Bingo being a game played with paper and pencil requires clarification, for which the onus is on the writer – me, to clarify facts about this game, as it is possible that certain people have not heard of it or played this game over the years. The rules of bingo are simple and straightforward and one can understand them better if the game was explained to people lucidly.
Differences in the game setup
Before we begin, one must understand that there are basic differences in the rules of bingo in both United Kingdom and in Australia, India and a few other places. The UK system consists of books with tickets that have a 5 x 5 grid with columns marked with the letters B-I-N-G-O. The first column, B, has numbers from 1 to 15, the second column, I, has numbers from 16 to 30, third column N, from 31 to 45, column from 46 to 60 and column O from 61 to 75. Australian ticket system consists of a 3 x 9 grid with each row containing 30 numbers each – 1 to 30, 31 to 60 and finally 61 to 90. This makes it possible for more numbers which means it is harder to play and goes on for more time. There are blank spaces in these tickets too with UK ticket having it right at the centre of the ticket while others have it varying arrangements and have more than one blank space.
Rules of this game
The first one among the rules of bingo is to mark off the numbers on one’s ticket as each number is being called out. In most cases, the numbers are called out very quickly and it is essential that a listener is quick to note it on his or her ticket. The second among the rules of bingo is to remember is that one must call out the ‘Bingo’ as soon as he finishes crossing out an entire row, column or even a diagonal arrangement of numbers. After he gets one Bingo, he can decide to play for a ‘full house’, which means that he continues crossing out the numbers along with the others. If not, this player removes himself from the game while others continue striking out numbers. The game comes to a stop if one person has a had a full house or until a certain number of people have called out bingo. The number of these people who can call out bingo is set before the game commences as those are the number of prizes for this game.
Variations and other facts of this game
One finds that these bingo tickets are sold in books and a typical Australian or UK ticket book contains tickets on ten pages differentiated in colours of Lime, Yellow, Grey, Blue, White, Red, Orange, Pink, Violet and Gold. A single player can choose to play any number of tickets simultaneously, as this often increases his chances of winning. These ticket books also come in a single colour with six tickets to a page, the purchase of any kind of book depends upon the warmth of one’s pocket, experience, willingness to play, and of course, the time he can spend on this game itself.