| Do you know your bingo?Many people associated bingo with little old ladies at the county fair or in the church basement, but the reality is quite a bit different. In reality, the game of bingo is steadily growing in popularity with the younger set, perhaps spurred on by the success of bingo at casinos and on the internet.
In addition, bingo is a game which is played by both men and women, not the heavily female population you may think. The popularity of bingo is certainly easy to understand. After all, bingo offers the age old appeal of making money while having fun at the same time.
The game we know as bingo is played by all ages and all ethnic groups. In addition, there are a number of ways to play bingo, making for an ever changing playing experience. In addition, the odds of winning at bingo are actually quite a bit higher than many other popular casino games, making it much more likely that you will get to yell “bingo” the next time you play.
Bingo is a fairly easy game to learn, much easier than many other popular pastimes. Each player must have a minimum of one card, and the maximum number of cards may be specified by the organization holding the game. In many cases, however, players are free to play as many cards as they can handle.
Each card contains 25 spots with numbers, plus one free space. Some sort of device, most often a rotating barrel or air fueled machine, is filled with numbered balls, which are taken out one by one and read out to those in the game. As the numbers are called, each player marks his or her cards with those numbers. The bingo game goes on until a player has marked all five slots in a column, a row, or a diagonal pattern. The player signifies their win by yelling “bingo”. In some cases, other patterns are recognized, such as filling all four corners of the bingo card. This is specified at the start of the bingo game.
Bingo games are most often played by large groups, in bingo halls, in church social rooms and at county fairs. In addition, there are a growing number of web sites where virtual bingo can be played online, and these can be great fun as well. There are even professional tournaments where bingo players can vie for big prizes and bragging rights. |
