How to play bingo: rules and features

Who knows, maybe in a while we will be able to do everything comfortably from home. In fact, already today directly from our home we can perform actions and carry out activities that a few years ago were unimaginable to do remotely. Just think, for example, of the food that arrives in a few minutes from the restaurant or the groceries delivered by supermarket couriers, without having to go and pick it up at the office, or smart working. The world of online gaming has certainly not been left to watch. Some platforms allow you to try your hand at games for which, once, it was necessary to have a real opponent to play or be present in a certain place. Just browse the web and press a simple Click here to realize how many games are now digitalized and usable online, with several sites that also provide guides on how they work. Among these there is a game very similar to our tombola, but which comes from abroad, specifically from the United States, and which has slightly different rules and development: we are talking about bingo. In the following paragraphs we will explain in detail how this game works, its rules and its characteristics.

Bingo Rules: Preparing for the Game

Let's start from the assumption that explaining how the game of bingo works is very simple, more or less like the related Italian tombola. One of the major differences in preparing a game of bingo, however, compared to the Italian game is that the latter can be played easily at home with family or friends, while the American game requires a special room to host the players, like the one in Fratte, in the province of Salerno, recently the object of a robbery. Once everything is ready, players can buy the cards to play with, one or more per hand. These are made up, in 90-number bingo, of 15 numbers arranged on 5 lines and three rows, exactly like in tombola. In 75-number bingo, however, the cards have 24 numbers arranged on 5 lines, of which the central one has a free space in the middle and which take up the 5 letters of the word “Bingo”.

How to play bingo: winning combinations

To fully understand bingo and how to play it, you need to know that, unlike tombola, before each game the maximum number of extractions that will be made is established. So it could also happen that no player manages to obtain one of the winning combinations of the game, which are limited to being a cinquina, that is, covering all 5 numbers in a row, or the “Bingo”, consisting of having covered the entire card. In the more “Italianized” versions of the game, then, there is the possibility of winning also with the classic ambo, terno and quaterna, but if you respect tradition the points available are only those two.

Bingo Rules: How They Are Drawn and How the Numbers Are Made

In the game of bingo, one factor is essential: the numbers are always drawn by a person in charge who does not participate in the hand and has no chance of winning through the board, where the balls that come out during the game will be inserted. This happens above all to avoid irregularities that may occur during the hand, which could lead to riots like those recently happened in Bari. In the most modern rooms, then, it is not uncommon to find yourself in front of automatic number extractors, which should guarantee even more unpredictability to the hand, further reducing the risk of any incorrectness during the extraction. The numbers, as mentioned, are written on the surface of some plastic spheres and can be colored according to the ten to which they belong to make them more recognizable.

How to play bingo: the progression of a hand

Once all the players have bought their cards and the board is ready, the numbers are drawn. This is done one ball at a time, to give the participants the chance to look for the number on the card and mark it with a pen or a special object to cover it, as happens in tombola, considered by science, together with bingo, one of the best games to train your mind especially at Christmas. If within the maximum number of extractions, established before the game, any of the players has made “cinquina” or “Bingo”, he must immediately shout it to attract the attention of the extractor and proceed to recheck the numbers. If, however, no one has made one of the winning combinations within the number of extractions established, the stake will be added to that of the next hand.