BINGO

Play Bingo and Win!!!!

Provided By the World Bingo Encyclopedia

This article is about the game known as Bingo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bingo is a game of chance where randomly-selected numbers are drawn and players match those numbers to those printed on cards. The first person to have a card where the drawn numbers form a specified pattern is the winner and calls out "Bingo!" to alert others to the win. Bingo is a game used for legalized gambling in some countries.

These are the paragraphs regarding the Bingo game

1 Description of the Game

2 Card Variations

3 Cultures

4 Histories

5 The Business of Bingo

6 Caller Slang

7 Interesting Facts

8 Alternate Variations

9 External Links

Description of the Game

Each Bingo player is given a card marked with a grid containing a unique combination of numbers and, in some countries, blank spaces. The winning pattern to be formed on the card is announced. On each turn, a non-player known as the caller randomly selects a numbered ball from a container and announces the number to all the players. The ball is then set aside so that it cannot be chosen again. Each player searches his card for the called number, and if he finds it, marks it. The element of skill in the game is the ability to search one's card for the called number in the short time before the next number is called.

The caller continues to select and announce numbers until the first player forms the agreed pattern (one line, two lines, and full house) on their card and shouts out the name of the pattern or Bingo. One of the most common patterns, called house in the United Kingdom and Australia and full card or blackout in Canada and the United States, simply consists of marking all the numbers on the card. Other common Canadian and American patterns are single line, two lines, centre cross, L, Y, inner square (4 × 4), roving square (3 × 3), and roving kite (a 3 × 3 diamond). On Canadian and American cards lines can be made horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Inner and roving squares and kites must be completely filled; roving squares and kites may be made anywhere on the card.

Card Variations

Canadian and American Bingo cards are 5 × 5 grids of numbers only; dual dab cards have two numbers in each square. Each space in the grid contains a number, except for the centre square, which is considered filled. The highest number used is 75. The columns are headed with the letters of the word BINGO, and the letter is called with the number — for example, B-10, I-25, N-40, G-55, O-70. Numbers 1 to 15 are assigned to the B column, 16 to 30 to the I column, 31 to 45 to the N column, 46 to 60 to the G column, and 61 to 75 to the O column.

In the United Kingdom and Australia Bingo cards have three rows and nine columns. Five squares in each row contain numbers ranging from 1 to 90 and the rest are blank. The numbers are usually called quickly, so players rarely play more than one book (six cards). A Bingo Book (a set of six cards) contains all the numbers from 1 to 90, fifteen numbers on each card, five numbers in each row. The first column contains single numbers, the second tens, the third twenties, and so on. Number 90 is placed in the ninth column along with the eighties.

Each card has a unique serial number to permit quick verification by computer.

Culture

Canadian and American games often have multiple Bingos — for example, the players may first play for a single line, then after that is called continue playing for a full card, then for a consolation full card.

In Canadian and American Halls, players often play multiple cards for each game; thirty is not an unusual number. Because of the large numbers of cards played by each player, most Canadian and American halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called dabbers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; Bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however. The numbers already called and the patterns being played are also displayed on electric signs.

History

Bingo can be traced back to a game called Lotto, played in Italy in 1530. The Bingo name comes from a corruption of the name Beano, the name of a form of Bingo played in the United States in the 1920s. Beano was so called because beans were used to cover the numbers.

The Business of Bingo

Bingo is an expanding and highly profitable business in the UK. The Rank Group (owners of Hard Rock Cafe, Mecca Bingo and bluesquare.com) is one of many global companies to have taken an interest in the game, with other major chains including Mecca, Gala, Top Ten, and Masons.

A typical Bingo club in the UK can have between 4,000 and 60,000 customers a week, with prize money ranging from tens of pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds. A major Bingo event of 2004 was the National Game Company’s Ground shaker prize draw promotion, played by over 500 participating clubs throughout the country for a full house (all numbers marked off). The prize is split into three: an In-house prize, a regional prize (the country is split into about 12 regions) and the national prize which can range from £50,000 to £200,000 (usually highest on a Sunday night). This promotion involved the biggest link-up of different Random Number Generator systems to date.

Bingo is not only restricted to Main stage Bingo, (Bingo played on Bingo books) most Bingo halls contain Mechanized Bingo boards, these boards are 4×4 with numbers ranging from 1–80 in colors (e.g. Red 1–20, Blue 21–40, Yellow 41–60, White 61–80) these boards are played for either money, or a prize. Games have multiple stakes, and are played very quickly. Called: by color and number. (E.g. Red number 2, Blue 30, etc.) These games are played in patterns like main stage Bingo. Unlike main stage any line can include diagonal lines and downward lines, also four outer, and inner squares.

Caller Slang

Although these numbers are amusing and each has its own story, most professional Bingo halls do not use them. If a caller were busy saying "two little ducks", and the number 22 has not yet been said, it is therefore not deemed "called". In an instance where a player may have missed his or her number, and a player is waiting for 22, both players would have valid argument that their number was "called".

There are traditional calls for the numbers. For example:

Number Slang Expression <X>

1 Kelly's Eye

5 Man Alive

7 Lucky for Some

8 One Fat Lady

9 Doctor's Orders

10 (current PM)'s Den

11 Legs

13 Unlucky for Some

16 Sweet Sixteen

21 Key of the Door

22 Two Little Ducks

23 Thee and Me

30 Dirty Gertie

37 More Than Eleven

45 Halfway There

51 Tweak of the Thumb

59 Brighton Line

64 Red Raw

66 Clickety-Click

71 Bang on the Drum

76 Trombones

79 One More Time

81 Stop and Run

86 Between the Sticks

88 Two Fat Ladies

90 Top of the Shop

Interesting Facts

An average British game of Bingo takes between four and four and a half minutes.

The average speed of a British Bingo caller is 23 numbers per minute.

The average time to check a winning claim is 30 seconds.

There is a "caller of the year competition" in which Bingo callers compete for a two week holiday.

Alternate Variations

Two notable modern variations of Bingo have achieved some kind of status in American culture:

Buzzword Bingo (also called bullshit Bingo)

Buzzword Bingo is a game sometimes played in relaxed team meetings. The rules resemble those of Bingo, but instead of a matrix of numbers, each player's card is a matrix of buzzwords. When a player hears one of his buzzwords spoken in the meeting, he crosses it off his card. The winner is the player who crosses a full line first.

The first documented buzzword Bingo occurred when the then Vice President of the United States Al Gore, known for his liberal use of buzzwords hyping technology, spoke at MIT's 1996 graduation. The graduation class had distributed Bingo cards containing buzzwords to the audience.

Vice-President Al Gore, known for his technological advocacy, spoke at MIT's 1996 graduation. Gore's speeches regularly included buzzwords hyping technology, including the infamous "information superhighway."

In a hack perpetrated by the entire graduating class, the audience played Bingo with the vice-president's speech. As students lined up for graduation, hackers distributed Bingo cards to the graduating students. Instead of numbers, each square included a familiar Gore-buzzword. The card instructed participants to mark off the buzzwords as they were mentioned during the Vice-President's speech and to hold up their card when they got five in a row or across a diagonal.

The cards were apparently brought to the attention of Gore before the speech. At one point during his speech, graduating Sloan School students cheered. Gore acknowledged the outburst with the question, "Did I say a buzzword?"

A similar game is bullshit Bingo, which is normally played for satirical or ironic purposes.

Do you keep falling asleep in meetings? Here's something to change all that.

WANK Word BINGO

How to play: Simply tick off 5 WANK Words in one meeting and shout out BINGO!

PLAY BINGO AND WIN!

It's that easy!

SYNERGY	TAKE THAT OFFLINE	STRATEGIC FIT	AT THE END OF THE DAY	GAP ANALYSIS
BEST PRACTICE	THE BOTTOM LINE	CORE BUSINESS	LESSONS LEARNT	TOUCH BASE
REVISIT	GAME PLAN	BANDWIDTH	HARDBALL	OUT OF THE LOOP
GO THE EXTRA MILE	BENCHMARK	THE BIG PICTURE	VALUE-ADDED	MOVERS AND SHAKERS
BALL PARK	PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE	WIN-WIN SITUATION	THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX	FAST TRACK
RESULT-DRIVEN	EMPOWER EMPLOYEES	NO BLAME	STRETCH THE ENVELOPE	KNOWLEDGE BASE
RESULTS-DRIVEN	TOTAL QUALITY	SLIPPERY SLIDE	TICKS IN BOXES	MINDSET
KNOCK-ON EFFECT	PUT THIS ONE TO BED	CLIENT-FOCUSED	QUALITY-DRIVEN	MOVE THE GOAL POSTS

TESTIMONIALS FROM OTHER PLAYERS:

"I HAD ONLY BEEN IN THE MEETING FOR FIVE MINUTES WHEN I YELLED BINGO"
"MY ATTENTION SPAN AT MEETINGS HAS IMPROVED DRAMATICALLY"
"IT'S A WHEEZE, MEETINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME FOR ME AFTER MY FIRST OUTRIGHT WIN"
"THE ATMOSPHERE WAS TENSE AT THE LAST PROCESS WORKSHOP AS 32 OF US LISTENED INTENTLY FOR THE ELUSIVE FIFTH"
"THE FACILITATOR WAS GOBSMACKED AS WE ALL SCREAMED BINGO FOR THE THIRD TIME IN THREE HOURS"
"I FEEL THAT THE GAME HAS ENHANCED THE OVERALL QUALITY OF MEETINGS PER SE ON A QUID PRO QUO BASIS"
"PEOPLE ARE NOW EVEN LISTENING TO MUMBLERS, THANKS TO WANK WORDS"
"BONZA! YOU COULD HAVE CUT THE ATMOSPHERE WITH A CRICKET STUMP AS WE WAITED FOR THE FIFTH DELIVERY"

Bovine Bingo

Bovine Bingo is a game of chance that has gained some degree of popularity in American culture, usually for fundraising purposes for some charitable effort.

Bovine Bingo is not really a form of Bingo, but a form of lottery. The game is set up by marking out a grid of rectangles on an enclosed land area, such as a paddock or farm field. This is usually done by chalking lines. The grid cells are then numbered or otherwise identified in some way, and chances are sold on each cell. A cow (or other livestock animal) is then let loose within the enclosure. Where the first "cow flop" (defecation) lands determines the winner.

AKA "Cow pie Bingo", "Fertilizer Lotto"

Bingo Culture

By Roland Barphe, editor of Excrescences and

Head of media studies at the Polyvalent de Saint-Title

(Dr. Barphe thanks Karen Horner and Rob Fitzgerald for their

Valuable contributions to the project described in this article)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Wentworth Sutton has noted in another article, "Canadian" culture is popularly considered to consist of beer, Bingo, and donut shops. In a recent article of my own I demonstrated however that donuts are a foundation not of some spurious Canadian national culture but of English Canadian "culture." As I noted, donuts are the perfect symbol for English Canada – bland, cold, too sweet for their own good, and empty at the core.

Since writing that article I have gone on to complete a major cross-cultural semi logical study of the second of these foundations of English Canadian "culture." Trained semi logical operatives have observed Bingo sessions in two countries: at the Regent and Palace Bingo Clubs of Great Yarmouth and Goldstone, Norfolk, and at a Bingo hall in an English Canadian city in Southern Ontario. At the Canadian hall we worked as staff, roving the hall selling tickets to the customers and obtaining the widest possible acquaintance with the players.

The British Bingo establishments we observed are indeed clubs. It is necessary to become a member before one can play. The Canadian establishment, on the other hand, is simply a place to go and play Bingo. The British establishment is for members, the Canadian for customers.

The atmosphere of these establishments reflects these differences. The members of the British clubs socialize and appear to be enjoying the company of their fellow members. The Canadians barely notice their fellow customers. Even at breaks there is little conversation, even among people who came with each other!

This means in particular that the groups of whites at the Canadian Bingos do not interact with the groups of aboriginals. So much for English Canada's proud pretence that it is diverse and multicultural! This strict separation of the races reminds us that English Canadian media, despite the presence of aboriginals throughout the country, routinely depict aboriginals as living only in the far north or on reserves. The CBC is happy to make programs about the problems of urban black youth, but the existence of urban aboriginal youth is not even acknowledged.

Another striking difference between the British and Canadian establishments is the way in which play proceeds. In Britain the numbers are called quickly, and the card has been simplified to speed up play. People play only four to six cards, and consequently do not require tables to play at. They mark their cards with a pen or pencil. The game is over quickly, and the happy winners claim their prizes from the gracious mistress of ceremonies.

In English Canada the numbers are called slowly. That is because the players are playing enormous numbers of cards, which they often tape to the tables at which they sit. They mark their cards with special dabbers designed solely for Bingo play. When the game is at long last over, often after one or more false climaxes as subsidiary prizes are doled out, the caller impassively intones "Good Bingo" to certify the win, the winner impassively awaits the delivery of his or her prize, and the non-winners impassively throw away their cards and get out the cards for the next game.

The model for the British clubs is clearly the British institution of the music hall. The British clubs feature, as did the music hall, a master of ceremonies, and people go there, as they did to the music hall, to have fun.

The model for the English Canadian establishment is clearly…the factory! People go there solely to make money. They use special equipment appropriate to their métier. The game itself is set up much like an assembly line, one whose purpose is to complete cards; the resemblance of the stolidly dabbing Canadians in their smoke-filled hall to the staff of a sweatshop is striking. Instead of a master of ceremonies the Canadian establishment has a caller whose function is that of a supervisor.

To an English Canadian fun is a waste of time. When he or she has some time off work, an English Canadian will find some other type of work to do. He or she will do as much work as possible, which explains the huge number of Bingo cards English Canadians play. This is of course a sign of the robustness of the Protestant ethic in English Canada. English Canadians believe, as the Protestant ethic requires, that virtue is rewarded, and virtue they define as working hard. Even in their appreciation of the "national" sport they share with Québec, English Canadians focus on the work which players are performing rather than on their skill. A player who does not work hard is a floater (this term was even applied to the great Mario Lemieux!), and the accolade of grinder is applied to players of limited talent but unlimited assiduity. Indeed, English Canada has become the source par excellence of grinders.

As Wentworth Sutton has pointed out to me, English Canadian Bingo also demonstrates the prevalence of the schizoid personality in English Canada. English Canadian Bingo players are classic schizoid personalities: aloof, unemotional, and uncommunicative. Their emotions are essentially those of children, so they keep their emotions under tight control. Emotion occasionally boils over when Canadians are successful in or thwarted at some childish endeavor, usually a sporting one. Witness the fur ore over the Olympic pairs figure slating competition, in which English Canadians rose as one to cry "No fair!"

To schizoid personalities the necessity of preserving one's emotional balance makes fun dangerous, but makes repetitive and trivial activities like Bingo highly appealing. The only threat is that one might win so much money that one might actually smile.

And that is of course why English Canada has produced no great art. Great art presupposes great emotion. The absence of great emotion in English Canada explains the absence of great literature, great music, and great painting of English Canadian origin. It also explains the absence of half decent Bingo.