Bingo is a game in which numbers are randomly selected, and players must fill in the corresponding numbers on their cards. The first player to complete the card in accordance with the rules of the draw wins. To indicate his win, he usually shouts “Bingo!”
We can say that the game of bingo is one of the varieties of lotto . You can play bingo (lotto) both in the company "without interest" and for money. In the USA, England, Australia and some other countries there is a developed bingo industry, where hundreds of people are going to play bingo for money. In Russia, various television lotteries based on bingo rules have become popular. Also, anyone can play bingo on the Internet.
Abroad, bingo is considered the game of the elderly, mainly women, although recently the number of men and youth in bingo has been growing. This is a social game that involves the communication of participants. In the USSR, lotto, as a kind of bingo, was mainly a family and children's game.
Content
Use of the word bingo
Bingo! sometimes used in the meaning of Eureka ! [ significance of fact? ]
Bingo History
The ancestor of modern bingo is the Italian game Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia [1] , the first mention of which dates back to 1530, and in fact this game goes back to the custom of electing members of the Great Council of Genoa at the beginning of the 16th century by drawing out balls with numbers. Then the game is distributed in other countries and by the XIX century is known throughout Europe, as well as in Russia.
Actually, bingo in the modern version is connected with the American Edwin Lowe [1] . During the Great Depression, his toy company went broke and he was looking for a new business. At one of the fairs, his attention was attracted by a group of gambling Italians. Cards were handed out to the players, on which they marked the numbers with the help of beans . The winner shouted “ Bean go! "(" Bean is coming ") - this exclamation gave the name to the game. Edwin slightly modified the rules of the game, began selling game kits and organized the game in New York. Lowe ordered the development of bingo cards for mathematics professor Karl Leffler. He created 6,000 unique bingo cards; a popular, but unconfirmed, myth claims that as a result, he lost his mind [2] .
Bingo quickly became popular in English-speaking countries. Despite the fact that this is essentially a gamble , it stands closer to lotteries , so in many countries there were no serious restrictions on bingo. Moreover, bingo is often played in churches, as part of the money raised goes to charity or the needs of the parish.
Game Rules
Before the game, each participant receives a certain number of cards, each of which has its own unique set of numbers. These cards can be disposable - then the player will need a felt-tip pen or pen to mark the dropped numbers, or reusable - then the numbers are marked with special tokens. If the game is for money, then players buy each card at a certain price. A lottery drum and a set of balls with numbers are usually used for drawing. The host pulls out the balls one at a time and loudly announces the dropped number, which the players look for in their cards and mark if they find it. The goal of the players is to fill out a specific figure or all available numbers on the card. As soon as someone succeeds, he or she shouts “Bingo!”, The game stops and the card is checked. If everything is filled out correctly, then the winner receives a prize.
Bingo Varieties
There are quite a few varieties and variations in bingo, but the main ones are two. They are often called by the geographical principle - British and American, or by the number of numbers used - bingo for 90 and 75 balls.
British bingo , or bingo for 90 balls, is almost completely identical to Russian lotto. The only difference is that in the Russian version a bag with barrels is used, and there is a lottery drum with balls. Players receive rectangular cards with three rows of nine cells, each row with five numbers. The first column can contain numbers from 1 to 10, the second from 11 to 20, etc., in total 15 random numbers in the range from 1 to 90 are filled in the card. The game usually goes in three stages, the first intermediate winner is the one whoever fills one of any rows, the second winner - who fills two rows, the main winner - who filled the entire card. Typically, prize money is distributed as follows: 15% for one line, 30% for two and 55% for the entire card. If several players have collected the desired combination at the same time, the prize money is divided equally between them.
American bingo , or 75-ball bingo , uses fewer numbers and cards of a different shape. The cards are square - 5x5 cells, the central one is free (it is more correct to say that it is considered to be automatically filled), in the rest 24 numbers are placed. American bingo balls usually have not only a number, but also one of five letters. The same letters are written above each column. Above the first - the letter B, it corresponds to numbers from 1 to 15, above the second - I and numbers from 16 to 30, then the letters N, G and O, in fact, making up the word "BINGO". In this kind of game, you usually need to fill out some form on the card, for example, the shape of a hat (cylinder with fields), an airplane, or just some lines. Moreover, figures created with rotation by 90, 180 or 270 degrees, as well as symmetrical with respect to the vertical or horizontal axes of symmetry, are also often taken.
Bingo in Russia - the British bingo model is widely used. There are two game cards in the lottery ticket, each of which has fifteen numbers in the range from 1 to 90. The numbers on the ticket are not repeated. The draw usually takes place in several rounds. In the first one, those tickets are won in which all five numbers of any horizontal line coincide before the others. In the second round, those in which all fifteen numbers of one of the cards were crossed out first were won. In the third and subsequent rounds, those tickets are won in which all thirty numbers of both cards coincide. The most popular bingo lotteries are Russian Lotto (since 1994), Housing Lottery (since 2012), Golden Horseshoe (since 2015), Russian Lotto “6 of 36” (since 2015 ) and the "Golden Key" (since 2010).
Bingo Strategy
As in any lottery, there is no optimal game strategy in bingo. That is, what is given out as a game strategy cannot actually change the mathematical expectation of a game result.
The only thing that can be called the correct player strategy is to search for a game with maximum mathematical expectation. So, some bingo halls offer games with a fixed or guaranteed prize pool. If in such a game there will be few participants (few cards sold), then the game may even become beneficial for the player. Unfortunately, information about the percentage of payments paid into the game by bingo halls is usually not reported, although they can be estimated by accumulating your own statistics, or by finding out the number of cards sold. On average, you can expect payments of about 60-80%.
Internet Bingo
Bingo lovers can always find the game on the Internet. There are several hundred online bingo halls in the world where up to a thousand players gather at any moment of the day or night. The participant can play both for real money (in order to transfer funds, you will need a bank card or an electronic wallet), as well as “for candy wrappers”. Players can use bingo for 90 balls, 75 balls, as well as other varieties - for example, bingo for 80 balls. You can play from one to hundreds of cards, and the computer can help fill them. Usually it is possible to chat with other players in the chat . Also usually in the chat there is a representative of the bingo hall, which can hold various additional games with cash prizes.
See also
- Lotto