Most people are familiar with the game of bingo. It is play using bingo cards contain a five by five grid of squares, with each square containing a word or number. Each player is given their own bingo card, and marks off the squares from their card when the corresponding item is announced by the bingo caller. In most games, the winner is the first player to achieve a continuous line of five squares, in any direction (regardless of whether the line is horizontal, vertical or diagonal), and call out “Bingo”. For a longer game, players can aim for larger or more complex target shapes than a single line, for example, two intersecting lines of five squares, a postage stamp of three by three sequares, or even all squares marked off.
In the standard or traditional game of bingo, each of the squares on a bingo card is printed with a different number between 1 and 75. Today however, variants of the game, but using cards printed with words or phrases instead of numbers, are becoming increasingly popular. Using a computer and bingo card maker software, it is dead easy produce custom bingo cards of this type. In fact, the ease of producing custom bingo cards has been one of the main contributing factors to a renaissance in the game’s popularity: teachers are increasingly using custom bingo cards in their classrooms, and themed versions of bingo are also growing in popularity for religious and secular holidays and events.
St. Patrick’s Day is the Irish national holiday, named in honor of one of the patron saint’s of Ireland. It usually falls on March 17th, although the date is moved in those years when March 17th falls within Holy week. The day is used as a celebration for all things Irish, and is of course an excellent opportunity for playing an Irish-themed version of bingo. All you need to do is prepare some bingo cards containing words or phrases relating to Irish history, culture or geography, and you’re ready to play.
By: Sunil Tanna
Millions of people play bingo and millions more are keen to give it a try. Online bingo now makes it possible for almost anyone to play without leaving the comfort of your home. But if you are new to bingo or it’s been a few years since you played, you should make sure you know the rules.
Now this is not a difficult task because the rules of bingo are both few and easy. Learn the rules and then give yourself some fun – and possibly even some winnings – with a game of bingo.
In short you have a caller, a person who runs the bingo game. He or she calls out individual numbers. These numbers are selected at random by either choosing a card with a number on it or choosing a numbered ball from a box of numbered balls. It’s simply a game of chance although you must have your wits about you.
Every player must have at least one bingo card and the word BINGO must be clearly shown on the top of the card. If you want to increase your chances of winning, you can purchase more cards. Each card will have a series of numbers in columns. The aim is to draw a line between five numbers as they are announced by the caller.
There are other items a player can purchase to play bingo but the minimum is the correct bingo card and a marker to mark your bingo card if your numbers are called.
Some bingo games have variations to their rules. Sometimes the five numbers must be in a certain line or pattern or in any pattern or sometimes they must simply be the correct five numbers.
It’s important that you understand the required version of the correct numbers before you start to play each game. This is where knowing the bingo rules, the simple bingo rules, are so important. You don’t want to obtain the correct numbers only to have them in the wrong pattern. Most bingo games require the winning player to have a single line between the five winning numbers.
The caller always places every called number to one side once each number is announced. This is so any player who claims to have the correct numbers can have their claim verified. Usually the caller is the judge or person who examines any card which claims to be the winner but some games will have an independent person to do this – someone other than the caller.
The end of each game of bingo is clearly defined in the rules. A game is over when the first player to claim all five numbers in the pattern announced for the game has had their claim verified.
One interesting aspect of the formal rules of bingo is that prizes are optional. If you wish to play online bingo or any game for that matter, check to see if there is a prize or reward for the person who wins the game. A prize will be great but for many people the reward is the fun and enjoyment of the game and the people you meet in playing bingo.
By: Sheila Danes
While it’s certainly true that there are some people who enjoy playing bingo much more than others, it’s probably also true that most of us have played bingo at some point in our lives. Furthermore, while there are some people who have never actually played the game, I bet if you asked them, most of them would know how to play the game.
With bingo being so universally popular, it’s not really very surprising that there many different variants of the rules, as well as adaptations of the game intended for different circumstances and playing situations. The traditional game of bingo is of course played using bingo cards containing a grid of squares, each square containing a number, and the players’ objective is to be the first person to mark off a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of squares on their card.
There are many ways that game play can be modified, the simplest of which is to change the winning criterion. For example, instead of requiring a single line, players may be required to get two separate lines, a postage stamp shape, all border squares of the card, or even mark off every single square.
More sophisticated variants involve replacing the numbers with other items, such as words, phrases, dates, times, or even math problems. Bingo games using holiday-related words and phrases are popular around holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween or July 4th, and other themed versions are very popular in education, including ESL (English as a Second Language) and K-12. One such example of educational variant of bingo is math bingo: cards are printed with math problems, and students must write in the answers to questions (when they question is called out) rather than simply cross off squares.
In order to play themed variants of bingo, you will of course need bingo cards containing the appropriate special items. It can be difficult and expensive to purchase themed bingo cards, and it’s incredibly time consuming to create the manually. The best answer is to get your computer to do the job – with the help of bingo card maker software, it really is very simple to printed unlimited quantities of bingo cards on any topic that you might want.
By: Sunil Tanna
