Bingo Rules

Bingo is a game of chance, widely popular in the United States, played with numbered cards and counters by any number of people. The object is to cover a row or pattern of numbers with markers daubers/beans/corn etc before any other player is able to do so.

Bingo is a pretty simple game with few rules, though it is possible that some bingo halls / online sites etc may have special requirements for playing bingo. Most will have a handout detailing games, winning patterns, rules, payouts etc so be sure to familiarize yourself with any that might exist.

Basically, each game / setting begins with players purchasing bingo cards or sheets each with a 5x5 grid (5 rows across x 5 rows down). Each column is assigned a letter in the top row (left to right) B-I-N-G-O. Each card has 24 unique numbers and a free space located in the center of the card.

You will find that column B contains numbers between 1 and 15, column I will have the numbers between 16 and 30, column N will have numbers between 31 and 45, column G will have numbers between 46 and 60, and lastly column O will have numbers between 61 and 75.

A game announcer referred to as the caller will call out the numbers one at a time. Callers continue to call numbers until one or more players yells BINGO by completing the current games pattern. At that time the caller will halt game play and verify that the winner does in fact have the winning pattern completed. If they do have the correct pattern they will be awarded the prize - if more than one players have the pattern completed the prize will be split among all winners.