Different types of bingo games

Bingo is probably one of the first games that you ever learned, & it’s likely that it’s the only game that you started playing in earlier years that you still have an interest in today. Bingo’s versatility is one reason for its long-term popularity, & that versatility is incorporated in all sorts of venues where bingo is played, from brick & mortar buildings to websites. Here is a look at some different types of bingo.

75 ball bingo: The granddaddy of bingo games in North America, and the one that you’re familiar with from your childhood. Seventy-five ball bingo is used to teach mathematical skills & concepts as well as for a little recreational fun as adults. The game is played using a 5×5 card, & the highest number on the card is seventy-five. Regular bingo games are won by making a line horizontally, vertically or diagonally, but there are many variations, some of which are discussed below.

90 ball bingo: Outside North America, ninety ball bingo is the most popular version of the game. There is more than a single prize to be had in every ninety ball bingo game, even though premiums are typically less than seventy-five ball. Cards have 9 columns & 3 rows, each row contains the numbers one to ninety. The rest of the spaces are empty, & there is no free space!

Variations: There are several variations on the standard seventy-five ball game. In blackout bingo, a player has all the numbers on a card blocked off to win. In four corner bingo, a player only needs 4 called numbers, but these numbers should be in the corners of the card.

Another way to provide variations in bingo is to mix prizes. Combination bingo is a game where there is more than 1 winner in a game, once the vertical line is bingoed once, players can then play the 4 corners of the bingo, & so on. In a progressive bingo game, if there is no winner within a set amount of calls, the game is over & the prize carried over to the next game. Bonus games are played: “On the side” and are generally bought for a little extra cash

Finally, there are previously called bingo games played with a sealed card. In these games, the numbers are set in advance. The odd-even bingo game is a variant, in which the first number dropped determines whether the game will be odd or even called.

Some different bingo games Styles

If you’ve never gone to a bingo hall or a site on the internet to play the good old game of bingo, you may be surprised not only at how much fun playing the game can be, but also by the number of bingo game styles that are there out. Here’s a quick look at some of the ways today’s bingo is different from the version you’re probably used to.

90 ball bingo: This version of bingo developed in the United Kingdom & is the world’s most popular version of bingo (here in North America we usually play seventy-five ball). Ninety ball bingo has a lot of empty spaces on each card & also offers players 3 chances to win in every game.

Speedball bingo: If standard bingo game styles are a little too slow for you, then you might want to try 1 hour of speedball. For online & brick & mortar bingo halls, speedball is played in rounds that last for an hour. It is quite the journey, especially when you know you tend to miss numbers, even in standard games. The balls are listed in a fast pace & score keepers keep a record of who has won. The player with the most victories at the end of the hour takes the prize & there are generally prizes for alternative placings too.

Pattern Bingo: If you’re artsy, raise your hand. This is for people who are tired of the straight line wins & want to be a little creative. It’s surprising how many patterns a person could see in a simple 5×5 box when they really studying their cards & winning bingo patterns mean you have to block out a specific pattern or shape. The pattern varies from something quite ordinary like an outer square or shape of a letter to the ink splotch patterns with names like “picnic table”. If the letter patterns aren’t crazy enough for you, you can put the word crazy before the pattern name & you win even if the letter appears on its side or upside down.

The many different bingo games styles mean that bingo players will never run out of new ways to change the game up a bit & make it more interesting. Online bingo can be a particularly good place to start when searching variants of bingo.

By George Schmingy
George Schmingy is an avid bingo games enthusiast and writer of other bingo styles articles.