February 15, 1972. The Connecticut Lottery offers several in-house drawing games; Connecticut also participates in Mega Millions and Powerball; each are played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The New Jersey Lottery is run by the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its In-house draw games are Pick-3, Pick-4, Jersey Cash 5, Pick-6, Quick Draw, and Cash Pop. Its multi-jurisdictional draw games are Cash4Life, Mega Millions, and Powerball. The Lottery also sells Fast Play and scratch-off tickets. The New Jersey Lottery is headquartered at One Lawrence Park Complex in Lawrence Township, Mercer County.
Prize Bingo is a game derived from standard Bingo games which is particularly popular in UK seaside resorts. Rather than winning cash prizes as per normal bingo, Prize Bingo instead offers points to the winner of each game which can be redeemed in a dedicated shop near to or within the Prize Bingo area although some games reward players with free games or tokens.
National Bingo Night was an Australian game show, based on the American game show of the same name, which premiered on the Seven Network on 21 October 2007. The show was hosted by former Home and Away star Tim Campbell with former Girlband member Renee Bargh acting as the number caller. Tanveer Ahmed acted as the "commissioner", who refereed the playing studio audience. The show was axed after six weeks.
GoBingo is a Philippine television game show broadcast by GMA Network. Hosted by Arnell Ignacio, it premiered on December 9, 1996 and concluded on January 1, 1999. The show returned on April 14, 2008, and concluded on October 10, 2008 with a total of 130 episodes.
Bingo America is an American game show broadcast by Game Show Network. The series follows two contestants as they try to compete to win up to $100,000. Additionally, the series lets at-home viewers print bingo cards online that allow them to play along with the show to win small amounts of money for themselves.
Pinoy Bingo Night is the Philippine game show version of National Bingo Night, which premiered on the ABS-CBN from March 30 to June 26, 2009 replacing the third season of Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal and was replaced by The Wedding. It is hosted by Kris Aquino with Brod Pete as the "bingo caller" and Mel Feliciano as the "commissioner", who referees the playing studio audience.
Bingo is a game of probability in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers. Bingo, previously known in the UK as Housey-Housey, became increasingly popular across the UK following the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 with more purpose-built bingo halls opened every year until 2005. Since 2005, bingo halls have seen a marked decline in revenues and the closure of many halls. The number of bingo clubs in Britain has dropped from nearly 600 in 2005 to under 400 as of January 2014. These closures are blamed on high taxes, the smoking ban, and the rise in online gambling, amongst other things.
Tombola is a lottery-style board game which originated in Southern Italy. A variation of the game is a popular form of raffle in the UK and elsewhere around the world.
Bingo Blitz is a freemium online board and card game released by Playtika which was published in August 2012 and is available for Facebook, iOS, Android, and Microsoft Windows.
↑ Bingo games for fundraising is so common in Ohio that the state licenses the practice. State of Ohio. "Instant Bingo Fundraising Contract"(PDF). Retrieved May 22, 2023.
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