Most people, those who don’t play that often, are going to think that bingo is just bingo, and there are no variations. It’s a game in which balls are pulled from a bag, box, or other contraption, and the numbers written on the balls are called out. If someone playing has that number on their card, they mark it off, and when they have one line, two lines, or an entire card’s worth of numbers, they win a prize.
Yet there is actually more to it than that. There are a number of different bingo types you can play, and although similar, they are all slightly different. It offers nuances in bingo that might not otherwise have been there, keeping it interesting and current. Here are some of the most popular bingo types around. Which one will you like best?
30 Ball Bingo – Speed Bingo
30 ball bingo uses, as the name suggests, just 30 balls to play with, and this is the smallest number of balls in any bingo game. For this reason, and the fact there are only nine squares on the cards, it’s also known as ‘speed bingo’ since the games are over and done with very quickly. This type of bingo isn’t very common, and doesn’t really come up in bingo halls very often, it’s much more likely you’ll need to look for it online if that’s what you want to play.
Those who enjoy 30 ball bingo like it because of the speed aspect. There is a good push of adrenalin when you’re playing this game, and if that how you like to do things then this is the type of bingo you should be looking out for.
75 Ball Bingo
If you live in the US, or if you’re visiting and want to play bingo, 75 ball bingo is the version you’re more than likely going to find there. Using 75 balls, there are various different prizes available. Players will be asked to find a specific pattern (and this can change depending on the game, so it might be a diamond one round and a star the next, or a specific letter, for example) to get a prize. You can also win prizes for completing the first full row, and the entire card.
75 ball bingo is played on a 5×5 grid card. The central square is left blank, so you’re playing with a total of 24 numbers.
80 Ball Bingo
80 ball bingo is a strange variation in that it only really started to be played when internet bingo was invented. Before that, most people would have either chosen 75 or 90 (more on that later) ball bingo. Yet 80 ball bingo is surprisingly popular.
If you want to win at this game, you need to mark off all the figures which will be revealed in a particular pattern on their card. That card is a 4×4 and every square has a number in it.
90 Bingo
90 call bingo is the game you’re going to be most familiar with in the UK, and it’s the one that plays with the most balls. On your card you’ll have none columns and three rows, and in each of those rows there are five numbers, which means you have 15 numbers in total per card, and that’s what you are hoping to see come out of the machine.
If you want a prize, you need to complete one full row, two full rows, or the entire card.
