Bingo

Bingo is a prize game played in halls. Basically, players buy cards with numbers on them in a 5 x 5 grid corresponding to the five letters in the word BINGO.

How to play Bingo

The rules of bingo are quite simple. A caller pulls numbers, one through 75, from a contraption similar to lottery ball holders. He or she puts the number up on a screen, then calls out the number. You will have a certain number of seconds to find the number on your bingo cards. Bingo cards these days are really pieces of paper with three, six, or nine cards each. A random selection of numbers are on each card. The "B" column contains one - 15, "I" 16 - 30, "N" 31 - 45 (with a free space in the center), "G" 46 - 59, and "O" 60 - 75. When you find a matching number on your card, dab it out with your dabber (a plastic bottle filled with ink, topped with a dabbing sponge). If you are the first to fill the numbers in a pattern according to the rules of the particular game, you yell "BINGO!" loudly, so that the caller can hear you. Then you win money!

There are several different bingo games played throughout a session. The games vary with the bingo hall, but there are always "regular" games. In a regular game, you fill your card with a straight-line bingo - horizontal, diagonal, or vertical. In most regular games, "four corners" also counts. This is the top and bottom "B" and "O".