Although all players know what they mean when they yell out Bingo!, there are actually four variants of the game, depending on where in the world one is playing. In the United States, Bingo is usually played with 75 marked ping-pong balls. Players mark a card bearing a 5×5 matrix, usually with a center square given as a free space. At the top are most often the letters spelling Bingo, with each column — B, I, N, G, and O — displaying five random numbers beneath. The goal of this version of Bingo is to mark off certain patterns by checking the numbers called out by the person selecting the balls from a drum.
In the United Kingdom as well as parts of Europe, Australia, and South America, Bingo is played with 90 balls and a card bearing a 9×3 matrix. In this version, each card has three rows and nine columns. This game variant has progressive goals of one line being finished, then two lines, and finally what is called a Full House. In the one line game, one horizontal row must be filled. In the two line game, as one might expect, two lines must be marked off. To achieve a Full House, all the spaces on a card must be filled.
In a third variation, only 30 balls are used. This is Speed Bingo. It uses a card bearing a 3×3 matrix, and the object of this variant is to mark off all spaces on the card. As in the other versions, the first to do this calls out Bingo! and is the winner.
The last kind of Bingo is played with 80 balls, and uses a mixture of rules from 75-ball and 90-ball Bingo. The cards used in this version bears a 4×4 matrix, for a total of 16 spaces. An entire line — whether horizontal, vertical, or diagonal — is filled in order to win the game. Further ways to win involve filling multiple lines, the numbers in all four corners, and finally every number to achieve a Full House.
No matter what flavor of Bingo a player prefers, their choices are no longer limited by geography. Every kind listed here, not to mention a few specialty games created very recently, is available on the Internet. It can be a lot of fun to yell out Bingo! even when there is no one else around.
