|
Want to know more than the
headlines
 Advertising |
|
Adwatch |
| Back
Issues |
| Bingo
News |
| Classifieds |
| Daily
News |
| Events
Calender |
| Feature
Articles |
| Internet
Gaming |
| Links |
| Lottery
Guide |
| Lottery
Scams |
| Multistate Games |
| Patents |
| Products |
| Search |
| Statistics |
| Vendor
News |
| Video
Lottery |
| Weekly
Editions |
| Whos
Who |
| Wireless
Gaming |
|
BINGO NEWS
ARCHIVES
is brought to you with the compliments
of
The Italians first played bingo in the 18th century
and called it lotto.
It was taken up by British troops at the beginning of
the 20th century and became known as house (possibly because of a tenuous
connection with the stock exchange, known in slang as "the house") and, the
call used to assemble a group for a game of house was "housey-housey". This
catch phrase soon became the British name for the game itself.
Today, the
cry of "bingo" by a winner on completing his/her card is used in most places as
the name of the game.
The English and Australian version of the game is
played with special rectangular cards divided into three horizontal and nine
vertical rows.
Each horizontal row has five numbered and four blank squares
in random arrangement. The vertical rows contain from left to right
respectively, numbers selected from 1 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 30 and,so on up to
90. No two cards are exactly alike.
Machines which are sometimes used to
mix and select the numbers may be either wire mesh cages, glass or plastic
blower machines. Many are partly or fully automatic.
The balls are released
from the machine one at a time. Many establishments have a master board
connected to a lighted signal board, this displays the numbers as they are
placed on the master board and can also be used to check previously called
numbers.
Some bingo centres use random number generators connected to large
electronic display boards, as a ball is called the number lights up and remains
lit until the game is completed. The board also displays the number of balls
called at any time.
As each ball emerges from the selector machine or the
number selected by the random number generator, the caller announces its
number, holders of cards containing that number cover it on their cards. The
holder of the first card to have all its numbers covered is the winner.
There are, of course, variations. The most popular is to have minor prizes
for the first player to cover one row of numbers. There are as many ways of
deciding minor prizes as the promoters like to devise. A prize is some time
paid to the first player to cover a line in any direction, or to cover the
numbers in the four corners of the card.
The assessment of chances does not
normally enter into bingo, as each player, or rather each card, has an equal
chance of winning. |
Daily News
Service
|
Weekly
Edition
|
|