Bingo is a game of chance in which arbitrarily selected numbers are drawn and players match those numbers to those appearing on 5×5 matrices which are printed or electronically represented and are known as “game cards.”

The first person to have a card where the drawn numbers form a particular pattern (usually in a straight line) is the winner. In order to alert others and inform the caller, the player calls out the word “Bingo!”. The card must first be checked for accuracy before the “win” is formally confirmed at which time the prize is secured and a new game is begun.

Bingo cards are flat pieces of cardboard or non-reusable paper which contain 25 squares arranged in five vertical columns and five horizontal rows; Dual dab, or “double-action” cards have two numbers in each square. Each space in the grid contains a number, except for the centre square, which is considered filled. The highest number used is typically 75, although this can vary from location to location. The letters B, I, N, G, O are pre-printed above the five vertical columns, with one letter appearing above each column. The centre space is marked “Free”. The printed numbers on the card correspond to the following arrangement: 1 to 15 in the B column; 16 to 30 in the “I” column; 31 to 45 in the N column; 46 to 60 in the G column and 61 to 75 in the O column. Most modern bingo halls have one or two bingo blowers and one or two flashboards.

The blowers all have four features, a chamber to blow the balls from, a tube to draw one ball at a time, a master board, and a way to return the balls from the board to the chamber. Most modern blowers have a simple computer that can be programmed to display games in a certain order, called a session. Some new blowers run off standard household computers, and have their own Graphical User Interface, to operate the blower. Online bingo websites use similar random number generation technology.

Bingo can be traced back to a lottery game called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia” played in Italy in 1530. By the eighteenth century, the game had matured, and in France, playing cards, tokens and the reading out of numbers had been added to the game. In the nineteenth century, Bingo was widely used in Germany for educational purposes to teach children spelling, animal names, and multiplication tables. The game then went onto be played by parish groups and charities after the potential to raise money was realised by the leaders of such establishments..

The next progression of Bingo games has come around in the digital age. Online bingo has literally lowered most of the barriers once faced by avid bingo fans. Incredibly user-friendly bingo websites such as 888-ladies and Littlewoods Bingo have made this incredibly fun past time available to anyone with access to an internet enabled computer, at any time of day… The only one negative is that the future of traditional bingo halls is now very much in doubt and this debate is widely discussed at the forefront of most bingo communities today.