Posted on April 2, 2011 - by admin

The Game of Bingo in the UK

Today, bingo is a very popular form of entertainment for residents of the United Kingdom. While the game has been present in the country for many years now, it has evolved into the current game we all know and enjoy participating in. Previous names for this fun-filled game include lotto and housey housey, the term still used in Australia today.

The version of bingo that is most often played in the United Kingdom is known as European bingo or 90 ball bingo. This is different than the American version of the game which has also been dubbed 75 ball bingo. The format of the bingo cards is different in the two versions of the game. The bingo card or ticket as it’s more commonly known contains a total of twenty seven spaces. The spaces are created from a grid containing three rows and nine columns. You would think that all of the spaces contain numbers. However, this is not the case. Only five of the nine spaces within each row actually have numbers found within them. You might wonder what is found in the other four remaining spaces of the row. Actually nothing is printed in these squares, they are simply left blank. With 90 balls in the hopper to be drawn from, the highest number on the bingo ticket would be ninety.

A selected number is drawn either from a ball within a hopper or generated by an electronic device. This number is then announced to the participants of the bingo game who begin their first move. This trend continues until someone has been able to cover the needed pattern on their bingo card. This person after verification would be declared the winner. That round of bingo would conclude.

The pattern created on the bingo ticket may be one of three popular ones used in 90 ball bingo. The most used is a line. Here the player is able to successfully cover all five squares in one of their three rows. Once a player completes a line and wins the bingo game, the ticket is not discarded. It is used for another round of bingo where the player must complete two complete rows. It will be used for a third and final time to get what is called a full house. This means all of the spaces on the bingo card are covered.