With origins dating back to Renaissance-era Europe, the game of bingo has appeared everywhere from French royal courts to state fairs.
In modern times, bingo has become a pillar of fundraising for charities. It plays a major role in the continued operation of many valuable programs within communities where the centres are located. There’s a good chance that you or someone in your family has directly benefitted from money raised by people playing bingo, from veterans’ clubs to arts fairs and exhibitions.
All this, and it’s pretty fun to boot. Bingo is exceptionally easy to pick up and play, and every card has an equal chance of winning. Whether you’re planning a social evening with friends or looking for something to do for fun on your own for a couple of hours, a stop at a Charitable Bingo & Gaming Centre fits the bill nicely.
But before visiting one of the 37 centres located around Ontario, let’s learn a little more about this 500-year-old game of pure chance and why the only strategy you need to think about is how you’re going to budget your money and keep things fun.
“And under the N…41, it’s time for fun”
In the world of gambling, it’s hard to beat the easygoing vibe of bingo.
It all starts with a ball blower stocked with 75 balls of identical size and weight, each marked with a number and letter. The balls pop out in random order, and a professional bingo caller announces them as they appear. Some callers spice up this part of the game by using traditional “bingo lingo”—fun, often rhyming nicknames for each numbered ball, such as “snakes alive” for 55, and “rise and shine” for 29. (If you think this might be confusing, don’t worry; the numbers also appear on a board.)
Players, meanwhile, are focused on their bingo cards, grids that contain a random assortment of numbers. They use special ink daubers to mark the numbers as they’re called. The first player with a pattern of marked numbers that matches the current game’s goal—say, a straight line across, or two lines intersecting in the middle to form a cross—yells out “Bingo!” and is declared the winner.
Prizing is just as straightforward. Each game has either a fixed jackpot, which means you know exactly what’s at stake before the game begins, or a progressive jackpot, meaning that if a bingo isn’t called within a set number of balls, the jackpot gets carried over for an even bigger prize the next time that game is played. In both cases, ties result in the jackpot being shared among the winners.
Game outcomes couldn’t be more random
As uncomplicated as bingo is, it’s still important to understand the odds.
Your chances of winning depend on the number of cards you are playing and the total number of cards in play for that game. If you’re playing three cards and the total number of cards being played by all players is 100, you have a 3% chance of winning.
You can increase your odds of winning by playing more cards. Players buy books of cards before a session starts. They’re typically arranged in strips of three, but you can buy books with up to 12 strips per game and play a total of 36 cards at once. This improves your chances of winning (assuming you can keep up with the bingo caller, who moves at a steady pace), but keep in mind that it also significantly increases your cost to play.
What never changes, however, is the chance of any given card being a winner. It all comes down to the inherent and absolute randomness of the game. Every ball still in the hopper has an equal chance of being blown out next.
But that hasn’t stopped some folks from trying to devise bingo strategies.
The stock market prognosticator Joseph E. Granville and a statistician named L.H.C. Tippett each came up with methods that suggested choosing cards that had numbers following specific patterns would result in a higher chance of winning.
The obvious problem with both of these strategies is that players usually don’t have the ability to pick specific cards. Even if they did, cards always contain randomly generated numbers. Plus, the blower produces balls according to pure chance. The odds of any one ball being called at any point are never greater than those of any other ball still in the machine. No strategy can predict them.
How to budget for bingo
As with all forms of traditional gambling, bingo has evolved over time. When you head to a Charitable Bingo & Gaming Centre these days, you’ll find much more than just paper cards and ink daubers.
Things like Electronic Bingo—AKA eBingo—which is played on an electronic touchscreen. To play, you need to purchase game credits prior to the session. You’ll use these credits to buy cards via the touchscreen at your seat. Purchased cards appear on the screen as each game begins, and the work of daubing is performed automatically, so you never miss a number—though you still need to yell “Bingo!”
eBingo terminals provide other ways to play, too. During breaks between regular games you can try Turbo Challenge Bingo, a fast-paced, shutter-style game that challenges players to quickly slide windows over the corresponding numbers. There is also a variety of TAP ‘N PLAY games with instant cash prizes and progressive jackpots, and play-on-demand games, which are single-player games of chance that can be played alongside regular bingo games.
Just take care to set a budget and stick to it. Each extra game you play increases your total cost, and many of these games go by quickly. Keep in mind, as well, that when you’re dealing with credits rather than cash it can be easy to lose track of how much you spend.
This budgeting strategy should also take into account any other games available at Charitable Gaming Centres, such as paper break open tickets and digital TAP ‘N PLAY cabinets. These are short, simple matching games that can burn through your bankroll quickly if you don’t build them into your spending.
So plan ahead. Figure out what you’re comfortable spending for the evening and build the number of both bingo games and add-on games that you can afford to play into your budget. Buy your cards and credits at the start of the session, then put your wallet away for the rest of your visit.
Daub for the fun of daubing
More useful facts and details about what you can expect during a Charitable Bingo & Gaming Centre visit are available at PlaySmart.ca. You can learn about bingo etiquette (did you know many centres have two rooms, one for louder players and one for quieter ones?), as well as strategies you can use to stay on budget and ensure you’re getting the most out of the game, such as taking breaks during intermission and playing with fewer cards.
The most important thing you need to remember about your trip to the Charitable Bingo & Gaming Centre, however, is that your goal is simply to have a good time. It’s a great way to socialize with friends and feel a part of your community, and you get the added satisfaction of knowing the money you spend is going to help some worthwhile local non-profits.
After all, any game wholesome enough for a farmer to name his dog after (and have a song written about him!) should always be played for fun.
